I have about 23 posts sitting in drafts in relation to my subtext skin bonanza. It takes a while to go through each skin, test it, write it up and package it up so please bare with me. I do plan on catching up soon. I wanted to take time out from subtext themes for a moment and go over a topic that I think will be of some use to such webmasters that use subtext on a multi-blog platform. Customising Subtext core pages. What pages am I talking about here? In this part I am going to cover pages that are visible...

Smartone, theme number 18 to be converted into a subtext skin. I discovered this theme when I was converting Evolve theme. The WordPress theme can be found over at http://theme4press.com/smartone/ . Simple yet elegant and smart. Besides easy readability and clean design with a shadow effect, the SmartOne comes with up to 9 navigation menu color schemes, custom header (12 preinstalled elegant headers) and background which guarantee unlimited color variants. *taken from theme author homepage All the headers are in the skin zip file, below are a couple included: Like the Evolve theme lots of room to experiment. After a previous blog about...

Evolve, theme number 17 to be converted into a subtext skin. I found this theme over at http://theme4press.com/evolve/. The theme is quite nice and has lots of hacking possibilities as i found out while converting it. The header has room for a nice background, also you have option to remove the Gravatar feature on the post headings.  Lots of room to play about. Also the “keep in touch” part is very easy to change. The background images used are all taken from a sprite image that also contains Flickr, YouTube, Google and a couple more. I have included all the other images...

Next in the theme conversion is a nice simple theme called Adventure Journal. * Taken from – WordPress Share your adventures with the world! Adventure Journal is a powerful theme that lets you customize a wide variety of features. Use your own header and background art. I have included all the header images that came with the original theme. As it says above you can easily change the images to your own. Homepage Footer Post Comment Comment Listing Download Adventure Journal

Next in the theme conversion is a nice simple theme called Fancy. * Taken from – WordPress "Fancy" is a free WordPress theme which really lets your blog stand out from the crowd. Make your blog unique by changing the main blog color (pink, yellow, green), background pattern (available over 20 background variations), banner etc through an options page. In addition you have the ability to choose the color of sidebar blocks (violet, yellow, green). Tech folks might find interesting that we built this theme based on css framework "Blueprint". Valid CSS & HTML. Designed by AZ Money Web Design. I have...

It’s been 3 months since I published my first theme in the Subtext Skin Bonanza – Green Park. First off I am glad that there are people out there using the skins we are creating and second contacting me, reporting issues, feature requests, or asking how to do something. Yesterday I received an email from a subtext blog owner Raffaeu regarding strange behaviour going on with the post page and long comments. The below page (which has now been fixed) can be found on Raffaeu Bermuda Blog : Updates for my Microsoft Book. It would seem that during conversation a height had...

Throughout this series of converting WordPress themes to subtext "skins" I have trailed high and low for themes that I think people will use. From the WordPress theme repository to even some web hosting providers.  I found this theme tucked away and is called "Spectrum" by Ignacio Ricci. This theme is described as: "colourful and fresh theme sporting a clean layout with one main column and a sidebar on the right" I really have to agree. I have noticed that the version I converted isn't the latest so expect an updated version in the future. Homepage Footer Post Comment Comment Listing Contact Form Download Spectrum

I saw this nice theme and thought it has to be converted. This skin Fifty Fifth Street was created by Tammy Hart Designs. Fifty Fifth Street is a simple, greyscale theme that follows a nice grid system, and keeps typography in top priority. It’s a great theme for the minimalist in you, or for those that like to start with a blank canvas when customizing a free theme for their own needs. Homepage Footer Post Comment Comment List Contact Form Download Fifty Fifth Street

Beginning of a new month brings another subtext theme. I found this skin while looking at a wordpress hosting review. I don't plan on converting plain, boring themes. But a variety of themes giving more options to the users of subtext blogging engine. If you have seen a theme that you think would look good in the subtext skin arsenal then contact me. Back to Keko. Taken from mkels website : KeKo is a 2 columns fixed width WordPress theme. This urban grunge style theme is suitable for use on any niche blogs such as music, personal, social, etc. This has to be...

