I think it’s not really fair for me to ask anyone to translate plugin for free, when I sell that plugin and earn from it. It’s only fair that you get something in return for you troubles. And that’s where this new translation initiative comes in. Up till now, some users got free licenses for making translations, but almost no one made any updates to initially translated plugins. So, this new initiative should change things.

You will need to register (if you are not already) on this website. Once you have an account, you will be able to access translation pages from your user account pages. Here you will find list of all plugins and themes, latest POT file you can use to make translation, and list of already available translations. You also have a upload form where you can upload completed translation, you have list of language codes WordPress supports for localization and page with instructions and rules. These rules are very, very important and not following them will get you banned from translation pages.

Themes are simple to translate because most of the work there is to translate xScape Framework, so that is a separate translation, and individual themes translations have only about 150 strings, where framework has about 1000. Plugins are usually somewhere in between and have on average 500-600 strings. Translating framework will earn you 10 credits, translating plugin will get you 6 credits, and theme will get you 2 credits. But to avoid flood of fake translations and other similar things, each submitted translation has to follow the rules, or will be eliminated automatically, and after it’s saved it has to go through verification process. After that, if everything is OK, you will get the credits.

You can use these credits to get discounts for purchase plugins or themes, you can give credits to someone else who want to purchase (basically, credits will be converted to discount coupons). If you already have everything you want on Dev4Press (maybe bundle package of plugins, and theme club membership), you can use credits to get more email support tickets or give them to someone.

More info will be available soon, and the translation initiative will be active starting from May 17 2010. Until then I will post more about rules and instructions. If you have any suggestions, please leave a comment.

User Columns

Users panel grid is expanded with one more column for last recorded user activity. This tracking is added few weeks ago, so you might not have too much data recorded yet, but over time you will have clear picture when users have been active on the website.

GDP_R print function and CSS and JS it uses are now embedded into the page. Both these are very small, and it’s not really good to link two additional files, it’s better to move them into the page.

WP Hooks panel is gone, and added to Environment panel. Hooks will be improved soon with more debug usage and added to footer like SQL queries. Dashboard widget is updated and styled better, and number of minor bugs are fixed.

In about 2 weeks time, 3.5 will be released, that’s a bit later than I first expected, but it will be worth the wait.

I have added new options allowing better integration of the GRS in the theme. Now you can use new setting that will insert the snippet on the action call. This will allow adding snippet anywhere in the theme, but the theme needs to support that. Info about that is on the Settings page for snippets. xScape themes are already updated and will use new snippet support. Templates used by the snippet for all 3 formats are improved and have more info that will be easier to style and will be readable if displayed as visible.

Over the next week or two, I will monitor Google search results to see if the new GRS format will be picked up. As it turnes out, Google is not using snippets that are hidden, so new options and expanded format will sort this out.

xScape themes have a special option to enable support for GRS. This will change some of the plugin settings and integrate snippet into the theme. You can see that in action on official website, bellow individual posts content.

GD Star Rating: http://www.gdstarrating.com/

baseScape and photoScape now both support resizing of the sidebar. This is limited by the themes design, and is done in the increments of the columns used in Blueprint CSS framework. But, it gives great flexibility. Resizing the sidebar will automatically change other elements, so you need to check the thumbnail sizes for content and things like that to avoid having too much empty space or other layout related problems.

And both those themes now support new footer layout that allows adding of sitemap or links based on standard menus or custom built using menu designer. Tutorial coming soon.

baseScape has new color style called Blood Red on Light.

New Buttons

Social buttons for Digg, Facebook and  Tweetmeme are improved and support different locations around the post content. Some combinations don’t look so good due to different sizes of these buttons and styling issues, but try and see what’s best. Also, photoScape allows you to put these buttons in the meta block on the left of the post. Also, per request, I ave added FaceBook Like button that allow some settings changes. On the image on the right you have all these on the same side.

Framework now allows creating templates for custom post types (WP 3.0 only), and also has several bugs fixed. All themes also support improved Google Rich Snippets from GD Star Rating plugin, that will be available when 1.9 version of the plugin is released tomorrow. More info to follow.

