The new features and bug fixes to the new releases of BigFeature are listed here.

See here for all releases.

Version 1.4.1

• new:
  

  Bfthumbs shortcode improvements.

  • A layout gui. This makes it possible to rearrange the image, title, meta etc. and also add any information from wordpress and plugins.
  • query_string parameter. Makes it possible to refine the query (ex: query_string=”ignore_sticky_posts=0″).
  • image_align parameter. The image will no be the width of the thumbpost, but left/right/center aligned. If timthumb is used for the images (this can be changed in the layout manager) a seperate image_width and image_height can be set. Using the WP image sizes is now also possible.
  • image_width parameter. Set the width of the image when using the image_align parameter in combination with timthumb.
  • image_height parameter. Set the height of the image when using the image_align parameter in combination with timthumb.
  • zoomcrop parameter improved. Timthumb is updated to version 2.7 and with it comes a new zoom crop alignment feature, that got many options. This is also updated in the theme settings “TimThumb Cropping Alignment” select list. The new parameters available is also listed in the shortcode gui for bfthumbs (this will override the theme settings one).
  • wp_query compability. If no category, taxonomy etc. specified bfthumbs will take on the wp_query parameters instead. Making it possible to use bfthumbs to replace the blog/archive/search/single pages with the new shortcode template system.
  • Normal page navigation for bfthumbs (need one of the pagenavi plugins). ajaxnav=”false”.
  • Possibility to only show something on the first page with bfthumbs (when using the feature above). onlyfirstpage=”true”.
• new:
  

  bfthumbs layout GUI.

  This can be accessed by editing a current post bfthumbs in the shortcode gui, there will be a button called “bfthumbs layout”. In this gui bfthumbs posts can be totally changed, rearranged, new stuff added. For example there is a plugin node there where several plugins have been integrated, and can be just added to the bfthumbs post by dragging the node and choosing the plugin (the plugin must be installed and activated).

  Every node got parameters that can be changed. These parameters can be accessed by clicking on the node so it will expand to reveal all it’s options. The labels above the input fields have tooltips with description what it is, so by hovering the label it will appear.

  Some nodes can also be nested, like f.ex. the meta node can have child nodes (just drag a node to the bottom of the expanded meta node and it will become nested). This way child nodes can have it’s parents settings and style. Another example is the image node that can have the caption node as child. And the caption node can have any placement in the image, and this also makes it possible to add more than one caption on to an image.

  bfthumbs layout nodes:

  • image – The post image. It can be resized by titmthumb or use a featured image size. It can also be overridden by a video added to the video field below the post editor. A custom link can also be added with the cf-link parameter (add a custom field name and add a url in that custom field in the posts where a redirection is wanted).
  • title – The post title. A custom title can be added by a custom field. Add a name of the custom field to the cf-title field and then add the custom field with the custom title in the post. A custom link can also be added like for the image. A cufon font can be selected, or a web font like google fonts (or webkit) can be used instead. The google-font field loads the font added and uses it. Google fonts can also be loaded from the theme settings, and then the font name can be added to the font-family field instead. A font size can also be set (just a number for pixel size). This font-size field can also set the lineheight and letterspacing by using this format: 24px/1em/1px.
  • text – The post text. The text can use the normal functionality where the text is fetched from the excerpt field if text is entered there or if a tag is entered to the post text what’s before that tag is used (and the text remains then formatted), or else the automatic limiter is used (number of words can be set in the theme settings or by adding a numwords parameter to the shortcode). The excerpt method fetches the text from the excerpt field, but if it’s no text there it will use the wordpress excerpt function that will fetch a preview text from the post. The whole post method is for example useful if using bfthumbs in single post view. The “meta description field” method fetches the text form the meta description field below the editor. The last one is unfiltered, but the other either got the_content or the_excerpt filter applied. The text can also be fetched from a custom field (cf-text field). And a google font can also be added for the text (see title node for more explanation).
  • meta – This is the muta style parent node. It doesn’t display any meta information by itself, but can style other nodes added to it (expand it and drag another node to the bottom to nest). See previous node descriptions for more information about google font.
  • readmore – If a text method does not automatically show a readmore link a manual one can be added. It got some styles to choose from, links and buttons. It can even be nested to the text node so it’s inside it’s paragraph (on the same line as the last word of the text).
  • caption – Caption text that can be added to image node. Several captions can be added and it’s source text can grabbed from a custom field specified with the cf-text field.
  • customfield – Grabs text from a custom field specified.
  • plugin – Integrates several plugins. These are:
    • Facebook Like Button
    • Simple Facebook Share Button
    • WP Tweet Button
    • TweetMeme Button
    • ShareThis
    • AddToAny
    • Sociable
    • WP-PostRatings
    • GD Star Rating – Stars
    • GD Star Rating – Thumbs
    • I Like This
    • WP e-Commerce – Product Price
    • WP e-Commerce – Add to cart button
  • html – Add html.
  • php – Add php or include a php file (will search in the child theme and bigfeature folder).
  • postdate – Add post date meta info.
  • category – Add the post categories.
  • tags – Add the post tags.
  • taxonomy – Add custom taxonomies. The taxname field must be the lowercase name (db id) of the taxonomy.
  • author – Add author name and link.
  • editlink – Add the editlink (will only be showed for administrators).
  • commentlink – Add a formatted link to the post comments. This can also be the comment icon bubble showed on the theme demo blog index.
• new:
  

