News

If you’re reading this, you’re probably a Genesis user. And if you’re a Genesis user, you should check out Genesis 2.3 beta! We’ve been hard at work knocking out bugs, making little improvements, and making tweaks to the way Genesis works, and we’ve love for you to give it a test drive before 2.3 goes public next week.

During this development cycle, and based on the suggestion (behest?) of Gary Jones, we’ve kept a detailed changelog so you can know exactly what has changed in 2.3, and what you should be focusing on during your testing. You can check out that list below.

• Allow custom post classes on Ajax requests to account for endless scroll.
• Remove the top buttons (save and reset) from Genesis admin classes.
• Remove right float on admin buttons (settings screens, etc.).
• Change “Save Settings” to “Save Changes”, as WordPress core does.
• Use version constant rather than database setting for reporting theme version in Settings.
• Use sfHover for superfish hover state.
• Apply identifying class to entry image link.
• Prevent empty footer widgets markup.
• Prevent empty spaces in entry footer of CPTs.
• Trim filtered value of entry meta.
• Add a toolbar link to edit CPT archive settings.
• Add filter for the viewport meta tag value.
• Add shortcodes for site title and home link.
• Update and simplify favicon markup for the modern web.
• Prevent author shortcode from outputting empty markup when no author is assigned.
• Disable author box on entries where post type doesn’t support author.
• Change the label on the update setting to reflect what it actually does, check for updates.
• Add filters for Genesis default theme support items.
• Update theme tags.
• Enable after entry widget area for all post types via post type support.
• Hide layout selector when only one layout is supported.
• Disable author shortcode output if author is not supported by post type.
• Improve image size retreival function and usage.
• Add ability to specify post ID when using genesis_custom_field().
• Update to normalize.css 4.1.1
• Add admin notice when Genesis is activated directly.
• Removed unnecessary warning from theme description in style.css.
• Use TinyMCE for archive intro text input.
• Allow foreign language characters in content limit functions.
• Pass entry image link through markup API.
• Add a11y to the paginaged post navigation.
• Allow adjacent single entry navigation via post type support.
• Fix issue with no sitemap when running html5 and no a11y support for 404 page.
• Added relative_depth parameter to date shortcodes.
• Exclude posts page from page selection dropdown in Featured Page widget.

If you aren’t already running the Genesis Beta Tester plugin, go ahead and install it and “update” to Genesis 2.3 Beta. Give it a whirl over the next week and feel free to send any bug reports to our support team, or you can simply give me a shout on Twitter (@nathanrice) and I’ll look into it (and give you a virtual high 5 as thank you).

This blog was originally posted on Studiopress.com This post is in no way associated with Kembel.ca. For more posts by this author, please click here.

Whether your aim is to write an agent blog, highlight your properties, build an email list, or go hyperlocal, weÔÇÖve got you covered.

Agent Focused Pro even saves printer ink and paper! A built-in stylesheet means that when you or your customers print a property listing off your site, only your logo and the page content print. ThereÔÇÖs no useless navigation, sidebars, or footer ÔÇô just the info you and your customers need.

Agent Focused Pro helps you present your brand in a way you havenÔÇÖt before

With all the options available to you, you can make this theme truly your own:

• Add your own logo or use text for your business name
• Upload a striking full-page, backstretch image on the home page to make a unique visual statement
• Customize the widgetized homepage with property search, featured listings, featured communities, contact info and form, and more
• Enable search for your listings alone or use your own IDX service (theme can be used with most; may require additional styles)
• Quickly set your colors for links and buttons — as well as some accents — via the one-click color customizer
• Make each of your pages, posts, communities, and listings more visually appealing by uploading large featured images to them
• Choose from lots of widget areas and three layout options (left sidebar, right sidebar, and full-width)
• Use custom text to introduce your listings, communities archive, and taxonomy pages, as well as your blog categories and tags

Of course, Agent Focused Pro also features everything youÔÇÖve come to expect from StudioPress themes:

• A mobile-responsive design that looks amazing wherever itÔÇÖs viewed
• Support, documentation, and the StudioPress community forum
• The best rankings possible because of our clean code and mobile-friendly design
• Super-fast page load times
• One-click theme updates
• Airtight security so you can rest easy

Click to check out Agent Focused Pro now

This blog was originally posted on Studiopress.com This post is in no way associated with Kembel.ca. For more posts by this author, please click here.