This post is a little late, better late than never. A theme created by http://studio.st/  set on the dark background, Blue and brick-red colours of the header with the interplay of shades make it look really impressive. Give a try to this excellent theme to style your blog! Home Page Footer Post Comment Comment List   Download I Feel Dirty   Looking for an alternative to bt vault? Looking for a UK Windows VPS Server? Checkout my post...

Theme number 10 converted. 10 already, the list is growing and growing. People have been contacting me asking to convert this and that and really I have to draw the line somewhere. Going back to my initial post in this series I will be doing a max of 40 skins.  I’d like to wrap this series up so I can help Phil and Simo with bug fixes, feature requests and confirming fixes. I will had a however clause: If a theme is brought to our attention that would benefit the subtext community then it will be “I’ll see what I...

Going back to the 1st skin in the bonanza a user contacted me to let me know that a couple of images were missing from the skin download. I checked my backup and it would seem that this was right.  I have now updated the zip file to include the images that were missing.  Head over to the original post to download Green Park for subtext.

A very simple, basic looking theme Contempt based on Kubrick theme.  This is version 1 as version 2 just doesn’t do it for me. This clean theme could easily be used on a business blog and adapted to needs. Controls such as search, previous and next post aren’t used in this theme. Home Page Comments Download Contempt

I’d like to start off by saying that if you’ve seen a blog theme you think would look nice converted to subtext blogging engine then please get in touch by either contacting me,commenting or by posting in the subtext Google group. Skin 8, already? This skin is called Notepad and is another skin created by N.Design. Homepage The social icons at the top are a nice touch and obviously can be extended/reduced as needs fit. Visual elements are in place for the category and comment aspect of the post that adds to the feel of this theme. Comment Listing   Post Comment Footer Contact Form   Note of thanks Would...

Following on in the series sees the theme Lightword by Andrei Luca converted into a subtext skin. Simply clever theme I have to agree with the above statement taken from the quick description given over at wordpress. Homepage view Simple colours make this theme an attractive choice for any blogger or even a company blog.  The RSS icon being a nice touch. Comment Listing/Post category Post Comment/Previous Next Post Contact Form Download Lightword

Better late than never. Yes it’s a day or so behind the promised time frame but here it is Koi by Themify.me. Koi is quite a popular theme throughout the blogosphere so I thought it would be a nice addition to the subtext family. Its artistic feel would make it a perfect choice for a personal blog with lots of room for expansion. Homepage View Comment Listing and Next/Prev control Post Comment Contact Form Footer As you can see from the above screenshot recent...

This post comes a little later than normal as I need to do a backup of everything I have done.  If i some how lost my laptop then it would be alot of hard work down the drain.  I still have different backup accounts all over the place from bt vault to Mozy backup to dropbox.  One day I’ll consolidate it all into one place but right now i like the differentiation of work and play. Anyway, back to Skin 5 for the subtext blogging engine. Skin 5 in my series of Subtext Skin Bonanza 2011 posts is Suffusion...

The 4th skin in the series iStudio from Xu.hel.  The original wordpress theme has a random header image that can be seen over at the wordpress demo site. This could be achieved server side or client side if you wanted to add the functionality. If there is enough call for it I will update the skin to do this at a later date. Home page As you can see i “tinkered” with the image. Sorry……. Comments, Side bar and next/previous post control I think the next/previous control is very nice and the...

The 3rd skin in this series is Brightfolio by Devise Function.   Dark theme with a nice colourful background. Home page View Comments and sidebar nav Footer   Download Brightfolio 

The 2nd skin in this series is Titan by The Theme Foundry.  This skin will take a bit of customisation when first installed but once done the results will be very nice. Home page View Comments and sidebar nav Post comment Footer   Download Titan

First in the series is the Green Park 2 theme from Cordobo.  This theme uses a little jQuery to manipulate the DOM.  This is due to the next/previous control showing an error message as this control is situated in the sidebar.  Also the RSS link is copied so that the subscribe section replicates the syndication link on the top. Should it not find the link the section is not displayed.  Very nice theme, easy to look at and very easy to navigate. Home page View Comments and sidebar nav Next/Previous Control Footer and Post comment   Download Green Park

I was going to do a Merry Christmas post but with all the festivities with family and friends Christmas has come and gone. From Gillian and I we hope you had a fantastic one :) The title says all really. As a part of my contribution to the Subtext Blogging Engine and a new year treat I am going to be posting a new skin/theme for this open source project every 2 – 3 days for about 9 weeks. You will be looking at between 30 and 40 new skins/themes that no doubt will freshen up the core. Along...