  shortcode GUI.

  This was already release in version 1.4.0.4, but since that was a beta version of 1.4.1 all it’s features are also listed here. The shortcode GUI makes it possible insert and update current post shortcodes. It’s also possible to save them to a list that can be accessed from other posts/pages. There are 3 dropdown lists at the top where the shortcodes are listed.

  The first dropdown list is showing all the shortcodes available with the theme, and selecting one will show the input fields for creating a new shortcode. A very important field is the first one, called sid (shortcode ID). When a shortcode got a sid it can be edited and updated with the shortcode gui, without such a unique id parameter it will not show up in the “current post shortcodes” list.

  Saved shortcodes will show up in the “saved shortcodes list, and can be accessed from other posts. When updating a “current post shortcode” the post will be updated, and the change can be seen when refreshing the post/page with re publishing the post. This also means that when exiting the shortcode GUI after updating the post editing page must be reloaded to reflect the changes done to the shortcode.

  One very important new feature to the bfthumbs shortcode is the “bfthumbs layout” and this gui can only be accessed when editing a “current post shortcode”. All the input fields in the GUI got a description making easier to understand what it is, and also making more documentation not necessary.

• new:
  

  shortcode template system.

  This system makes it possible to use shortcodes as templates, and target any section of the website. Categories or Custom taxonomies can be created and used for template targeting. Anything selected in the template post will be targeted, so if a custom taxonomy is created it must be assigned to the Templates post type to be used with the targeting system. This way categories or taxonomies can be added to the navigation and used as page templates, but just so much easier and more flexible.

  Check “Enable Custom Templates Feature” in the theme setting. And now a custom post type called Templates will appear. Create a new post there and add a bfthumbs without any category/tag/taxonomy parameter into the post, and it will use the wp_query parameters instead. That means the posts that was previously shown with a page template will now be shown with the bfthumbs shortcode. This makes it so easy to change the post design, just a little tweak in the shortcode gui and it changes the layout. For example, changing the numcols parameter will change the number of columns shown, or the changing showposts parameters will show more posts per page.

  For the next version there will be premaid templates with several free child themes showcasing the design available to download. This will make it easier to switch design, and also not making it neccessary to understand all the shortcodes. The templates can be exported and imported and all the information is included, even the bfthumbs layout elements. This way a selection of templates can be imported with a press of a button ready to be used with another click of a button.

  In the template there are several ways to target the sections of the website. These are listed below the text editor, but also categories, tags and custom taxonomies added can be used to further refine the targeting. For example when choosing the archive target it will be used for all archives, including categories, tags and taxonomies, but if one of those is selected in the right column the template will only target the one chosen.

  template targets:

  • blog – This will show instead of the blog index. It works even if the blog is the frontpage or set as a page.
  • search – This will show instead of the search.
  • archive – This will target the archive and further refinement can be chosen (categories etc.)
  • single – This will target single post view and further refinement can be chosen (categories etc.). Bfthumbs can be used to show single posts by setting the numcols to 1 and the width to the content area width. The “full post” text method must be chosen in the bfthumbs layout gui for the whole post to be shown.
  • url – Target by url. whole or parts of the url works (with wildcards).
  • page – A page (or several comma seperated ones) can be targeted too, but this is not necessary since shortcodes can be added to pages and used as templates (added to the navigation).
  • categories – One or more category can be chosen in combination with the archive and/or single targets.
  • post tags – One or more tags can be added in combination with the archive and/or single targets.
  • custom taxonomies – One or more taxonomy can be chosen in combination with the archive and/or single targets.
• new:
  

  new and modified shortcodes.