We are pleased to announce that our free starter theme — Genesis Sample — has received a major update.

We added features that make it easier and faster to use right out of the box. Other changes make the customization process more efficient.

Excited? You should be. Read on …

Genesis Sample: Better than ever before

The new Sample theme focuses on accessibility. We added the accessible mobile menu many of our recent themes feature as well as accessibility support for the 404 page. WeÔÇÖve also added HTML5 support for gallery and captions.

The theme customizer is more robust, too. It now includes:

• A custom header option which allows you to display a crisp, retina-ready version of your logo.
• The option to dynamically change the primary link color.
• An easy way to dynamically change the button background color. This update includes a lightness/darkness detector which automatically changes button text color so it maximizes readability no matter what button background color you use.

YouÔÇÖll enjoy a number of other features like the After Entry Widget Area, Landing Page Template, and larger gravatars. The secondary navigation has been repositioned to the footer, too.

You might also spot a new font, Source Sans Pro and other design improvements like lighter navigation and footer widget backgrounds.

Here is a full list of the changes in this latest version of Genesis Sample:

• Added accessibile mobile menu
• Added accessibility support for the 404 Page
• Added the custom header option to upload your own logo
• Added customizer option for primary color
• Added HTML5 support for gallery and captions
• Optimized Avatars for Retina Display
• Added the After Entry Widget Area
• Repositioned the secondary navigation menu to the footer
• Added theme defaults
• Added Landing Page template
• Added image size
• Set localization
• Updated XML file

You can see all of the changes in the Genesis Sample theme by viewing the diff on Github or by visiting the Genesis Sample Demo.

While youÔÇÖre at it, head to your My StudioPress dashboard to download it now.

This blog was originally posted on Studiopress.com This post is in no way associated with Kembel.ca. For more posts by this author, please click here.

Designed with high style in mind, the Milan Pro theme is perfect for presenting magazine-style stories on the web.

Milan ensures that your unmistakable flair is front and center for visitors to enjoy. Milan Pro is ideal for any industry where elegance and style matter.

Milan Pro delivers:

• A custom header (recommended dimensions 1400 ├ù 404)
• Four widget areas: one in the sidebar and three in the footer
• Jetpack-supported features: infinite scroll, site logo, and featured content

Milan Pro puts the focus on your featured images

Milan Pro tucks the sleek slide-out menu away with a subtle toggle button in the upper right-hand corner of the page.

And by making use of WordPress featured images for posts, the theme also registers two hard-cropped image sizes: rectangular (700 × 350) and square (350 × 350).

With the Milan Pro theme, your featured images are displayed with each post on all index and archive pages, making your site a visual runway from the first page to the last.

• A mobile-responsive design that looks amazing wherever itÔÇÖs viewed
• The best rankings possible because of our clean code and mobile-friendly design
• Super fast page load times
• One click theme updates for the Genesis Framework
• Airtight security so you can rest easy

Take a look at the Milan Pro theme here.

This blog was originally posted on Studiopress.com This post is in no way associated with Kembel.ca. For more posts by this author, please click here.

You want to make a personal connection with your audience and to do that, you need a theme that reflects who you are — whether thatÔÇÖs a bold trendsetter or a soft-spoken authority.

Hello! Pro has you covered.

With a variety of color palettes and textures, Hello! Pro features styles that are perfectly-suited to a wide variety of personal brands. Hello! Pro was designed by brandiD.

Hello! Pro: spotlight who you are and what you have to say

YouÔÇÖre not afraid to display the best attributes of your business so everyone can see them and appreciate them.

YouÔÇÖll love setting up your homepage using Hello! Pro. Explore and customize the rotating content area, the portfolio area, and the highly-visible opt-in form. Custom widget spaces and included CSS3 animations round out Hello! ProÔÇÖs robust design offerings.

And of course, Hello! Pro features everything youÔÇÖre used to in StudioPress themes:

• A mobile-responsive design that looks amazing wherever itÔÇÖs viewed
• The best rankings possible because of our clean code and mobile-friendly design
• Super fast page load times
• One click theme updates for the Genesis Framework
• Airtight security so you can rest easy

Take a look at the Hello! Pro theme here.

This blog was originally posted on Studiopress.com This post is in no way associated with Kembel.ca. For more posts by this author, please click here.

