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Last week, Gawker Media launch a full-blown re-design to all their blogs including Lifehacker and Gizmodo. Rather than going for a traditional post-above-post blog layout, their designers tried to reinvent the wheel. Although the new layout has received plenty of criticism from readers, I actually found the revamp quite refreshing. A handful of bugs, some compatibility issues, and slow speeds are partially to blame, but I’m sure developers are working to make improvements quickly as possible.
I was a little bored and had some free time on my hand this weekend, so I decided to code an equivalent theme for WordPress users. Within about six hours and a few breaks, I had a nearly perfect replica without having to look at a line of their code. Like the original, my template features a two-pane interface with a full article on the left and a list of scrollable recent posts on the right. With a little jQuery magic, I managed to even get all the instant loading features working without having to force users to refresh pages. I also threw in support for comments and search.
Although I scrapped most of the code together rather quickly, I managed to get it working with the latest versions of Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, and Safari. Be warned about bugs since this is only my second venture into building a website aside from designing Skatter Tech 3.0 late last year. I released this WordPress template, which I appropriately named Qawker, into the official theme directory. My code is entirely open source, so feel free to make changes or improvements.
Links: Qawker Demo
Download: qawker.zip (v0.1.6)
Notice: I submitted Qawker to the official WordPress Themes Directory and it is awaiting approval.
Does the theme bring back content that has been updated to the top of the list? I feel like its automatically re-publishing content and updating the posting date? A post that I did 3 days ago re-surfaced to the top of my posts list and it wasn’t the most recent. Im confused about what’s going on? http://www.stayentertained.com
I’m not doing anything special. The homepage is a standard index.php WordPress template. It simply lists the most recent posts in chronological order. If you are noticing some odd behavior, it could be related to a plugin you are using. I would suggest disabling them and testing each one individually until you track down the culprit.
which font did you use for the qawker headline? i like it. great theme overall
I believe I’m using using either Myriad Pro or Arial for the logo. In Photoshop I believe I used a bit of Bevel and Emboss with a few pixels of Stroke to modify the font. If I had saved the PSD file I would have happily handed it over, but I just exported the PNG and closed Photoshop in the rush.
Could someone explain to me a little more clearly how to install the theme?
When I go to my appearance section, I can’t find this “install themes tab at the top”.
And I’m not sure where the directory I would unzip the download to is, if i wanted to to a manual install.
First time WordPress user, please help!
Is there something that I have to purchase to get the install theme tab to appear?
Hey Kevin, you don’t have to purchase anything, Sahas Katta has made the theme open source!
If you still need help installing it, this should help: http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Themes
Just scroll down to where it says Adding New themes.
Kevin, If you are using WordPress.com, you can not install this theme (yet).
This is intended for WordPress.org, which you install on your own server!
Tell me how to customize the theme. Images are not displayed.
I’d like to add widget to sidebar (I mean, add another place for widget, instead only in Bottom Sidebar (footer)). What should I do?
I’m probably going to move widgets to the sidebar and make it another “tab” to complement the Home and Search icons at the top. What do you guys think?
That sounds like a great idea to me.
I’d be in favor of having multiple widget areas, if you’re making changes. Actually widgetizing the whole sidebar section and turning the current dynamic sidebar into one of the widgets there would be nice. I don’t think I’d want to give up the widget area below the content, however. I don’t currently use it on my implementation, but I’m looking for ways to do so. It’s be nice if it was labeled better in the code though.
It looks like you’ve suddenly gotten in the theme support business… which is a hard place to be!
That’s a great idea. I’ll try to offer multiple widget locations for both the sidebar and footer. And you are correct, I should have commented my code better. This is what happens when you code in a few hours and push out a release.
And I don’t have any plans to either enter the theme selling or theme support business. There are way too many people that are more qualified than I am. I’m just trying to help those who reach out the best I can!
Sounds great to me.
how do i design logo for my site, like the thing to overlay it with content?
Mr. Katta,
I recently came across the BuddyPress social network plugin and was wondering how well that would cooperate with the wonderful theme you created. I was reading on how a person can use their current theme and apply it for BuddyPress.
It’d be nice, for my particular needs, to create another link up top in the sideheader, that would link to buddypress social network, which would display in the theme.
Not sure how feasible that would be, so I’m coming to the best person possible for it. :)
i added your theme as default to my site, but this doesnt work with digg digg plugin any help ?
Hi Sahas,
Thanks for the awesome theme. I am having an issue with the homepage, it does not display any of the post text below the images. Do i need to place some text in the “excerpt” area for it to show up? Right now you actually have to click on the post to read any of the information in the post. Also, if you found the “qawker headline” psd for Sebastian I would also love a copy.
Thanks,
Lloyd
Hi Sahas,
Thanks for the awesome theme. Never mind I fixed it by replacing:
with:
But I am still interested, if you found the “qawker headline” psd.
Thanks,
Lloyd
Sorry I meant to say —
Thanks for the awesome theme. Never mind I fixed it by replacing:
in the index.phpwith:
But I am still interested, if you found the “qawker headline” psd.
Thanks,
Lloyd
Just wanted to see if it is me or a browser issue:
1. “Load More Stories” not showing in Chrome (ver: 9.0.597.98)
2. Body text not showing when a post is selected from the sidebar in Firefox (ver: 3.6.13)
Thanks,
Peter
Sorry I figured out what was wrong:
1. “Load More Stories” only show when you are not logged in as admin
2. Body text was not show because of a plugin called, WP-PageNavi. Once disabled it worked fine.
any luck on the adsense issue?
well, I have implemented this as my site ( trendr.in )’s,default theme and its rocking. the no of comments and onsite we used to get are now 2x.. thankyou dude
That’s impressive, glad it’s working well! Great website too! Just did a quick browse!
thanx dude, will be looking forward for improvements on qawker
I know I’ve been bugging you lately but did you fix the adsense thing yet? or any ways around it? thanks.
anything?
