ThemeDreamer

Version 1.0.1

admin — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 22:28:04 +0000

An update to ThemeDreamer has been released and is available in the download section of the site. This version corrects for installation and compatibility issues with Apple’s latest Snow Leopard update 10.6.2 and above.

ThemeDreamer for WordPress 1.0 Released!

admin — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 05:01:15 +0000

Now for 2010, we’ve released a brand new version of ThemeDreamer. You may have noticed that all users now qualify for free updates for a year with every purchase of a ThemeDreamer serial number. We’ve bumped the version number to a nice and even 1.0 to level the playing field. More then just a version number, ThemeDreamer 1.0 now comes with a wealth of new features. Included in this new release is dynamic theme activation and preview when using ThemeServer for WordPress. Designers can work on multiple themes in Dreamweaver’s documents window and have ThemeServer dynamically activate their current theme for instant preview in one of their pre-configured web browsers, right from the toolbar.

We’ve also introduced a new Font Wizard along with 50 royalty free fonts included. These fonts are cross platform, cross browser web fonts and are released under the Open Font License. These fonts have been tested in everything from Google’s Chrome to Safari on iPhone and render beautifully. We’ve also updated our Basic Foundation Themes (http://www.themedreamer.com/bft) and enabled anti-aliasing fixes for IE7/IE8 so that your new fonts will look fantastic. Since these fonts are real cross browser compatible fonts, they are highly visible to search engines, are selectable and text-to-speech assistive compatible. Beauty and functionality in one! Check out the new user’s guide in 1.0. You can download version 1.0 right now at one of our mirrors:

ThemeDreamer for WordPress 1.0 – Select a Mirror
http://www.themedreamer.com/ThemeDreamerWP-101.zip
http://www.virtuosoft.net/ThemeDreamerWP-101.zip

ThemeServer for WordPress 1.0 – Select a Mirror
http://www.themedreamer.com/ThemeServerWP-100.zip
http://www.themedreamer.com/ThemeServerWP-100.zip
http://www.virtuosoft.net/ThemeServerWP-100.zip

Be sure to download them both (ThereDreamer AND ThemeServer) and then get our updated Basic Foundation Themes…
http://www.themedreamer.com/bft

We’ll be updating all our links system wide shortly!

Introducing ThemeServer for WordPress (a small desktop WP server)

admin — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 08:28:14 +0000

Although real-time feedback of most WordPress CSS rules can be achieved via Dreamweaver’s Design View mode when using ThemeDreamer, often times it is necessary to validate on a real web browser. This is especially true if you want to target multiple clients (i.e. browsers such as Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, etc.). Typical testing for compatibility involves uploading theme files to a web server either on a live hosting provider, a ‘testing’ server on another machine, or a local LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) compatible service running in parallel on your computer. Working on multiple themes would make the feasibility of accomplishing this task further cumbersome as one would need to login and out of their web services and/or WordPress to update files and activate and deactivate themes. Thankfully, much of this complexity has been reduced by using the 100% open source ThemeServer extension for Dreamweaver.

ThemeServer is a combination of multiple open source projects which includes the latest WordPress version 2.9.1 pre-configured with an open source web server, PHP interpreter and MySQL database. The entire service is wrapped up into a single, cross platform extension for Adobe Dreamweaver. Whether you are running on Mac or Windows, simply download and install the extension and voila! -You get a fast, open source, Java powered PHP interpreter, web server and MySQL engine with the latest version of WordPress. All services (web server, database, and PHP interpreter) automatically start and stop when Dreamweaver is opened or closed on the user’s desktop. Optionally, the user can shutdown ThemeServer services without un-installation via a convenient ‘Enable ThemeServer for WordPress’ menu item from Dreamweaver’s Commands pull down menu.

ThemeServer is the perfect optional compliment to ThemeDreamer. With both ThemeDreamer and ThemeServer installed, designers can work faster on multiple theme projects without having to switch and reactivate themes or shuffle server configurations. Developers can instantly test posts, pages, widgets, and content scenarios on multiple themes easily. The ‘dynamic theme switching/activation’ feature is only available when using ThemeServer with ThemeDreamer together.

Requirements and installation instructions

Windows users should have a current Java run-time (built in on Mac) available at http://www.java.com.
Download and unpack T h e m e Server W P -1 0 0 .z i p archive. Locate the ThemeServerWP-100.mxp and either double click it, or use Adobe Extension Manager to install it.
Launch Dreamweaver and select the pull down menu ‘Commands->Enable ThemeServer for WordPress’.

