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New Sandbox Theme

  1. izaakmak
    Member

    I read an announcement about a new version of the Sandbox theme. I know almost nothing about Sandbox, but I want more customization so the CSS upgrade is starting to sound good. I'm using the Inove theme now, which I chose with future CSS in mind.

    I'd like to learn more about the Sandbox concept itself, the advantages this new theme has over the older versions, and how Sandbox compares to Inove for customization. Can anyone point me to some references?

    The blog I need help with is iwanticewater.wordpress.com.

  2. t3ck
    Member

    As far as I know about the sandbox theme is it's a skeleton theme with no styling format which gives greater flexibility when it comes to creating a design with the CSS upgrade.

  3. devblog
    Member

    I don't have it available... yet. I only get Sandbox 1.1 and Sandbox 0.6.1... unless of course they have a typo somewhere there...

  4. aw1923
    Member

    There seems to be extra selectors in the newest one other then that, I don't know how else it's supposed to be different. My blog looked completely messed up when I tried to switch over so I switched back to sandbox 1.1 I'll probably work on switching over tomorrow.

  5. devblog
    Member

    found it! damn, I guess my attention span is not that good today. I'm using it now.

  6. izaakmak
    Member

    dev - It occurs to me that you have different themes the two blog of your I've seen lately. Sandbox on that one and Inove on the other. What are your thoughts on how the two compare as the ease of producing your desired appearance? Perhaps you could do a post on the subject?

  7. devblog
    Member

    To produce my desired appearance, I choose Sandbox over any theme. But that's me.

    Now, I would think that any theme will give you the ease you're looking for because all the styling has been done for you already... to make it more "you", you'd only need to modify a few selectors. Example, change link colors, fonts and little things like that.

  8. izaakmak
    Member

    That sounds like you have to do all of the work with Sandbox, even though you do have things you can change in Sandbox that you can't with CSS and another theme. Am I right?

    Perhaps the more important question is whether using Sandbox without CSS allows me access to a greater variety of preset appearances, beyond the variety offered through the use of WP.com themes alone? That could give me enough choices to both guarantee uniqueness and save the cost of the upgrade. But right now, I only know of your site as a possible source for the skins.

  9. devblog
    Member

    That sounds like you have to do all of the work with Sandbox even though you do have things you can change in Sandbox that you can't with CSS and another theme.

    Correct.

    Regarding the rest, not really. Try activating Sandbox... it's an empty canvas... no styles... nothing. There's only one preset and that's the sidebar to the left and the content to the right... but that's about it.

    Also, google "wordpress sandbox skins" and you'll get more sources that might interest you.

  10. thesacredpath
    Member

    I just switched to 1.6.1 and don't see any problems with my devblog skin.

  11. izaakmak
    Member

    I know that I can preview a Sandbox theme in the usual way, but it doesn't sound like that'd provide a true preview of a Sandbox + Trial Skin combination. As it is, the preview feature is limited in how much of a real "test drive" it can provide.

    I'd hate to spend a lot of time "skinning" and "tweaking" various combinations, only to find that I liked what I had before better. Does anybody provide a less time intensive way to check this out?

  12. devblog
    Member

    That is GREAT to know, TSP. Even though I've been working on a version 2 of the Semmatic skin, it's good to know that the original code works well on 1.6.1 too. Hopefully, it'll be the same case with my other skins. I'll start testing soon.

    Thanks.

  13. thesacredpath
    Member

    @dev, I haven't punished it, but I looked at all pages and such and did not see any problems at all, so I think you're good.

    I'll have to take a look at 2.0 when you get it ready to see what you've done with it.

  14. rvillarete
    Member

    cool! sandbox is a new thing for us here in the philippines.

  15. aw1923
    Member

    I just switched back to 1.6 again and nothing is wrong or different except the "find" button looks weird.
    It must have been a screwup on my part the first time I switched.
    I notice I can change the pagination links now, with "div .page-link" it's weird because last month I couldn't do that in sandbox 1.1 but it could've been done in the sandbox 0.6.1. It'll be fun to figure out what more can be done in sandbox 1.6.

  16. thesacredpath
    Member

    I've found a bug with 1.6. You cannot add the meta widget. When I switched the meta widget disappeared and each time I try to add it back into the sidebar, it looks like it takes but when I visit the blog it isn't there. When I go back to the widgets page, it is not in the sidebar. I tried 10 or 12 times and even let it sit for about a half hour with the widget page in before trying to view the blog, and it will not stick.

  17. devblog
    Member

    Oh, so it is a bug...

    Aw, if you want, download Leaf and you will see all the selectors I'm styling.

  18. aw1923
    Member

    Now I wonder what other bugs there are, wonder whats special about the meta widget cause no other widgets from my understanding dont show up. I fixed that "find" button thing, now I have to use, "input.button".
    Thanks devblog and I like how neat your CSS stylesheet is, it's refreshing to me lol, mine looks like a mess!

  19. devblog
    Member

    Thanks, Aw.

    TSP, have they replied to your email? Just being curious.

    In the mean time, I'll create me own "Meta" in a text widget.

  20. thesacredpath
    Member

    Nope, haven't heard a word from them yet and I just checked and it has not been fixed either.

    I'll make myself a meta widget as well till they get it fixed.

  21. devblog
    Member

    Alright.

    Here's the code I used for mine in case anyone is interested:

    <ul>
<li><a href="/wp-admin/">Admin</a></li>
<li><a href="/feed/">Entries RSS</a></li>
<li><a href="/comments/feed/">Comments RSS</a></li>
</ul>

  22. thesacredpath
    Member

    Thanks for the code.

  23. devblog
    Member

    You're welcome.

  24. thesacredpath
    Member

    I heard back from Nick at WP and the meta widget now works in the new sandbox theme.

  25. aw1923
    Member

    Yeah but now on the pages comments don't show. I contacted wordpress this morning, I'll probably have to revert to the old sandbox theme if I don't get any feedback on this tomorrow.

  26. thesacredpath
    Member

    Hmmm, comments are showing fine on mine.

  27. thesacredpath
    Member

    I see comments, did you already switch back?

  28. aw1923
    Member

    what browser are you using? I cant see them in IE8 or FF3.5.2
    and I applied the new sandbox theme to other blog and I can't see them either. I'm not talking about on individual post pages, I was referring to the pages that show up on the navigation bar.

  29. thesacredpath
    Member

    Safari 4.0.3 and FF 3.5.2 on Mac. I looked at the Barney Frank post.

  30. aw1923
    Member

    oh, I meant on pages like this http://sensico.wordpress.com/top-5/
    not the post pages

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