New Theme!: Drag n Drop Layout, Three columns, Flexible

I like it. Nice use of colors, clean, uncluttered. I like your drop categories, as well as the ability to move stuff around. Pretty cool.

I am awed!
You did it, again!
It will be hard to ask for more ??

Very nice…seems like lots of fun to play with!
-trav

thanks. i hope i can make the layout saving possible soon.

that would bring me and wordpress to another level. what i wanna do is to make visitors able to not only save the frontend by drag & drop.

the idea i mentioned in the first place is, that visitors can search for content and then make it static.

theory:
let’s say you have a site about “cars” and you offer your visitors “reviews” about various models. A user now comes to your websites and would like to compare those reviews.

usually he can achive this by opening new windows or tabs in his browser which could be quite frustrating after a while depending on his research.

With the technique i want to develope in this theme, everything a user would need to do is type in some “models” into the live-search (ajax), click on a result and a new dynamic draggable block gets created in between all the default ones.

Now while we are having here the possibilty to sort content live, he could take these new blocks and line them up as he likes to. Okay.. this is what we have now basicly

The big final is: He could actually save this combination of content for later review! Bookmark it.. Any time he gets back to the page his choice of content is presented the way he wanted it.

it’s like sticking notes on any website. but the notes are the content somewhere in depths of the sites archive!

i bet this will bring up alot new thoughts on how to create and present content within wordpress.

if you have any more ideas like this, please share to really get the best out of this upcoming theme.

absolutely fantastic. would love to see it with more dynamic image implementation just for beauty sake but my goodness it is awesome!

Right now, I am in the process of compiling a full review.

I am rather excited, this is really a thought provoking theme, full with innovative solutions and with new fields of possibilities.

For the moment, please check it in IE: the right column gone down and left.

I put up two pictures.
One about IE, an other about mozilla: there seems to be a “close” sign not functioning.

Mentor4 pictures

Oops!
You are certainly, fast ??

hehe.. erm.. i tried another style of making a tableless layout, but the footer was bugging me. before i put now hours into this i just make the overall size 99% instead of 80%, making more room for the columns what should stop the breaking.

btw.. fixed a major ajax bug in IE (wasnt working at all), and in my research you can scale the window in IE down to 882pixels at current state.

i dont expect problems on IE + 1024. sorry for that, but i was more into functionality recently.

Also, since the i hacked the comments templates, the site aint valid on single post view anymore.. i have no idea where it is.. and actually the code is so huge that tinker on that small particular bug is too time consuming. HTML tidy just throws random erros. i bet i forgot some closing tag in between the http-gets .. bah. evil.

i rather work on my next version 4.2 for now which will be overworked alot. if i change now the base files to much i need to synch alot of old crap tho..

i hope this temporary quick adjust works out.
im back to desk ??

-mentor

First of all, I congratulate!
You surpassed all my expectations and just in a so short time.

Now, back to business ??
Technically, I cannot find major problems. Those, you have already mentioned, certainly you will sort them out.
From users’ point of view, when opening the site, it seems a bit sparse, so I would let those boxes have opened at the first time and let the user decide how to configure them, personally.
I would put all box-functions in the title bar of the boxes (just like netvibes) and and make the open/close cycle a two-way/one-click option. Generally, I would put all functions in the title bars if it is possible.
When you click more… in an article it stays. Perhaps, it would be nice to make it work backward, as well.

As to your ideas:
Fetching content via AJAX ? Please do it! I am not sure but it may effect positively overall site performance.
The idea of generating your own content via “live search” is GREAT!
There are two possible use of this feature:
First, you may, kind of “syndicate” the site itself and make a personalized view of it, making it your “favorites” and bookmarks, as well.
Secondly, you may use it as your own “built-in” newsreader (supposedly in a different page) just like netvibes.
I cannot boast about it sufficiently, because it is great: in a glance I can overview the fresh news on the subjects I thought important for me. The previewing is also great! And all this, in one place.

