Lumen Reborn is here…
… or part of it! Well, most of the theme is done now. There is still a lot of areas to work on but I guess that can be done in small stages. It’s the sidebar and footer that needs most of the work, but the rest is pretty usable I would say. :)
I decided to release it before completely finished because I’m so tired of this temporary theme. I like dark themes but this one is a bit too black for my taste. :)
The Theme
Basically what you see is what you get (and I will get into more detail when I finish it, though I don’t think it will ever be finished, I’m one of those persons that keep tweaking stuff), but I can give a few more details on the work done so far (and I promise a more extensive post on sources and useful link to develop a theme from scratch).
I’ve tried to use as few images and icons as I could, I wanted a clean, fast and uncluttered theme, I think I kinda achieved that. Being a dark theme that felt like an upgrade from the last one was another goal, again I think that was also accomplished.
Some Details…
There is still a lot of stuff to do (you’ll find a lot of broken pages, like the showcase, tutorials, etc…), archives don’t quite work yet, search isn’t implemented, footer is empty yet, sidebar widgets still an ongoing process, but there are some functionalities we can see already.
For instance, the header features a nice breadcrumb menu. I always thought I missed it and I think it makes an essential navigation element for a streamline browsing experience. The main navigation menu features a nice lavalamp effect. Other interesting aspects of the theme can be seen for example on the automatic generation of a Related Posts list without the use of any plugin (same for the Popular Posts, the “widget” in the sidebar, so far the only one).
I can tell you that the part that gave me the most trouble was the comment section. I tought in doing the comments a la WordPress 2.7 style (that is, threaded, paged…) but I find threaded comments a bit combersume, so I decided to implement a system of Reply – Quote. This system isn’t working yet because I’m trying to program it instead of using an overkill plugin like WP-Comment Remix.
Overall, I’m liking the theme. I know I’m not trustworthy saying this, as I was the one doing it, but I do like the yet not final but close to it result.
Final thoughts
Remember, there is still a LOT of things broken. Pages not working, features not implemented so no need to report them since mosf ot them I am aware of. If you are into WordPress and blogging (most possible you are if you’re reading this) I really recommend if you have some time to read about wordpress theming, about CSS and XHTML (and a bit of PHP as a plus), its well worth it in the end.
Any advices or comments on the theme so far?
