Titan 1.20 Released

By team on October 7, 2009

If upgrading please read and follow the upgrade instructions carefully.

Download Version 1.20: PRO Members head to the member download area. Free users grab your copy from the free download page.

Titan has now been upgraded to our new framework and is ready for translation! We just recently completed this process with Vigilance, our flagship WordPress theme. We didn’t want Titan to feel left out, so she is now sporting a shiny new options page and framework as well.

What’s New?

New theme options page and framework

The theme options page has been completely overhauled and is now sitting on top of a robust framework that allows you to extend the theme options in all kinds of exciting ways. Think of it as a quicker and more powerful theme engine. The look of the options page has been completely refreshed with usability in mind. This is really something you need to see and experience for yourself to appreciate, so jump in there and take a look!

Internationalized

Titan is now ready to be translated into your language! The theme package now includes titan.po and titan.mo files which makes it super simple to translate Titan into your preferred language. As soon as I start receiving completed translations I will setup a dedicated language repository. Please send all your completed translations to themes {at} jestro.com.

Complete list of changes

Here is a complete list of changes for version 1.20:

New Feature: Option to hide the static home link from the navigation menu.
New Feature: New post_class() and body_class() functions allowing for easier CSS customizations.
New Feature: Titan is now internationalized and ready for localization.
New Feature: Brand new theme framework and theme options page.
New Feature: Child themes now inherit all files including images. Include all your customizations in one place and forget about it.
Performance Enhancement: Combined the remove browser default stylesheet with the master to improve loading time.
Performance Enhancement: Removed extra function call from footer to improve performance.
Bugfix: Fixed duplicated <title> and tagline.
Bugfix: Properly aligned footer columns to the grid.

Upgrade Instructions

Titan 1.20 has a ton of new features and enhancements and I am sure you can’t wait to take it for a test drive. Keep in mind, those new features and enhancements changed certain “core” functions of the theme. Therefore, you need to follow specific instructions if you are upgrading from an earlier version of Titan. Below you will find those instructions, please follow them carefully.

Important Note: Titan 1.20 requires WordPress version 2.8 or higher. Do not attempt to upgrade if you do not meet these requirements, the upgrade will fail.

Prep for the upgrade (do not skip this!)

Backup Everything: Backup your database as well as your files before you do anything so you can restore if something goes wrong.
Disable Plugins: Disable all your plugins, especially anything that caches.
Take a snapshot: Take some screenshots or write down (with good old pen and paper) the order of your widgets in Appearance → Widgets and all your theme option settings. Nearly all your theme options will remain intact but it is a good idea to have them all recorded just in case.
Offline time: Take your site offline using .htaccess and a maintenance page unless you don’t mind your visitors seeing a broken site for a few minutes.
Rename your old theme folders: Change the name of your theme and child theme folders by appending them with _OLD (eg. rename titan to titan_OLD and titan_PRO to titan_PRO_OLD.

Install instructions

If you are a PRO member head over to the member download area and grab Titan 1.20 and the new PRO child theme (version 1.20) and upload them both to your /wp-content/themes/ directory. Now go to Appearance → Themes and activate the new child theme (version 1.20). You are now installed and ready to go. Be sure turn off your maintenance page and read the “Wait, stuff is broken” section below.

Install instructions for free users

If you’re not a PRO member head to the free download page and grab Titan 1.20. Upload it to your /wp-content/themes/ directory. If you are using Titan standalone go ahead and activate version 1.20 under Appearance → Themes. If you want to use a child theme go ahead create a new folder with a style.css file that points to Titan.

Wait, stuff is broken

The good news is your upgrade is complete. The bad news is your theme probably doesn’t look like it did before you upgraded. Luckily your problems fall into a few specific categories and we can remedy them quickly and easily.

My widgets are gone!

Indeed they are. Good thing we took that snapshot right? WordPress has also backed them up for you so don’t worry. We had to give the widget sidebars ID’s to properly internationalize the theme. Setting an ID causes WordPress to reset your widgets to “Inactive”. This is easily fixed. If you look under Appearance → Widgets you will see a big box labeled “Inactive Widgets” in the bottom left. Your old widgets have been transplanted here. Simply drag them back into your sidebars according to your snapshot. Now your widgets are back fighting the good fight.

Where are my images?

If you don’t use a child theme and/or upgrade Titan directly from the WordPress admin then you are probably used to seeing your custom images disappear. Titan comes with an exciting new feature that dynamically sets your image folders by looking for a child theme. This is fantastic news. Now all your images can stay “protected” in your child theme folder and you don’t have to worry about them being blown away when you upgrade. If you are using a child theme to power Titan you will need to create a two new folders inside your child theme: titan_pro/images/ and titan_pro/images/sidebar. Now move all your images to the matching child theme folders and you will be up and running.

If you are using a standalone Titan installation then you need to move your images from your titan_OLD/images folder to your new titan/images. To avoid having to perform this step every time you upgrade use the PRO child theme or create your own free child theme.