I see three possible use of this “new technology”:

1. Theme design:

If you “wrap” the sidebar and content boxes and give the option to “use/do not use” or “on/off” then the user would be able, kind of, make an on-line design, choosing layouts (two/three colum) positioned (left/right), etc.

2. Content handling:

As I have already mentioned above: user definable content, either insite or outsite.

3. WP-core

Now, it is really time to introduce some really useful features into wp functionality like post-saving with AJAX, some kind of visual style or theme editing. Those, previewed in 1.6a are nice but more of a play then really useful, from my point of view.

The aboves are my absolutely personal views and if I said something foolish, I ask for pardon, in advance, myself not being a programmer. Certainly, there will be other opinions and observations and sure, will be welcomed by the author.

Mentor,

I love this theme, and I love what you are planning to do with it. Are you intending on making this available to the public when complete? If so – I want a copy, its exactly the sort of direction I want to take my site.

Kassad:
Fetching content via AJAX ? Please do it! I am not sure but it may effect positively overall site performance.

Actually the site is ajax enabled. The user gets on first launch only the excerpts of all the posts. if he click on “more..” the content is loaded over ajax (indicated by the small animated clock under the posttitle).

Kassad:
1. Theme design:
If you “wrap” the sidebar and content boxes and give the option to “use/do not use” or “on/off” then the user would be able, kind of, make an on-line design, choosing layouts (two/three colum) positioned (left/right), etc

Im working on this at the moment. All blocks are actually already generated over PHP. The Layout is now nothing more then just a list of numbers. Now i only need to call this over ajax and some buttons and the user is able to flip around the whole content, randomize, sort, hide, choose from onsite layout templates, etc… ??

I’m close!! ??

once i got that i just need to write a small script to save this layout (list of numbers) and it’s done!

modular themes & web2.0, here i come..

I am thrilled ??

I would not hold you up but it just struck me while I was doing my weekly conservation procedure, what effect will have the modular design cross-browser-wise.

Is it possible to have a common “frame” that would work securely for both IE and Mozilla ?
Also, what are the possibilities to customize these “modules” individually ?

On some other issues, I will comment in your blog ??

yes. the whole deal.

i have a “blox” folder in my theme with all the small scripts and wp-tags which normal themes have in their sidebars. now while i ripped that into tiny pieces, you could basicly put everything in there and as much as you want.

freely modifiable “modules/plugins”. you can also ad an unlimited amount of “columns”. sky is the limit!!

you just give the script a list of columns and modules and hit the load button.. thats it. you could basicly do a complete AJAXed 5 column layout with the full CSS power if you like to ?? .. or even 20 columns and 50 boxes with tons of stuff. the style and functions wont break!

i think thats really a FRAME to get started. imagine making visitors able to completly redesign your site. not only drag/drop.. adding content and columns!

about compatibility: the “big browsers” are fully supported. i used a brandnew Web2.0 javascript framework, powered by the “prototype” api, which is very common in todays huge web applications online. i had no issues so far, but as we all know… you can always run into trouble. if so, ill find a solution.

Edit:

heres a small configuration script: (i can define “presets” this way)

“preset” is named “default” and has 2 blocks on the left, the posts in the center and 2 other blocks on the right.

i’m working with numbers.. thats why you can add as many as you want. ajax loads it all and there you go..

$layout["default"][$col[0]][] = $modules['archive'];
$layout["default"][$col[0]][] = $modules['cats'];
$layout["default"][$col[1]][] = $modules['post'];
$layout["default"][$col[2]][] = $modules['amazon'];
$layout["default"][$col[2]][] = $modules['stuff'];

for example.. if i put in now $col[3] then i have a four-column theme, etc…

you could also define new presets and link them on your site, or in a easy dropdown like seen in the “theme switcher” plugin.. only it’s all live n nice. ??

this will rock! ??

Wow!
I am silenced ??