As you may have noticed I have updated my website.  The look of it isn’t the only thing that’s changed but I have also upgraded to the latest version of Subtext. The design you see now is only temporary as I am planning on re-vamping my old skin.  If you come across an error while navigating or commenting I would much appreciate you contacting me and letting me know what you were trying to do.

If you follow me on twitter then you will see that over the last couple of weeks I have been playing about with Subtext as a Content Management System. I will be posting more in-depth information about my findings later. The static new/Announcement section is found within the admin area of subtext then options –> configure as seen below: This may look a tad boring like the sidewide tracking code box below it but it’s a treasure waiting to be used. I set myself a challenge and used a friends site to see if subtext could handle the basics of a Content...

Oh my 2 posts in the space of a day what’s going on?  I blogged yesterday entitled “What’s Occurring” and i mentioned about projects being put to the side.  Well unfortunately I didn’t spend as much time as i would of liked to on helping the guys make this release. I’m not going to re-invent the wheel so please be sure to check out both Phil's and Simone’s post about this release: Phil Haack – Subtext 2.5 Released Simone Chiaretta - What’s new in Subtext 2.5: full-text search, related posts and more...

At the end of last month I started working on tweaking my subtext skin so that I can increase my YSlow score.  What did I do? Merged several css files into one sheet Merged JavaScript files into one file Put items 1/2 files onto a CDN Placed site wide images on a CDN Moved the JavaScript calls to the bottom of the page I also merged xfn icons into one image and used a CSS sprite Before...

I know the new skin for my site is overdue but I am waiting for the next release of subtext so I can fine tune my skin to any changes made in the release. During this lapse I have been contributing to the project and I have also been adapting another nice theme that will be finished in the next couple of days. This post is related to a previous post, ongoing maintenance where I talk about my sites YSlow score (33) :(. Using the FireFox plugin httpfox I loaded up my website and was...

First thing if you’re using subtext for your blogging engine then I would like to point you in the direction of Phil Haack’s blog where he has announced an important security issue. Secondly it’s been a while since I posted about the progress of my site re-vamp. Due to work and personal reasons this has taken longer than expected. I’m trying to outline my steps in posts, going from conception to implementation. I’ll be posting them once I have made the skin live in hope to help someone out there. If you have a subtext blog and taken the plunge...

Subtext 2.1 was officially released about 10 days ago. At the beginning of the week I tried to upgrade from 1.9.5 to 2.1 and I ran into a series of problems so reverted back. Tomorrow I am going to update my site to the latest version so I can use all the new features. Links regarding the release: Phil Haack - Subtext 2.1 released Simone Chiaretta - Subtext 2.1 released Also the Illacrimo skin I was working on is now finished on Andy's site.  He's constantly playing around with it but I will be putting...

A while back I had a conversation with Simone about subtext themes.  This conversation was along the lines of “have you seen any themes out on the world wide web that we should convert to subtext?”.  Being organised as I am the email with the outcome of this conversation got buried in amongst the masses, however, after getting organised last week this email emerged again and I am pleased to announce that one of the skins on the list is nearly complete.  As you can see from the title of this post the theme is called Illacrimo and was initially...

Update It's been over 2 weeks since I last posed on my blog and the reasons are simple, holiday and real life.  Holiday to Majorca was fantastic,  unfortunately the weather wasn't that great but with old and new friends much fun was had.  Yes, being British, chucking it down with rain and we're all the in the pool playing volleyball.  I am not sure if it was holiday spirit or the vodka slushes but everyone was having a laugh.  I will be uploading all the holiday pictures to Flickr over the next couple of days.  If you'd like to see...

