brucewrks
commented
9 years ago I've started working on this, starting with the Sharebar.
Open brucewrks opened 9 years ago
brucewrks
commented
9 years ago I've started working on this, starting with the Sharebar.
jaswrks
commented
9 years ago Make it your own, that's what it needs is some TLC and for somebody to build from the base that we have now. Your approach so far in the issues that I've seen is spot-on.
One suggestion, but don't let this distract you from continuing with your plans. I'm just commenting to offer suggestions, but you are the lead — and whatever you decide I'll back you up on 100% in any way that I can. s2Clean is yours now, and that's why I'm thrilled to see you taking control of it.
The product has been tested for around a year or so now, so any changes that you introduce need to be tested by all of us again, and/or go through a round of beta testing, etc. Even what can seem like small changes may introduce bugs inadvertently, as we have seen over the years ourselves.
From a "release date" perspective, I'd suggest a new branch for some changes, and work to implement what you might term "enhancements" after anything of immediate concern is taken care of; e.g. bugs, first-impression issues. In other words, after you finish your first couple rounds of a review overall, also try to identify what absolutely must be done right now to get a release out in your opinion. That would be a first milestone perhaps.
Having said that, if it is your desire to put-off a release until you feel like some of your other ideas have fallen into place, then I'd say go with that. It appears from your "First Release" milestone that this is case, and that's perfectly OK too. Just keep in mind that it will have an impact on the larger $ picture, if a release comes later rather than sooner.
cc @raamdev
jaswrks
commented
9 years ago I felt like this theme was ready for release over 6 months ago, and that was after the initial creation, several months of debugging, testing, tuning, and having used it for live sites myself.
The only reason I didn't release it back then, is that I didn't have enough time to devote to support for the product once it went on the open market. So I've been sitting on s2Clean for all this time. I realized that on my own, I couldn't work to improve it, shoot bugs down, and also do a demo site, answer support tickets, and create documentation — all by myself. All while dealing with other things on my plate too. It was too much to deal with. Now we have an opportunity to team-up a little, and you have more time available to devote to s2Clean than I did, so the situation has changed.
Since then (back six months or so ago), I have identified a few shortcomings, and it's become clear to me that there are some things that could use restructuring in terms of the codebase itself. The more time that goes by, the more I start to see problems that it has, and ways to improve it.
Had I released it back then, I'm certain that my list of shortcomings, feature requests, and bug reports would be much larger than it is right now even; but I'd also be a lot better-off, since the existing customers would afford me the ability to continue devoting time to improving s2Clean.
As it has existed so far, it's of no use to anyone other than us.
I'm explaining that to help give you some perspective. If instead of doing a release as quickly as possible; i.e. identifying what absolutely must be done for others to begin using this product; you decide to step back and make some improvements, changes, and reorganize things a little... when that's done you will have a new perspective, a few new bugs, and a new decision to make about whether it should be released yet or not. The more time you give it, the more problems you're going to discover.
The point being, there is always going to be work that can be done to improve things. You change this, that and another thing; and a few weeks later you realize that there's a few things that could be improved again. That's how a product evolves; over time.
Deciding when the product is useable, and in a state that makes it marketable is key. From there, you can devote time and energy to support and improvements. Without customers and feedback, it's all much more difficult, and it really becomes an issue of uncertainty; i.e. any changes that you make are not impacting anyone really, only your own personal opinion of the product. And, of course, you get nothing in return for all of your hard work during this time either. This is how projects go stale.
Another thing that might help is simply a public beta release. IMO, a public beta release of s2Clean is already long overdue, at the very least. I'd even say that a public stable release should be on the table right away also, but all of that is your call of course. Just trying to offer some guidance. You're probably still going over your own thoughts on this.
jaswrks
commented
9 years ago Ever heard the expression, "nobody told him he couldn't do it"?
s2Member customers are a great example of this. Some of the most successful people online are folks w/o the level of expertise and experience that you have right now. They buy s2Member and within two weeks they are ready-to-go; screaming, "show me the money!".
Is their product perfect after two weeks? Does their site have bugs? Still needs attention to detail? Will there be problems when they launch? ~ Oh hell yes. But hey, that's how this all works.
Anyway, that's a great example of what I'm talking about. Launch it, go for it! Pretend you don't see the larger picture for a moment, and success will actually be yours :-) Sometimes that's what it takes. A couple of drinks never hurts either. It numbs the perfectionist inside you, allowing you to actually be rewarded for your efforts, because for the slightest of moments, you don't give a shit. And that can help sometimes! This was never that hard, but sometimes we (as developers) make it hard.
jaswrks
commented
9 years ago Menus that could be moved / mirrored:
Yeah, if you decide to add support for the default theme customizer in WP, then I'd mirror them. When I buy a premium theme, I don't even look at this panel at all. I go straight to what I expect to find. A full theme customization panel that goes beyond what I might expect to find in a theme at WordPress.org.
jaswrks
commented
9 years ago For example the s2Clean -> Theme Options -> Navbar section should be completely moved to the Appearance -> Customize menu.
I agree, just in case somebody expects/wants control over things from this area. Or, you could add a note there with a link which leads to the larger set of more advanced controls. Either way seems good to me. I'm just trying to think of how you can put some things in one place, and some things in another; without fragmenting the customizable components provided by the theme.
Is the default WP theme customizer capable of being expanded out to cover more advanced customization? I ask, because I haven't worked much with this in the past. Most of the themes that I use are premium, and almost always the default theme customizer is just a few basics, with most of the power being put into a much more complex theme customization area, provided by the theme itself.
I'd be disappointed if I bought a premium theme and it didn't come with a more complex theme customization area, put together by the theme developer themselves. This panel is in fact a key selling-point for many site owners; i.e. the theme customization panel. When it comes time to do product promo images, this where s2Clean needs to shine. You should be able to take screenshots that really wow site owners into seeing how much control they're going to have!
From that standpoint, color pickers, built-in editors of some sort (I think s2Clean is already integrated with CodeMirror like CM is), or any other UI enhancements would be part of enhancing value in open market. Maybe that's what you have in mind with the WP theme customizer already. If so, then mirroring some things there seems great. Can't wait to check it out!
Currently
In it's current state, the theme has a great selection of developer-geared information and options in the
s2Clean -> Theme Optionssubmenu. However, almost no actual style-changing options are available, save for the Bootstrap Theme input.The perfect place for these options is the
Appearance -> Customizemenu.These options are customizable, as specified in the WordPress Docs.
Initially, the theme needs options for:
Some of these options will just be ported from the current
s2Clean -> Theme Optionssubmenu into this section of the Dashboard. For example thes2Clean -> Theme Options -> Navbarsection should be completely moved to theAppearance -> Customizemenu.Menus that could be moved / mirrored: