Changelog

[Matthew Dilello]

Hey,

I setup the Foundation theme a while back for a client using the 1.0.3 release. I had not checked in a while, but see that your current version listed on the site is 2.0.7.

I was expecting more detail in the changelog (readme.txt) file you provided and also it only states versions 1.0.0, 2.0.0 and 2.0.3 yet this is supposed to be 2.0.7 or 2.0.8 according to your style.css file.

I need to know more of a complete file change list if possible.

I would recommend providing a more detailed list of changes in the future.

Thanks,
Matthew

[Bill Robbins]

Matthew,

Great suggestion. I actually added the change log to the theme download in version 2.0 so I’m still getting in the habit of adding any changes there.

In version 2.0.0 I swapped out theme options to use the Options Framework (as will soon be the case in the remaining themes that haven’t changed yet). We wanted a easier framework that handled file uploading, category/page selections and made easy style options possible.

We also added a sponsor’s post type so you can create a sponsor’s archive similar to our staff options. We added a taxonomy to the staff section so you can have multiple staff listings by adding a staff group to the staff members and including that staff group to the navigation. This was part of the Authentic theme that was helpful that we’re adding to the other themes that support staff.

The last change is swapping the slideshow to use a custom post type.

Since version 2.0.0, the other changes were all to the MailChimp widget and newsletter bar. Not every one increment was released publicly. They were adjustments to the form action URL.

I will keep trying to offer more details about any changes that are made. If you have any specific questions, please feel free to ask.

Thanks

[Matthew Dilello]

Bill,

Thank you for the explanation and details.

Maybe this will help motivate your future update notices. Take it or leave it, just a suggestion.

What I feel is a best practice to include with your theme updates are:

1. A notice in WordPress indicating a theme has an update with version log. Not a lot of themes do this, but it’s very nice.

example:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8390733/Screenshot1_wp-theme-update-notice.png

2. A changelog.txt with version listing in the root of the theme directory.

example:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8390733/Screenshot2_changelog-version-updates.png

3. A list of individual files that changes in the latest version

example:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8390733/Screenshot3-changelog-file-change-liest.png

Also, I can’t remember if I attempted this when I first worked with the Foundation theme – I know I am not using one now for my client – but how easy is it to build a child theme, so custom changes could be preserved when updates occur? Making your themes compatible with a child theme would be great.

Thanks

[Bill Robbins]

Thanks for the suggestions.

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