I wrote about my hunt for a css framework previously. This post is going to be about building my design in html using the YAML css framework before putting it to use in a subtext skin.  I have published a couple of posts related to subtext skins and other features you can quickly implement: 2 subtext skins ready to rock Free Online backup storage - alternatives to BT Digital Vault fSpring skin for subtext Subtext Galleries, using jQuery for funk Sharing the...

Previously in my looking at CSS frameworks post I outlined numerous Yahoo! UI Library: Grids CSS Blueprint YAML ( yet another multicolumn layout ) Logicss Elements ESWAT Typogridphy In order to grasp what each framework has to offer I have come up with a small checklist so that they can be evaluated. Once I have gone through each framework I plan on going through the process of putting together a subtext...

I hadn't realised but on Saturday the 7th of June was my year anniversary of using subtext.  I have written a couple of articles in relation to subtext.  I have also created several themes and submitted a patch.  Subtext hasn't changed much in the year that I have been using it.  Current version is 1.9.5 and 2.0 is currently in the works.  If you'd like to see all posts regarding subtext then checkout my category link. Looking forward to another year of subtext and any enhancement, features it brings.  Hopefully I'll be able to get my hands dirty in the development again...

Yesterday I submitted my first patch to the subtext project.  While I have created a couple of skins for the blogging engine I wanted to contribute more.  Within subtext you have the option to add links to categories.  These are usually used for blog lists which usually link to a friends site, coworker or a contact.  An example of a list from Simone Chiaretta's blog:   What is XFN? Xhtml Friends Network uses an attribute of the a href tag called "rel", examples: <a href="http://www.siphilp.co.uk" rel="me">Si</a> or <a href="http://www.kemponline.co.uk" rel="friend coworker">Andy</a> This patch allows you to assign a relationship to each link. For more information...

A while back I was planning to move all my galleries to flickr instead of using subtexts built in functionality.  Unfortunately I haven't had time to implement a couple of new flickr controls for subtext.  I was thinking about creating a gallery provider but time isn't on my side so it's been canned for now. I have been playing about with the GalleryThumbNailViewer.asc control that can be found in your skin directory that has resulted in the following.  When the images are loading the user is shown a loading message. What is happening in the background is that when the document structure...

Carrying on from my previous posts: 2 subtext skins ready to rock and roll 3 Subtext skins in the works fSpring is now available.  The skin is quite nice. If you click on the above image you'll get a better view. Download fSpring Skin I have enjoyed converting the 3 skins so much that I will be doing another 3.  The plan is to get them all done and do one post about it so keep checking back or subscribe to my feed.

4 hours work over 3 days = 2 skins.  I am fairly confident that the 2 skins, Leia English and CopyBlogger are both ready to be pushed out into the real world.  I am hoping to get another 4, yes 4 skins out over the next 2 weeks that will hopefully result in atleast one of them being shipped as default with subtext. They are both "version 1" which means they are pretty basic. Leia comes with only 1 stylesheet, no javascript files, CopyBlogger I think has 4 style sheets, no javascript.  Andy Kemp is "hacking" the Leia template already...

Yesterday I posted an article about contributing to subtext by creating some more skins. Well this morning I slapped together the 1st one (about 90 mins work).  It's in an early development stage but I think it looks good.  There is only 1 css file (9kb) which means it's a very basic skin. No comment preview, lightbox, xfn, printer friendly or code formatting, however I am sure I will expand on this in the future. There are some little areas that need attention which I will iron out over the week. One are is that the 2 columns on the original has just been made into...

A couple of days ago Simone Chiaretta posted an article in relation to the progress of the next release of subtext. I can't wait for the next release as it will come with quite a few new features.  Anyway, until I get my local copy working I am going to contribute a little by creating and uploading 4 themes.  The first one will be my current theme.  The second one will be a migration of Leia English 1.0 by Kapikua The third one will be a migration of CopyBlogger by Chris Pearson The fourth one will be a migration of...

Previously I posted the following item : Sharing the love - Make it easy for your users. While the concept of this "widget" was fantastic it seemed that on certain browsers javascript errors were being thrown and that it interfered with lightbox. Today a comment from a friend of mine Andy Kemp found an alternative that didn't cause conflicts or errors, www.addthis.com.  I have added the new widget below my posts and have yet to customise it, check it out :) For subtext users it's really the same as before Sign up, enter details, copy generated code, open <your skin directory>\controls\Sharethispost.asxc Select everything in...