Whether youÔÇÖre looking to land local projects or consult across the miles, you need an excellent means of showcasing your skills.

Your potential clients want a digital window into the spaces you create and you want them to jump off the screen when viewed.

Interior ProÔÇÖs classic color and clean lines are a perfect match for your brand

With Interior Pro, your images take center stage, whether theyÔÇÖre the full-stretch focal point of your page, or anchoring a post that shares your latest exciting tips.

Its dreamy palette and inviting typography make Interior Pro classy but accessible. It puts forth the hospitable welcome you want to convey to prospective clients.

With multiple column classes to choose from and a straightforward, streamlined landing page, youÔÇÖre ready to serve up content beautifully via desktop or mobile.

This design was done by the talented Ashley Schweitzer of Simple Mondays.

As always, Interior Pro features everything youÔÇÖve come to expect from StudioPress themes:

• A mobile-responsive design that looks amazing wherever itÔÇÖs viewed
• Support, documentation, and the StudioPress community forum
• The best rankings possible because of our clean code and mobile-friendly design
• Super-fast page load times
• One-click theme updates
• Airtight security so you can rest easy

Click to step inside the Interior Pro Demo now.

This blog was originally posted on Studiopress.com This post is in no way associated with Kembel.ca. For more posts by this author, please click here.

Ready to step into the spotlight? Not satisfied with your me-too website that evokes yawns instead of action? Want to take a bold step toward getting your business seen and heard?

WeÔÇÖd like to introduce you to Aspire Pro. ItÔÇÖs the newest third-party theme from StudioPress, and youÔÇÖre going to love what it brings to your business. Aspire Pro was designed by Appfinite.

If you like to tinker, Aspire Pro has flexibility baked in. It features an endlessly versatile home page with 15 custom widget locations. YouÔÇÖll enjoy unlimited theme color changes via an easy-to-use interface. You can change up your custom header and background images quickly, too.

But Aspire ProÔÇÖs greatest strength is its attention-getting style.

Aspire Pro: a bold approach to getting your website noticed

YouÔÇÖll love the clean, beautiful pages that form Aspire ProÔÇÖs backbone. And the vivid colors — even though theyÔÇÖre easy to change — are beautiful right out of the box.

And of course, Aspire Pro features everything you count on in StudioPress themes:

• A mobile-responsive design that looks amazing wherever itÔÇÖs viewed
• The best rankings possible because of our clean code and mobile-friendly design
• Super fast page load times
• One click theme updates for the Genesis Framework
• Airtight security so you can rest easy

Take a look at the Aspire Pro theme here.

This blog was originally posted on Studiopress.com This post is in no way associated with Kembel.ca. For more posts by this author, please click here.

This coming Monday, March 7th, we’ll be releasing Genesis 2.2.7 to fix some issues with WordPress compatibility, as well as fix an issue with term meta performance.

If you have built a plugin that relies on the Genesis term meta system in order to function, it’s incredibly important that you prepare your plugin for Genesis 2.2.7. If your plugin relies on Genesis to store and serve term meta, you will very likely receive messages from your users saying that it’s no longer working.

Why is Genesis dropping support for the old style of term meta?

Normally, we do everything we can to maintain backward compatibility, which is exactly what we did with Genesis 2.2.6. Even after the conversion to the official WordPress term meta method, we still pulled and injected a term’s metadata into the term object variable, so it could be accessed using the old method.

Unfortunately, some users reported that this was performing quite poorly on pages where many terms appeared. For every term that was queried on the page, the entirety of its term meta was also queried. Do this for a few dozen terms, and you can see how the number of queries could quickly get out of hand.

And frankly, this was always a problem with Genesis term meta. It simply didn’t scale to larger sites that used anything more than a few terms with metadata.

To use a metaphor, we were emptying the pitcher to pour a glass of water. Not efficient at all.

Which is why we switched to the more official method.

With the official method, we’re able to only pull the data we need at the time we need it. It’s also run through the WordPress caching system, which adds another layer of efficiency.

Put shortly, it’s better in every way. But it’s implemented in a way that is, unfortunately, incompatible with the previous method we used in Genesis.

So, we’re forced to choose, and I chose to go with the better, more efficient method.

Will this break my plugin?

To be clear, nothing should error out or make a site whitescreen. It’s not that kind of breaking change.