  • widgetarea – Shows any sidebar/widgetarea. This makes it possible to add any number of sidebars at a page or a shortcode template. New ones can now be created in the theme settings.
  • bfhook – Display a hook content.
  • bfinclude – Makes it possible to include a php file (the file can be in the theme folder or in a child theme folder).
  • bfbreadcrumbs – Shows the Breadcrumb NavXT plugin breadcrumb path (the plugin must be installed and active).
  • comments – Shows the post comments.
  • bfyarpp – Makes it possible to have a bfthumbs template for the yet another related posts plugin. The yarpp-template-bf.php template must selected as template in the plugin settings. This template file is updated to make this shortcode work, so if you have an older version in a child theme folder this one must be updated.
  • bfauthorinfo – Display author info box in single post view. The author info box must be enabled in the user profile to be displayed.
  • bfthumbs – The biggest change is the addition of the layout manager, and making it work with the shortcode template system. See at the top of this versions changelog for more information.
  • nivoslider – Current post as default. Just add a shortcode without parameters, like this (to the “Feature HTML” input box or into the editor): [nvoslider]. The thumbs style of this shortcode is fixed (“Show preview thumbnails” checkbox in the shortcode gui). Also the reload bug is fixed (nothing showed when reloading the page). Some new transitions has also been added.
  • galleria – Current post as default, just as nivoslider, see above for more information. Created a Galleria theme where the thumbnails are hidden. theme=”nothumbs”. Also added a fullscreen theme, but that is a little experimental, since the only way out of it is the back button.
  • divider – Added a toplink type.
  • bfslider – Fixed the vertical slides (“Slide vertically” checkbox in the shortcode gui). Added button style6 (buttons=”style6). Fixed the “Show default images in the slider instead of videos” theme setting misc feature.
  • button – Added color and shape parameters.
  • columns, image, box – Fixed the wpaoutop issue (no more annoying extra paragraphs added).
• new: theme settings. google fonts, custom sidebars, shortcode template system, zoomcrop improved, a header code input box.
• new: WP e-Commerce integration and adjustments. The page.php bug fixed. Added some css to fix some styling (shoppingcart, single product view and the checkout page). Added integration in the bfthumbs layout gui so that a “add to cart” button and the price can be added to posts. To use bfthumbs with WP e-Commerce just add a post_type=”wpsc-product” and a category parameter to show a product category listing. Then add the add the price and add to cart button in the bfthumbs layout (plugin node).
• new: Google font support. Google fonts can be added in the theme settings (typography tab). Just copy the font name from the list on google and now you can add it in the font-family field in the layout gui (The font can also be loaded from the layout gui). The new fonts will also be listed in the theme settings for the body and heading font lists.
• fix: updated timthumb to version 2.7 and added support the new zoomcrop alignment functionality.
• new: navigation admin type. possible to have both the theme navigation system and wp menu at the same time. Example:

  [bfnav name="sidebar" style="vertical" admin="wp"]

  or calling the function, like this: bf_nav("sidebar","vertical","wp");

• new: Added tax custom field parameter to page templates.
• new: Added support for several website link in the portfolio (link,name;link,name).
• new: Added classes to the navigation items.
• new: Added navigation sorting for link category listing (add sorting to notes area).
• fix: Added multisite support for the image shortcode.
• fix: Fixed post_types parameter in bfthumbs so that multiple custom post types are now possible (post_type=”portfolio,photoblog”).
• fix: Fixed the feature area content filter problem caused by some plugins (duplicate stuff was added below the feature image).

Version 1.4.