Visit http://localhost:8080 to view your web server or use the ‘Preview’ icon on the document toolbar. ThemeServer will automatically start and stop when you open and close Dreamweaver when the ‘Enable ThemeServer for WordPress’ menu item is left checked. Please note that ThemeServer will take a moment to unpack and configure on initial use. ThemeServer is an excellent alternative to more complicated Apache, MySQL, PHP installations such as MAMP, WAMP or LAMP stacks. ThemeServer’s web service and database runs on ports 8080 and 8083 and should not interfere with any service running on alternate ports. ThemeServer does not currently support the GD library (pending) which is needed for image resizing on posts. Not all WordPress plug-ins may be compatible. As such, ThemeServer is only intended for quick and easy local WordPress template development and not as a public, high volume web server. ThemeServer uses a high performance, open source web server by Caucho Technologies, Inc. (ThemeDreamer, ThemeServer and Virtuosoft is neither affiliated nor endorsed by Caucho Technologies, Inc.). ThemeServer is released under the GPL open source license.

Although real-time feedback of most CSS rules can be achieved via Dreamweaver’s Design View mode, often times it is necessary to validate on a real web browser. This is especially true if you want target multiple clients (i.e. browsers such as Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, etc.). Typical testing for compatibility involves uploading theme files to a web server either on a live hosting provider, a ‘testing’ server on another machine, or a local LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) compatible service running in parallel on your computer. Working on multiple themes would make the feasibility of accomplishing this task further cumbersome as one would need to login and out of their web services and/or WordPress to update files and activate and deactivate themes. Thankfully, much of this complexity has been reduced by using the 100% open source ThemeServer product.

ThemeServer is a combination of multiple open source projects which includes the latest WordPress version 2.9.1 pre-configured with an open source web server, PHP interpreter and MySQL database. The database is preloaded with WordPress tables and the administrator user ‘admin’ with the password ‘password’. The entire service is wrapped up into a Dreamweaver Extension. All services (web server, database, and PHP interpreter) automatically start and stop when Dreamweaver is opened or closed on the user’s desktop. Optionally, the user can shutdown ThemeServer services without un-installation via a convenient ‘Enable ThemeServer for WordPress’ menu item from Dreamweaver’s Commands pull down menu.

A Happy New Year Gift

admin — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 13:41:25 +0000

We want to thank all of our devoted users in this new year by extending every licensed user of versions 0.1 through 1.0 to one year of free updates!

New purchases should notice that we have done away with the old ‘license block’ schema that penalizes on the eve of a major version number releases. All new purchases of ThemeDreamer include one year of free updates.

Early licensed adopters that have purchased before January 10, 2010 will now automatically inherit free upgrade coverage and support beyond their original terms until 2011.

Hotfix version 0.6.2 Released

admin — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 02:01:38 +0000

An update has just been released to fix compatibility with WebAssist and other third party Dreamweaver extensions. Users of WebAssist extensions such as ‘PayPal’, ‘Surveyor’, ‘DataAssist’ and other third party extensions should update to version 0.6.2 to resolve previously known compatibility issues.

Hotfix version 0.6.1 Released

admin — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 21:36:16 +0000

An update has just been released to fix a conflict with Dreamweaver’s Database-Library. We recommend all users upgrade to version 0.6.1 to resolve this issue.

New Features and Enhanced Rendering, version .6 released.

admin — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:10:12 +0000

We’ve just released version .6 now with a new Content Simulation Panel for testing different post scenarios. The download is now a zip archive that includes a work in progress User Guide. Check back for more details soon, or download the latest with the User Guide to get the inside scoop!

While you’re at it, you’ll want to download our new Basic Foundation Themes, a set of six themes ready to help you streamline your theme development process. Download it here today!

Basic Foundation Themes

admin — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:48:21 +0000

Basic Foundation Themes for WordPress

Check out our new Basic Foundation Themes and get a head start on streamlining your custom theme development process. You’ll find an entire section dedicated on how to get started with Basic Foundation Themes inside the current ThemeDreamer User Guide.

What is Included?
The Basic Foundation Themes package includes the following:

Six ‘blank’ WordPress themes using the latest WordPress Template Tag API, Twin Helix stylesheet and Javascript modules to patch IE6 support for PNG. Whatever:hover stylesheet and Javascript modules to patch IE6 CSS. Each of the five multiple column themes are sidebar widget ready. Validated for XHTML 1.0 Transitional & Validated for CSS 2.1 Specification. A well documented style.css file. Support for threaded comments. And of course, the latest support for ThemeDreamer compatibility.

Inspector

admin — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:06:50 +0000

Please click here for our current user guide.

Content Simulation Panel

admin — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:04:46 +0000

Please click here for our current user guide.