Test all themes and try them with a free test drive, for both front end and back end:

Demo Loader: http://xscape.info/load/
Demo Home: http://xscape.info/

You can now add description for custom post types and use advanced options to set custom rewrite slug. Also, plugin is now flushing all WordPress rewrite rules when you add or edit custom post types to avoid 404 pages for new post types.

Pro version has another useful tool. If active (plugin Settings panel), this will add Clear ALL button for all non hierarchical taxonomies meta boxes on post edit pages. By default, this will work for post tags and all custom taxonomies that are not hierarchical.

And, if you want to test Pro version before buying, you can sign up for free test drive blog on xScape demo website and see what you will get with Pro upgrade: http://xscape.info/.

Bug fixes

There is very annoying bug in WP core (and it’s there for some time now), causing that generated pages list is missing children class, and that caused rendering problem with eScape. I made override of default WP walker class, and also I have submitted patch to WordPress TRAC to be included in WP 3.0. Some styling bugs in eScape are fixed, and also some missing template files added. Front page slider now respects posts limit.

Also, CSS 2.1 validation was failing because of the rounded menu items. So, this is now option to be set (on by default). If you want theme to validate, disable rounded menu items (General settings tab).

Sidebar width

Framework now supports changing of the sidebars width. Since all themes use Blueprint CSS framework, width must be in the CSS columns increments. eScape is first theme to implement this. Due to design restrictions, there are only 3 possible widths you can use for this.

Typography settings

Framework has new settings tab for typography related settings. This can change first line and first letter in paragraphs differently. Works independently for excerpt and full post content.

And more…

Framework also has improved support for GD Star Rating Google Rich Snippets integration. For this to work, you need to wait few more days until GDSR 1.9 is released. Be sure to check out tutorial on setting the eScape theme. On Saturday, photoScape will be released with all the new features implemented, and baseScape update will be released on Monday.

To see the theme features and read more about it check the main theme page:

eScape Info:
http://www.dev4press.com/themes/escape/

To see the theme and framework in action, visit the WordPressMU powered demo website and get your own blog to see who the framework back-end works:

Demo Site:
http://xscape.info/

eScape:
http://xscape.info/escape/

Blood Red Color Scheme

eScape is premium only theme packed with features, and the first xScape theme to use improved footer with menu or sitemap based on menu.

In the next 2 days you can expect videos explaining theme features and exploring the procedure of setting and using the theme. Until then, you can check out many existing videos for xScape framework or previously released themes.

To see the theme features and read more about it check the main theme page:

eScape Info:
http://www.dev4press.com/themes/escape/

eScape Screenshots:
http://www.dev4press.com/themes/escape/screenshots/

To see the theme and framework in action, visit the WordPressMU powered demo website and get your own blog to see who the framework back-end works:

Demo Site:
http://xscape.info/

photoScape:
http://xscape.info/escape/

Bugs Fixed

This version of framework is only for bug fixing, and no new features are included.

eScape

New theme is available on demo website and for test drive from yesterday. Theme has 20 styles built in (10 color schemes, each one with or without background image), and can be classified as business or portfolio theme. This is first theme to use new front page feature in xScape allowing use of template that is not made of normal content. This front page has own layout settings. In the next 2-3 days I will post tutorials on how to set eScape theme.

xScape 1.4

Next major iteration of framework is in works. And as a result, there will be new theme released before already announced news type theme. That next theme will be very simple, will have two sidebars (plus footer widgets area), and design will be controlled through control panel. This will be primarily personal or blog theme with very clean design, fast and as usual packed with all xScape features. Also, this theme will add another new feature in xScape and that is resize-able sidebars. That feature will be available in all themes once completed.

Another new feature is part of the next xScape release cycle, and that is Typography settings. First versions will add some decoration elements, but more will be added later.

Upcoming themes

Work on starScape II theme has also begun. So, current plan for theme release:

• Yet to be named theme: May 13 2010
• News theme: end of May 2010
• Another work in progress theme: middle of June 2010
• starScape II:  end of June / first week of July 2010

And more

Also, during next week, new Showcase page will be completed, and you can submit your websites using xScape for review and adding to the Showcase page.