What will happen is this: if your plugin tries to use stored metadata by accessing the $term object, looking at the $term->meta array, it won’t find anything. That array is now empty (but does still exist).

For example, in Genesis Simple Sidebars, we look at this array to see if a term’s archive page should use a custom sidebar.

As of Genesis 2.2.7, that array will be blank, so the chosen sidebar won’t be used.

So, I’ve updated Genesis Simple Sidebars to account for this. You can see that the calls are much simpler now, and this is not a difficult change to make. But it must be made in order for your plugin to continue to function properly.

Do I have to convert the data?

No. When Genesis updated to 2.2.6+, the old data was converted for you. You just have to switch methods for accessing the data.

So, what do you need to do?

For most of you who build Genesis plugins, you won’t need to do anything. This is only for plugins that use the Genesis term meta implementation … so, VERY few of you.

But for those of you who do, instead of accessing term metadata like this:

$term->meta['term-meta-key']

You’ll access it like this:

get_term_meta( $term->term_id, 'term-meta-key', true )

You’ll want to do this everywhere term meta is used, including on the edit screen when you give the input fields their values.

It’s also a good idea to go ahead and bump the minimum requirements for your plugin up to WordPress 4.4 or greater so that people don’t get “function doesn’t exist” errors. And if you place Genesis version requirements on your plugin, bump that to Genesis 2.2.7 as well.

Please have the update ready to release by Monday, March 7th.

I am here to help!

If you need me to review your modifications, or would like help updating your plugin to the new method, I’m happy to help. I understand this is an inconvenience, but I promise it’s worth it.

Contact me on Twitter @nathanrice and let me know what you need.

This blog was originally posted on Studiopress.com This post is in no way associated with Kembel.ca. For more posts by this author, please click here.

Living life in the spotlight is a burden for the celebrities among us, but for the rest of us, online attention is exactly what we crave. When your website canÔÇÖt be too stylish, too glamorous, or too magnetic, youÔÇÖre ready for Glam Pro.

ItÔÇÖs the newest third-party theme from StudioPress, and youÔÇÖre going to love the wow factor it brings to your business. Glam Pro was designed by Restored 316 Designs.

Glam Pro: the wow factor around every corner

YouÔÇÖre not afraid to display the best attributes of your business so everyone can see them and appreciate them.

And you arenÔÇÖt afraid to offer products for sale! ThatÔÇÖs why youÔÇÖll love how Glam Pro is WooCommerce ready so you can plug it right in and put it to work. And youÔÇÖll appreciate the one-of-a-kind in-between post ad space you can use to feature your best products and services.

Make Glam Pro your own when you weave your own brand colors into your site using the WordPress customizer to modify the themeÔÇÖs built in color palette.

And of course, Glam Pro features everything youÔÇÖre used to in StudioPress themes:

• A mobile-responsive design that looks amazing wherever itÔÇÖs viewed
• The best rankings possible because of our clean code and mobile-friendly design
• Super fast page load times
• One click theme updates for the Genesis Framework
• Airtight security so you can rest easy

Take a look at the Glam Pro theme here.

This blog was originally posted on Studiopress.com This post is in no way associated with Kembel.ca. For more posts by this author, please click here.

You have a lot to offer and you want your site to reflect the value you bring. Your goal?

To show your offerings in the best possible light so others recognize what you bring to the table.

We recommend you place your content inside Showcase Pro, the newest third-party theme designed and developed by the very talented JT Grauke.

Showcase Pro: a clean, bright platform for your best work

Showcase Pro is designed to highlight your best content in a bright, clean design that puts your strengths on display.

The clear interface, contemporary typography, and full-width images highlight your best assets. And the flexible templates for team, author, pricing, and landing pages will give you plenty of options. Throw in a testimonial slider and this theme is perfect for your next website.

Naturally, Showcase Pro features everything youÔÇÖre used to in StudioPress themes:

• A mobile-responsive design that looks amazing wherever itÔÇÖs viewed
• The best rankings possible because of our clean code and mobile-friendly design
• Super fast page load times
• One click theme updates for the Genesis Framework
• Airtight security so you can rest easy

Take a look at Showcase Pro here.

This blog was originally posted on Studiopress.com This post is in no way associated with Kembel.ca. For more posts by this author, please click here.