Update : http://www.siphilp.co.uk/archive/2008/04/03/sharing-the-love---update.aspx A week ago I wrote a post about using your statistics for post ideas and two things that have emerged since then are the "share this" aspect of my blog and just how bad my comments look.  This post is going to cover the process of making it easier for users to submit my posts to numerous social websites. I am trying not to change alot on my current skin as I am focusing on my subtext skin articles and my new upcoming skin however, I thought this topic was perfect for a quick post as it's...

Time hasn't been on my side lately when it comes to writing posts for my site however, I have had "brainstorming" sessions that resulted in producing nearly 4 pages of possible topics. This has started from thinking about something on the train or at work that has spiraled out.  In the past I have hit brick walls when it comes to writing posts but I think this was due to the narrow verge I was in back then.  Life itself can open water gates making you think about subjects in a totally different way. Today a new water...

I haven't spoke about subtext for a while so I thought I would throw together a quick 10 things you can do with subtext. 

Subtext comes with a handy little gallery feature which I can't fault as it does everything you would expect a gallery component to do however, I was finding it a little frustrating putting albums up all over the place so I decided to take the plunge and write a quick control that looks at my Flickr account.  The title isn't really that accurate as I plan on keeping the subtext gallery control on my pages until I am happy I have transferred, backed up and organised everything. The benefits are obvious, all changes are done centrally, files are stored on...

I have been "tweaking" subtext  so that I could add in more options into my site sections(see top right).  While these are only anchor tags that show the appropriate "block" I thought it would be helpful rather than scrolling down all the time.  I have also added an IP block http module that blocks IP addresses be it an individual address or a range (don't ask).  I have also been playing about with a nice little logo, tell me what you think. I do have a couple of ideas that I would like to implement into subtext but until the next...

It's been a while since I wrote my 1st article about subtext skins and unfortunately I have to start re-writing 2 and 3 as my laptop drive decided to go Pete Tong on me.  Learn from events like this so now I use BT Vault for my main files and anything I buy from iTunes is backed up on another 2 hard drives....  I am off work in a couple of weeks so my plan is to catch up with my subtext skin articles and re-write my current skin :) I have been looking at converting some of the themes out there over...

I received an email from Microsoft the other day about various beta's of which I noticed the Windows Live Writer. This reminded me about seeing a couple of ad hoc posts about it's compatibility with many of the blogging engines out there including subtext so I thought I would take the plunge.

Subtext I have a to-do list that's getting bigger by the day.  I have had several emails asking when Part 2 of "Creating your first subtext skin" will be going live.  It's coming, I promise. Hopefully next week I'll be happy with it and send it to a couple of reviewers before publishing it.  If you want to be one of these reviewers please feel free to contact me.  My websites skin is slowly being updated and I do have a list dedicated to it.  Once this list has been completed I will be putting the files on the subtext skin site for download.  More...

Some interesting posts have appeared in the last couple of days which deserve a read Phil Haack 10 Developers For The Price Of One  Please nominate subtext for a sourceforge community choice award Steve Harman Lightbox and Subtext Galleries Integration Simone Chiaretta Nice little article about how to refresh an update panel from javascript From SitePoint What Ajax Library do you use?  

Welcome to my first article discussing the creation of a skin within the .NET blogging engine subtext. If you have downloaded and installed subtext you will have noticed that it comes with several pre-defined skins. While the pre-defined skins are varied and could easily be used it's sometimes necessary to create your own. The initial template will be styled to work in Fire Fox 2. I will be covering "styling for a specifc" browser in another article.

As you may have noticed the website has been updated.  I took the decision to change the CMS from my own one which was really in beta to subtext.  Subtext brings alot more functionality to the site and new features are planned.  If your looking for an asp.net blogging engine then check out subtext. The theme is still being "tweaked" but it's not to far off so please bear with me. Also please check out http://site.gravatar.com as the comments section works in conjunction with it :) Till Next time stay safe.....