Maintenance Mode Settings

To control maintenance mode, new tab on Settings panel is added with many options. You can select template for rendering mode message that will be displayed to users who are not allowed during maintenance period. Right now there is only one template and more will come. Also, xScape themes will all support this and will hook into the plugin to add on templates for this mode.

You can set timer and restrictions. Timer is only there to inform users when will be site staring normal work, it’s not used by the plugin to stop maintenance mode. You need to do it yourself. You can use GD Press Tools dashboard widget to enable or disable maintenance mode.

Default Maintenance Template

Restrictions will be expanded later with IP options, specific user ID’s… Info about mode is always visible in the footer and if you want with notifications on top of every page.

Default template is very simple as you can see from this image on the right.

If you notice any problems with this new feature, please leave a comment or forum topic and describe what the problem is.

eScape Front Page, Midnight Blue

Theme has 9 color schemes in 18 styles built in, and many new elements compared to previous themes: menus in footer, spearate front page, portfolio look for archive and more.

eScape Demo: http://xscape.info/load/?theme=escape
Test Drive: http://xscape.info/

BaseScape had few bugs that are now fixed. Exclusion of posts from featured and category latest areas was not working and limit of featured posts was also broken. Both themes have now proper H1/H2 heading assignment, and for single posts pages, H1 is used for post title, on all other pages is used for blog title in header. PhotoScape now also has excluding options for posts in the featured area.

eScape theme is a bit late, and the demo for it will be up tomorrow, with theme released on Monday.

Demo Loader: http://xscape.info/load/
Demo Home: http://xscape.info/

Edit: Another update is released due to several bugs that I missed this morning.

Bugs Fixed

There are many bugs fixed with this release. This include minor problem with breadcrumbs on the 404 pages, missing nesting UL classes for drop down menus, small problems with Contactable module and several bugs with layout manager and other control panels.

gMap This module

This module now uses different jQuery library for Google Maps because of the problems with previously used gMap. And in the same time, a new features are added: traffic and streetview overlay and working change of the map type. Also, another display mode is added, allowing to display only static image instead of whole map. It’s limited with API for this, but most settings will work, and in the end you will see only static PNG image.

And more

Footer block is improved with few more tags added for customization including post and category. But, basis is created for adding menus into the footer: simple links and sitemap like menu elements (like the one on this website). This will be first introduced in eScape theme this week, and next week current themes will be changed to support that.

GD Custom Posts And Taxonomies Tools features page shows you all the current features plugin has and what edition feature is available in. This plugin original intention was to suplement the missing interface for adding custom post types and taxonomies, and that’s exactly what is in the core of Lite and Pro versions. Both also have couple of widgets and few shared functions, but that’s really all for Lite. Pro on the other hand has more to offer.

Support

First, and for many users most important factor is the support for the plugin. Lite version is free, and the support for it covers only bug fixing. Also, there are some free tutorials and that’s it. On the other hand Pro version comes with 3 different packages. Basic will give you Pro plugin and all future updates for it and access to Central Documentation, and nothing else. The other two packages are subscription based with recurring payments every 3 months and they include premium support through members only forum, suggestion box access and premium tutorials (mostly video). Developer membership will give you also access to SVN/TRAC for the plugin and email support. Full list of differences is on the purchase page.

New Taxonomies Button

Functions

Both Lite and Pro have several functions used to easier add taxonomies and terms into the theme. But, Pro version also has some much advanced functions that allow you to filter posts by multiple taxonomies and multiple terms for each one. More functions will be added to Pro as needed.

Post Editor Integration

Pro version integrates with editor for posts and pages (rich text editor powered by TinyMCE). Button on the image on the left is a drop down that allows one click adding of any selected text as a term for any taxonomy associated with the post. If you click on the button, a dialog appears allowing to search through terms and format it and add it back to the text as a link or shortcode that will be later turned into a link to results for the selected term. With this you can easily mark the text you are working on and link it to other related posts directly from content.

