NOTE: Please remember that with all beta versions, we strongly suggest that you do not use it on production sites, but only for testing purposes.

Genesis 2.0 utilizes HTML5 to provide a number of features that we’re very excited to share with you, so can get testing.

Ready? Click here to see the new Genesis Framework 2.0 demo site.

Brand New Design

Genesis is sporting a fresh new look.

We’ve taken advantage of the new HTML5 markup, as well as some snazzy CSS3, and we think you’re gonna love this.

HTML5 Markup

Genesis has always been on the cutting edge of web technology, and Genesis 2.0 continues in that excellent tradition.

With a single line of code in a child theme, Genesis will now output HTML5 markup in place of the old XHTML tags. Also, every theme we build in the future will be developed on HTML5.

Microdata

If you’re using a theme with HTML5 enabled, Genesis will also output your markup using microdata.

We did all the research and modified the markup to serve search engines the microdata they’re looking for, so you don’t have to. It’s good to be a Genesis user.

Removing Features

We want to keep Genesis as lightweight as possible for you, nobody wants to use bloated software.

So we’ve removed the “Latest Tweets” widget, the “eNews and Updates” widget, the “post templates” feature, and the “fancy dropdowns” setting. There are some good plugins you can grab and install, if you want to continue using those functionalities.

Boring, but Very Important

We’re always improving. Call it a sickness, but we like to make things work really, really well. Here’s a list of the technical changes in this latest release of Genesis:

• Better named loop hooks for HTML5.
• Network Upgrade now upgrades the Genesis database for all sites in a network when running WordPress in multisite mode.
• Widget classes are now coded in PHP5 format.
• Admin CSS and Javascript are now minified.
• Inline HTML comments have been removed to reduce page size.
• The Scripts option now has its own metabox when editing an entry.
• Custom Post Type archive pages now have a settings page so you can control the output.
• Genesis tracks displayed entry IDs so you can exclude entries from showing twice on a page.
• Entries without titles now display a permalink after the post content.

How to Upgrade to Genesis 2.0 Beta

One of the very cool features that we’ve included in Genesis 1.8 is the ability to automatically update to future Beta versions of Genesis.

This is similar to the WordPress Beta Tester plugin that exists — the only difference is that users won’t have access to the bleeding version of Genesis.

You can automatically update your site to this version by downloading and installing our Genesis Beta Tester plugin.

If you don’t see the update notice via the plugin, we’ve also added the Genesis 2.0 Beta and Genesis Sample 2.0 Beta theme to the Member Downloads so you can login and access theme there as well.

Reporting Bugs

If you’re testing Genesis 2.0 Beta and would like to report a bug, head on over to our help area and fill out the form.

Crave was developed by Jessica Barnard of The Pixelista, and is categorized as a Community theme. These are not included in the Pro Plus All-Themes package, but we assure you that the design and coding of them are top-notch.

Theme Features

The Crave theme includes the following features: 3 color styles, 3 layout options, custom header, featured images, fixed width, theme options, threaded comments.

Take the Crave theme for a test drive…

This mobile-responsive WordPress theme is built on the Genesis Framework and can be downloaded by Pro Plus members by logging into my.studiopress.com. If you aren’t already a StudioPress customer you can find it here.

If you want a more detailed description of Metro’s design and features, I did a short write up about the theme for you over on Copyblogger today.

The Metro theme is the 22nd mobile responsive design we’ve developed at StudioPress. You can see a full selection of all of our responsive themes for WordPress here.

Theme Features

With an unprecedented 1152 pixel-wide content frame and magazine-style design, Metro theme sports the following out-of-the-box features: 6 layout options, 5 color styles, 3 story locations, fixed width, mobile responsive, after-post footer widget, landing page template, custom background.

Click here to take Metro theme for a test drive.

New Look for Genesis

As you can see, the default look for Genesis has been updated. The style sheet has been condensed and completely rewritten, with an emphasis on flexibility for mobile responsive design.

Note that in Genesis 1.9, we are also utilizing the rem unit of measurement and will use a pixel fallback for browsers that don’t support rems.

Want to see it? Go ahead and view the Genesis 1.9 demo site.

Google Authorship

Genesis now offers support for authorship. This allows Google to associate your content with your Google+ profile.

Just edit your profile, find the field where you can enter your Google+ account URL, and save. Genesis does the rest. And if you want to associate an author with the homepage, you can do that in SEO Settings.

Read why Google plays a critical role in building a successful online business and should be inevitable part of your content marketing strategy.

Updated Security Audit

It’s very important to us that we provide you the absolute best framework possible, so once again we hired WordPress Lead Developer Mark Jaquith to perform a full review of code for security as he’s done in the past.

Here’s what Mark has to say:

It’s clear StudioPress made security a priority when developing Genesis and from a security standpoint, Genesis 1.9 is at the top of its class.

Deprecating Widgets

Genesis has always included some useful widgets to help you build your sites faster and easier. We realized that some of these widgets should really be plugins, so authors can push out updates more frequently.

With that said, the “eNews & Updates” and “Latest Tweets” widgets are being ported to plugins, and will eventually be removed from Genesis.

Download Genesis eNews Extended plugin
Download Genesis Latest Tweets Plugin

Genesis Category/Page Menu Widgets Removed

We deprecated the Category and Page menu widgets a few releases ago, and as of this release, we’ve completely removed them from the framework. If you were still using either of these widgets, you will notice that your menu is no longer showing.

You will need to build a custom menu and add the custom menu widget to the Header Right widget area.

Special Thanks to Our Community

We’d like to thank the following developers for their contributions with the update to Genesis 1.9 — Jared Atchison, Chris Cochran, David Decker, Bill Erickson, Thomas Griffin, Gary Jones, Andrew Norcross and Travis Smith.

Genesis 2.0 Roadmap

We have big plans for a new markup structure in Genesis 2.0, all built with HTML5. You will have the ability to turn on HTML5 support with a simple function through your child theme.

In case you can’t tell, we’re big fans of designing for mobile devices around here. So, we’re going to be doing some things that will make it a whole lot easier to get your site mobile ready with Genesis in 2.0.

I’m sure you want to know when Genesis 2.0 is slated for release, and the best I can say is that we’re hoping for a Spring/Summer 2013 date.

The Pretty Pictures theme is the 21st theme released here which has been developed to be mobile responsive in design.

View all responsive WordPress themes.

Theme Features

The Pretty Pictures theme includes the following features: custom header, custom menus, featured images, fixed width, mobile responsive, theme options.

Take the Pretty Pictures theme for a test drive…