Custom Design Visual Editor – Would You Want It?
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I was about to send wordpress.com a private message about this but I see that their contact form is offline, and actually, it’s probably better to float my proposition with you Custom Design Upgrade people first.
I’ve built a Visual CSS Editor plugin for WordPress that allows users to restyle any element on the page by simply double-clicking it. Microthemer, as it’s called, presents a visual interface for applying CSS styles so users don’t have to write the CSS code themselves. Obviously plugins can’t be installed on wordpress.org websites, but if you think this kind of functionality would be a useful addition to the current Custom Design upgrade I will ask WordPress.com if they would consider including it in the package (if I can find a way of contacting them of course!).
Here’s a short video demonstration: http://themeover.com/microthemer/#tabs-2
And here’s a free trial of the plugin you can download for self-hosted WordPress websites: http://wordpress.org/plugins/microthemer/Any questions, I’m on standby!
Thanks for your attention to this.
Sebastian
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Hi Sebastian :)
WordPress.com has a product called Enterprise which let’s you install plugins: http://en.wordpress.com/enterprise/ It’s mainly for larger entities though, so the price is higher—the plugins are vetted and the hosting platform is very solid. The pricing starts at $500/month.
Regarding adding new code to WordPress.com for all users as you have suggested, we receive many requests every week to add support for new services and we typically evaluate a plugin’s popularity and reported issues before considering such plugins for inclusion on WordPress.com servers. Here are some related guidelines you might be interested in taking a look at http://en.wordpress.com/embedding/development/ Not all of them apply, but there are some good notes in there. You might already have them covered, like a a GPLv2-compatible license.
I looked at this video demo of your Microthemer plugin http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPaPM5RLshc and we are working toward building tools that do some similar things but with more decisive actions, like color palettes to change all the colors in one click. If you think contributing to a project like Custom Design sounds like fun, you should consider applying to work at Automattic!
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Hey,
Thanks for the information. It makes sense that WordPress would want to be fairly selective about the new features they roll out.
Interesting to know that WordPress is looking to develop its DIY design customization features. Presumably color palettes would need to be configured on a per-theme basis if they are to change multiple aspects of a Theme in an intelligent way? I’ve done something similar with Microthemer where users can install “Theme Packs” tailored to a given theme’s unique HTML and CSS. So instead of always double-clicking to edit, the users just looks at what they can edit (e.g. “Site Title”, “Header Image” etc).
You know I may well follow up on your suggestion of applying to work for Automattic!
Thanks again and have a great day :)
Sebastian
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Presumably color palettes would need to be configured on a per-theme basis if they are to change multiple aspects of a Theme in an intelligent way?
Exactly right. We use a set of 5 colors and a small amount of code in a color annotation file for each theme to make it work.
You know I may well follow up on your suggestion of applying to work for Automattic!
Awesome! I bet this thread will come up in conversation later then. :)
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Ha, yes I will come back here and thank you if I make it through the application process!
Sebastian :)
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