Custom Taxonomies Columns

Columns on the posts grids

When you have many custom taxonomies or custom post type with them, it’s useful to display that on the grid with posts like the categories and tags are displayed by default. Pro edition allows you to do that with any custom taxonomy, and you can use that to filter posts too.

What’s next?

Lite version will receive regular updates and fixes, but no new features are planned for it. Pro, on the other hand, will get more features: more options for the editor integration, more widgets and more function for easier use of taxonomies and custom post types in themes and other plugins.

Discount Coupon

And for the next 2 weeks, here is the discount coupon you can use to purchase any of the GD Custom Posts And Taxonomies Tools licenses with 20% discount through this page:

LITEVSPRO

If you follow the discussions on the current WP 3.0 progress, you surely know that major problems remaining right now are Menus and custom post types. And while the custom post types are working good as far as I can tell (with few problems still), the same can’t be said for Menus.

Custom post types and taxonomies

Even though custom post types were implemented in WP 2.9, it was very basic implementation, and you couldn’t do much with them. But now, custom post types are on the same level with the posts and pages. And while there are some bugs still remaining, I am confident that it will be sorted out before the official release. This website uses custom post types for the central documentation, and right now the only thing I couldn’t implement is having comments with posts in documentation.

Custom taxonomies are much improved with additional hierarchy support. You can try my GD Custom Posts And Taxonomies Tools plugin to see how all that works right now.

Menus

As of yesterday, I managed to create first menu and to actually see the editor working properly and display nesting of the menu items. But, menus editor in my opinion is not good (not to use stronger word). I have several problems with the way the menus are implemented. They are forced into a taxonomy, even thou, menu has nothing to do with taxonomy. Menus need much complex data model to be able to allow much wider range of items and taxonomies are not good for that. Editor will be a pain to use if you need to create big menus that have hierarchies of pages or categories with no settings on how to handle page item that already has sub pages or categories with sub categories. In my xScape theme I have built menu designer that has much more options and more control over the menu items and how they are displayed including different way to render items. Also, all menus in xScape are saved into the WP options table as serialized objects, and that I find more logical than approach in with WP native menus. Also, it’s easy to expand such structure. But, deed is done, and I don’t believe that anything with menus implementation will be changed in the next 2-3 weeks. We will see who the menus will perform and how much problems will cause in the long run. Good idea, average implementation.

WPMU to Multi Sites

As for the merge with WPMU, I still have to test how the conversion of WPMU website will go to WP 3.0, but from what I have seen over the Internet, that should go without problems. As for standalone multi site installation I tested, there are many inconsistencies with WPMU and I think that there will be problems with migration of plugins and themes specifically written for WPMU. I will write more on the migration next week when I do that with xScape.info website.

Speed

Speed. WP 3.0 is much faster in all operations. This is not just subjective view, but I actually measured that speed improved by 15% and memory usage is now lower by 10%. Many changes made to meta boxes on post edit page are great and improve speed and usability, but they will break many plugins that relied on JavaScript to modify default meta boxes. But, I guess that with so many changes one can expect that problems with plugins can’t be avoided.

For the past month I have been improving all my plugins to work with WP 3.0, and so far everything works great. Same goes for xScape themes, and everything works in both normal and multi site installations. More on WP 3.0 coming soon, I will make more tests with menus after Tuesday when Beta 2 is announced. Migration from WPMU will follow next weekend.

On april 26 2010, xScape 1.3 will be released and existing themes updated to use and to allow use of GD Affiliate Center plugin. Widget for single ad has a new option to use the plugin and select filtering based on ad size and affiliate. Same goes for header ad in the baseScape theme. More locations for ads will be added in different theme locations and all will support this plugin.

But, that’s not all. If you decide to purchase Standard or Developer membership license for xScape Themes, and you don’t already have license for GD Affiliate Center plugin, you will get Standard Membership License for the GD Affiliate Center. License for it will be valid as long as the themes license is valid.

More info on integration of this plugin and themes will follow soon.