• new: Content Shortcodes. Boxes, Buttons, Columns, Dropcaps & Pullquotes, Image frames & Captions, Lists, Tabs & Toggle.
• new: Nivoslider (image slider). Demo.
• new: Galleria (image gallery and slider). Demo 1, 2, 3, 4.
• new: Thumbnail post styles. Demo.
• new: Improved thumbnail slider functionality. Demo.
• new: Body classes (can style differently based on page/post/category/tags).
• new: Image loading animation.
• new: Facebook share button in the post meta area.
• new: Overlay caption style.
• new: “Simple Facebook Connect” integration added (code added to comments area).
• new: Added canonical link meta field for posts and pages.
• new: Moved shortcode scripts and styles to the footer.
• new: Added normal image url input field (so that timthumb also can be skipped for blog frontpage images if wished).
• new: Added support for iframe video embed code.
• new: Added feature html input field (f.ex. add shortcodes (a slider or maybe a html5 video plugin) for the feature area in single post view).
• new: Cufon target field for the default cufon font.
• new: Setting for moving the image below the title.
• new: Setting for moving the the post meta information below the post content.
• new: Offset added to the featured widget.
• new: Added possibility to add/remove theme settings from a child theme.
• new: Added orderby and order parameters to the slider.
• new: Added the possibility to overide functions in child themes (meta ++).
• fix: Replaced imagefit with css for image resizing.
• fix: zoomcrop=”false” will skip timthumb for the nextgen sliders (bfslider and nivoslider).
• fix: bfslider exclude posts without a default image or video.
• fix: Blog posts template (WP3.0 compability).
• fix: Image url’s for feeds is now the full url.
• fix: Image url’s for WP3.0 multisite fixed.
• fix: Theme settings now appears for wp3 multisite admins.
• fix: WP3 navigation intergration.
• fix: Static frontpage paging bug fixed.
• fix: The dropdown indicator nav bug with ie6/7 is fixed.
• fix: Caption center style fixed.
• fix: bfthumbs offset with pagination fixed.

NB! before you upgrade: export the theme settings and move the widgets to the inactive widgets area, because changes have been made so this will be lost when upgrading. After upgrading import the settings and move the widgets back. Here’s how to upgrade.

Version 1.3.5.2 (released 19. May)

• new: Wordpress 3.0 compability. Added support for the new navigation admin system built in to wordpress. Also added the background image/color functionality.
• new: The slider now hides all slides until everything is loaded.
• new: Setting for number of columns in the footer links widget area.
• new: Possibility to override videos with images in the slider.
• new: Added sorting to the nextgen slider.
• new: Setting for container top margin. This is useful when used with the background image functionality to show an image above the container.
• new: Added a vertical navigation style (example: [bfnav name=”about” style=”navertical”]). Useful for submenus.
• new: Child theme stylesheet order changed (no more need to use specificity to override the optionstyles css).
• new: Added the possibility to use shortcodes in the page slider.
• fix: Navigation last class fixed.
• fix: Fixed height issue in the nextgen slider.
• fix: Fixed the theme settings error that occurred when nothing in the misc section was enabled.

Version 1.3.5 (released 4. May)

• new: Parameters for setting the dimension of images in the slider. Demo.
• new: Slider integration with the NextGen gallery. Demo.
• new: Author info box at the end of posts. Integration with the My Profiles plugin to show social links. Enable it in the user profile page.
• new: Export/import for the theme settings (buttons at the bottom of the theme settings).
• new: SEO improvements. Possibility to add a custom title tag and meta tags for the blog and posts/pages.
• new: More slider button styles (style3-5). Also added larger hotspot click area for the default buttons. Demo.
• new: Setting for moving sidebar2 to the left of the content.
• new: Created a new adspace to show ads in the header.
• new: Some new bfthumbs parameters. hideimage=”true” (for hiding images), removelinks=”true” (for removing links), zoomcrop=”center” (change the zoom position (possible values: topleft/center/false)), offset=”2″ (number of posts to skip (a value of 2 = start from post 3)).
• new: Enabled the WP2.9 set thumbnail functionality, and recoded it to use timthumb. In other words, you can press “Set Thumbnail” when editing a post/page to set the default image this way.
• new: Added excerpt to pages.
• new: Added useful classes to the styles dropdown list in the editor. Install the TinyMCE Advanced plugin for it to show (go to this plugin settings and add the styles dropdown to the editor bar).
• new: Dynamic checkbox added to the Featured Posts widget. When enabled the post’s category is automatically used to display posts.
• new: Added a “Hide from search and nav-admin” checkbox for pages to exclude it from the navigation admin and the search (useful for design and slider pages).
• new: Pages set as private is hidden from the navigation
• new: The css max-width is replaced with a javascript that makes too wide images fit the content width (and also container width for pages/posts without a sidebar).
• new: The “Thumbnail image URL” now overrides the video thumb image.
• new: Added a “Hide videos from the frontpage of the blog” setting.
• new: Added avatars to recent comments.
• new: Added classes and margins to adspace widget areas.
• new: Sidebar link color added to the color settings.
• new: The content width is displayed in the theme settings (below the setting for the container width). This is useful to know when setting the media settings (the max image width for content images).
• new: Added possibility to change the default thumb post width in the theme settings. The default width is calculated from the content width, so adding a static value makes the thumb posts not fill the content width, but makes it possible to add paddings and backgrounds.
• new: Added a zoomcrop setting that makes it possible to choose where the zoom center is (and the possibility to turn cropping off). A parameter zoomcrop has also been added to the bfthumbs and bfslider shortcodes to override the default (possible values: topleft/center/false).
• fix: Caption for default images in pages is now working (when setting the default image with the Set Thumbnail functionality). Lightbox rel is also added to the links like for posts.
• fix: Adblocker adspace issue fixed.
• fix: Fixed the anchor links for comments.
• fix: The “Show older posts on the blog frontpage as thumbnail posts” setting will now also display other pages than the frontpage as thumbnails.
• fix: Revisions are now also showing for pages.