Quick update to everyone. The theme had some minor issues so the folks at WordPress didn’t approve it just yet.
Here’s the public listing regarding the submission.
http://themes.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/2978#comment:2
I’m going to resubmit a much more polished version and patch many bugs hopefully within the next few days. It’s clear that I rushed through this rather quickly. I’m fairly confident that they will approve it once I make the necessary changes.
but how about adsense? I’m like not generating any revenue right now :(
so will i be seeing google adsense support? please say yes :)
Great job on the theme.
I got videos to work as a supplement to the featured image.
http://everythingandlore.com/?p=50
If anyone is interested, let me know.
Hey Al, if you do not mind, can you share the code? I can add it to the source and credit you in the change log.
Any update on this? If anyone with the fix is reading this, I’d appreciate the code sent to dgalloway@gmail.com. I promise to use it for good. :)
i’m interested. email me: usmcpaypal@yahoo.com
I have submitted the changes to to Mr. Katta, hopefully we will see them integrated into an upcoming update.
@Al Gilman: Im also interested. Could you please send me the code to my mail id? thanks in advance. :)
mail2rajja-at-gmail.com
@Sahas Katta: very good work.. Thanks for your time and worfk.. :)
I’ll definitely try to include Al’s code in an upcoming release to support featured videos. However, my first priority is to get Qawker into the WP Theme directory so it is easy to push out updates for bug fixes and new features easily.
Another quick update, I managed to submit a newer v0.2.0 to the WordPress Theme Repository. It is awaiting approval. I will not update the link in this article just yet, but early adopters can grab the new version here: http://themes.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/3152
If this goes through, all existing Qawker users can upgrade from the WP Dashboard with a single click!
checked it out. this would be sweeter if it would allow adsense!
Calm down dude! :-)
My code is not blocking Adsense. Google’s technology prevents it from loading when fetched through ajax. It’s on my to-do list and I’ll try to find a workaround. On that note, I can’t make any promises. I’m having the same issue over here on Skatter Tech as well.
use adman
still no luck man :(
Check my site: dgrevs.co.cc
click on the title of the first post. scroll down. It has ads.
click on a link in the sidebar. scroll down. no ads.
I’m looking for a workaround, but i haven’t found anything yet.
some bug or something, http://trendr.in/girl-o-logy/ when i stay at the page for 2 min, it automatically zooms.. something wrong
It looks like you changed some code. It could also be a plugin causing a conflict. Try disabling and enabling one by one.
also install the newer version found here: http://themes.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/3152
Did not even touch any code. I had the newer version and it showed me same problem so i reverted to the old one but the problem is still there ! Any suggestion what to do ?
well, got to know that it was due to shareaholic plugin, not the theme..
How about like making the articles on the right sidebar go to the permalink instead of AJAX reloading? sure it might not have a cool fade effect, but I’d much prefer revenue over extremely perfect looks :D.
If you can’t do that, where can I learn to edit the code because I’m a beginner, I know HTML code, CSS, but I know nothing on PHP and AJAX. Or even better, make the code especially for me :D :D :D
And I’m very sorry I’ve been bugging you lately.
Hey Mr Katta,
Looks like the theme has spread like wildfire, congrats! Is there any updates on the new additions you are planning (widgits to the sidebar, etc). Eagerly looking forward to it!
Hey, I would like to show more than 3 HomePreviews, I’ve changed the code of index.php to 6,9, etc. But sometimes, I have a problem when the first title of a story is largest than the other 2. It’s settled wrong. (I hope you understand what I say, I don’t speak english).
I’m just learning to code, so I don’t know how to make it right.
Another quick update on Qawker. Bad News: It didn’t get approved again. Good News: The folks at WordPress provided a detailed list of necessary changes to get it approved. Here’s the official trac document – http://themes.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/3152
Some of the upcoming changes will include:
* Improved navigation fallback mode
* Improved date and time stamps
* Fixed CSS classes for body and articles
* Re-styled custom footer menus
* Fixed gallery rendering
* Support for posts without titles
* Fully widgetized sidebar column
Awesome to hear! I really appreciate that you’ve taken the time to do this. I hope your site gets a lot of publicity from all of us who use the theme.
tried this theme but it need a lot of work as not all your posts show on the right and side, I have a lot of posts however this theme only gives me access to nine
I’m at CTIA Wireless 2011, so I don’t have the code to look at. But I do believe you can adjust the number of items that appear in the sidebar very easily. Just go WP Admin Settings and adjust the count on the Reading section.
sorry but it doesnt seem like properly. when we click a news from sidebar it doesnt bring the news’ url to adress bar and it causes some plug-in problems like addthis.. do u have any suggestions??
Love the work put into this. After a few minor tweaks to get it to behave properly, the whole thing works like a charm. Excellent work!
@Matt do you mind posting your site here so I can take a look, I’ve been working on it to get it to function more like lifehacker’s site. I just wanted to see what changes that you’ve made to it.
Itrevino.com
PLZ HELP…..
Suppose we read the end of the article and to the comments and then click on a post in the sidebar….. the scroller doesn’t reset to the top of the new article …its stays at the current position…. so if and user is way down he doesn’t see that a new post is loaded…..
Please this is urgent I want to know how to fix it….
This perfect them but will be add scripts for click homeTab or quickLoad then page run go to Top. and Load more Stories don’t show un Firefox 4.