GD Affiliate Center:
http://www.dev4press.com/plugins/gd-affiliate-center/

xScape Themes:
http://www.dev4press.com/themes/

GD Press Tools features page shows you all the current features plugin has and what edition feature is available in. As you can see, Lite version has a lot of features, but more and more features are available only in Pro edition. And this trend will continue.

Support

First, and for many users most important factor is the support for the plugin. Lite version is free, and the support for it covers only bug fixing. Also, there are some free tutorials and that’s it. On the other hand Pro version comes with 3 different packages. Basic will give you Pro plugin and all future updates for it and access to Central Documentation, and nothing else. The other two packages are subscription based with recurring payments every 3 months and they include premium support through members only forum, suggestion box access and premium tutorials (mostly video). Developer membership will give you also access to SVN/TRAC for the plugin and email support. Full list of differences is on the purchase page.

Pro Edition: Meta tags for verification

Cron Scheduler

Lite version will display list of jobs and allow you to remove and execute them. Pro versions adds better interface and also adds Schedules tool that will allow you to create your own scheduling periods beyond the default and added by the plugin.

Meta Tags & Auto Tagger

Pro version has additional tool for adding verification meta tags for Google Webmaster Tools, Yahoo Site Explorer and Bing Webmaster Central.

As for auto tagger, with Pro you get more settings and also the tagger control for each post with the meta box on post edit page.

Pro Edition: Debugger panel

Debug with Pro

The only debug tool in Lite is used to add list of executed SQL queries and to display basic memory info into the footer. On the other hand Pro has Debugger panel that currently allows you to display in the hierarchical and readable form PHP and JSON serialized data using standard print_r function or more advanced gdp_r function that is part of GD Press Tools Pro. This function displays tree like element you can expand and collapse to show exact hierarchical structure of object or arrays. You can use this function within your theme or plugins you are developing or debugging.

Security & Settings

Pro adds improved security options. You can restrict sign up with list of keyword that can’t be used for a username and also you can enforce the minimal length for the username. You can also disable default dashboard widgets and prevent WordPress from loading them. That will speed up access to dashboard.

Pro Edition: Database Backup

As for the other settings, Pro version has CSS tab on the Settings panel that adds some interesting options: different colors for future and draft posts in the posts grid, displaying hidden custom fields on the post editor and more things will be added. Also, if you use duplication tool to duplicate posts you can control what data will be duplicated (for now custom fields, taxonomies will be added soon).

Database

Most significant difference between Lite and Pro is visible on the Database panel. Pro version features very powerful database tools and backup that will be expanded more in the coming versions. Image on the right shows the backup tab in Pro. Compare this to the same tab in Lite and you will see how much more control Pro offers. You can use mySQL dump command (with additional tab for setting that up) for backup and regular manual query export. You can select tables for backup and see the estimated size of the backup SQL file. And you can schedule the backup job. Archive with created files is protected from access and you can download the files only from this panel (or FTP). All other database panels are improved in Pro and have more options than Lite.

And more…

Pro has improved interface over Lite and more will be changed soon. And most important thing is that with a single plugin you can replace many plugins that you might already use. You will get centralized options and control, no more looking through endless list of plugins to find a small one that adds ID column, no more worries that plugin will crash new version of WordPress. One plugin to replace many. I will try to make a list of all plugins that can be replaced by GD Press Tools, but it’s a lot.

All our plugins are always up to date with current development of WordPress, and even now with WP 3.0 few weeks away from final release, all plugins are compatible with it.

What’s next?

Lite version will receive regular updates and fixes, but no new features are planned for it. Pro on the other hand has several major new features in the works including: maintenance mode, sending backups as email attachments, Google PageRank integration, multisite mode backups and much more.

So, you now can decide if the Pro version is worth paying for. Both basic license and membership licenses include Pro version of the plugin, and if you need support for the plugin, if you want to control what features plugin will have you need to get one of the membership based licenses.

GD Press Tools is one of the most advanced plugins made for WordPress, and over the next few months will get more and more features. So stay tuned.