Version 1.3.4

• Improved the bfthumbs shortcode. Demo.
• Fade animation for the slider. Demo
• Added a 2. sidebar column.
• No sidebar is showing if no widgets are added.
• Video url now produce a thumb if proplayer is installed (and activated).
• Added support for videos in the photoblog template.
• Separate read more setting for thumbnail posts.
• Created a links page template (show posts as links).
• Max width added for images and videos.
• Fixed the plugin conflict with the theme settings. The theme settings will now show nomather if there is a conflict.
• Link target included for links added to the navigation.
• Confirmation dialog box added for the reset button in the theme settings.
• More custom field parameters for the portfolio template (imagewidth, textwidth, divider (set false to hide the divider)).
• Name parameter for the bfpage shortcode (name=”infobox”).
• Added lightbox rel to the feature image on single pages (only if original image is larger than the one displayed).
• Changes in the theme settings. Thumbnail post section. Container/sidebar/margin width. Added some stuff to the color section (text color, footer text/link color).
• Fixed IE6 linebreak navigation issue.
• Duplicate categories in the all category navigation item removed.
• Category visibility problem with the blog posts template fixed.

Version 1.3.3

• Integration with the “Yet Another Related Posts Plugin”. (se docs folder of the downloaded zip file for how to set it up).
• Photoblog template. Demo.
• Navigation highlighted when on a post that belongs to page template added to the navigation (also works with categories).
• More parameters for the bfthumbs shortcode. Can add pages, set the height, remove the text, sort order etc.
• Added a theme setting to “exclude the text from thumbnail posts”.
• noresize custom field parameter for the portfolio template. Custom field: name: noresize and value: true (image doesn’t get re sized).
• Support for the WP2.9 oembed video url tranformation. Just add a video url to the video input field (instead of an embed code).
• Caching of optionstyles.php (creates a css file instead). Set the “Cache the settings stylesheet” theme setting for it to work (optionstyles.css will be written to library/css folder. Make the folder writeable if this is not working automatically).
• Default targeting in cufon. Add the word default in the description field list and it will be the default font.
• Pages now displayed correctly in searches.
• Comments number fixed (it was showing not approved comments).
• Fonts selection in theme settings fixed.
• Paged title tag fixed.
• Retweet button in post setting re added.
• Wrong default image url problem fixed.
• Stylesheets added with a hook (also from a child theme, because it speeds it up).
• reset.css has been added to the top of style.css.
• single-nosidebar.php custom single template added. It’s very much like the single-portfolio.php, but without the date modification.
• new stuff added to the translation files.
• styling added for the calendar widget.
• “Add to navigation” issue with WP2.9 fixed.
• Theme settings for Colors fixed.
• Removed the link to posts on the videos (this was an issue with webkit browsers).
• Thumbnail post max height is now changed to just height (the thumbnails will resize to that height).
• Navigation down arrow issue fixed.
• Child themes updated to send the stylesheet with a hook instead of importing them (speeds up the child themes).