Discount Coupon

And for the next 2 weeks, here is the discount coupon you can use to purchase any of the GD Press Tools licenses with 20% discount through this page:

LITEVSPRO

New Taxonomies Button

All changes this time are for Pro edition, and nothing of this will be part of Lite. As you can see on the image on the right, button is changed to slick designed tag icon (Fugue icon pack), and drop down menu is added to the button with shortcut links. Menu shows all taxonomies for the post type (yes, it works with custom post types). Click on any of the options will add selected text as a term for the selected taxonomy. In WP 2.9 you will see only non hierarchical taxonomies in this list.

Click on the button, opens already implemented dialog with search/replace functionality. This time is improved to support custom post types and to turn terms into shortcodes, not direct URL’s. With that you will have no URL’s hard-coded for terms linking, and plugin will render shortcode as a link. More options there will come soon.

Many bugs (mostly WP 3.0 related) are fixed in both plugin core, widgets and tinyMCE editor integration.

As I said, all this is only for PRO version of the plugin. Lite version will remain to feature only managing of custom post types and custom taxonomies, all advanced features are for Pro only.

With Pro version, you can now hide WP version from footer for non admin users. And on the Database Backup panel you will see estimated size of the backups. This goes for full backup and for partial backup. When you select partial backup tables, estimation will change and update to see how big file will be in the end. Right now you get uncompressed size, next version will show both compressed and uncompressed. Displayed values are only approximation.

Work on Pro goes on and next release is 3.3 with long waited maintenance mode, and after that we will go to major version bump and GD Press Tools 4.0 is next. More on that soon.

This plugin is only available as Pro edition and you can’t download it for free. But, you can check out it’s features, see it in action and starting from next week take it for a test drive and see behind the scene and try control panel and how the plugin is set. For all that, plugin will be improved soon to support WPMU and WP 3.0 in multi site mode. For now check out this:

Demo Website:
http://www.gdaffiliatecenter.com/
About Plugin:
http://www.dev4press.com/plugins/gd-affiliate-center/

Custom Taxonomies Columns

Custom post types are expanded with singular label for both Lite and Pro. And few more functions are added for caching terms and getting list of assigned taxonomies.

But, most important change is added to Pro edition. For each custom taxonomy you have a new option at the bottom of the taxonomy edition where you can enable or disable displaying it as a column on post edit grid. This works for post and custom post types, similar to default behavior of categories and tags. To make this work I also added function that will trigger caching of terms for custom post types, since it’s not yet implemented in the WP core.

Pro version will get more features over time, while Lite is stuck to this basic features and will be updated only for bug fixes. Maybe some minor new things will be added to Lite, but nothing major. Check out Features for both versions to see what you will get if you switch to Pro.

As usual, few more minor bugs are fixed for better WP 3.0 compatibility and few types from previous versions.

Menus Designer

New items are added to menus including Admin options (dashboard, profile, new post) and Login options (login, logout, register). But, more importantly, menus are nested by design. Previously you could add elements that are going to make drop down, but now you can move any element deeper within the menu.So, if you compare xScape Menus to WooNavigation or WordPress 3.0 native NavMenus, you will see that xScape is much more powerful and flexible with more options you can use to create wide range of items. A tutorial covering more aspects of menus coming later today.

New mapping desinger

Layouts Manager

As you can see, middle blocks got new buttons for moving blocks left and right. This will allow you to move sidebar from left to right. Also, master templates introduced in xScape 1.1, are now functional. Many more things are changed in layouts code allowing some of the things planned for next two themes (multiple sidebars is one of them).

Two tutorials covering all the changes and use of master template will be published later today.

Author Widget

Author Widget

Another new widget is added. This one allows you to set up About Author area to display some info about the author, gravatar and a read more link.

Both current themes are updated with new framework. Next theme is eScape and this one will be released by the end of the week. After that we are planning one news styles theme and long overdue starScape II.

Also, I can confirm that by the end of this week, or over next weekend, lite version of baseScape will be released. Making lite version of the framework wasn’t easy, but it’s almost done now. Lite framework will not get any new features any more, and only, if needed will be fixed from time to time.

Beside new themes, we have planned few more things for the framework, including 3 more widgets, but more on that soon. Stay tuned for number of new tutorials this week, and more improvements to Central Documentation.