One of the most popular requests we’ve received from our customers has been, “Can you please improve the theme update process?”
We agree, it’s not been easy (especially for non-technical folks) to upgrade your theme. Not only is it a hassle for our customers, it uses unnecessary support resources which could instead be applied towards other customer needs. So how can we improve this experience?
Since the recent additions to our development team over the summer, we started brainstorming on how best to tackle this. The objective was to provide a simple way for anyone to upgrade our themes. After many discussions, working prototypes, and days of trial and error, our theme scientists emerged from their lab with the solution.
Issue. Tracking. Made. Easy. It’s that simple with Quality Control, our newest application theme – a full-blown ticketing system built by developers, for developers.
It’s flexible framework allows coders to easily build plugins and child themes. It also runs on WordPress Multisite so you can setup endless projects – each with it’s own set of user permissions. And best of all, it’s integrated with GitHub and Beanstalk for seamless ticket control.
The development of this theme was headed up by Cristi (aka scribu) and is his first major contribution to AppThemes since he joined us a few months back. As we mentioned previously, he’s a WordPress core contributor so you’ll notice the extensive use of the WordPress API and the beautiful craftsmanship of the code.
That’s right me lads and lasses. AppThemes is having a one day sale to celebrate International Talk Like a Pirate Day. For one day only, we be using our trusty rapiers to slash 30% off any purchase at AppThemes.
Is it ClassiPress ye be wanting? Get it now for 30% off.
Be JobRoller or Clipper more to ye liking? 30% off.
Or raid our treasure chest for the bountiful AppThemes Club packages. These too be 30% off.
I know ye may be thinking, “Well chum me waters, how do I get me seafaring hands on such a mind-boggling deal?!?!” Fear not me hearties. Ye need not travel to Davey Jones’ locker. A partin’ with doubloons shan’t ye do. Just enter the secret code of yarrrrrr when purchasing yer sundries and the 30% discount shall belong to thee.
But go handsomely now! Me offer only lasts from the time it take the moon to return above the pirate coast (Monday, September 19 12:00AM to 11:59PM – all times PDT, UTC-7:00).
So shiver me timbers sea dogs. Raise the good ol’ Jolly Roger and seize yer loot. An’ please be so kind to scrawl yer own chantey in our comments area, Cap’n. We would be much obliged.
Yo-ho yo-ho, an AppThemes deal for thee!
Discount: 30% off Coupon code: yarrrrrr Expires: September 19 11:59PM UTC-7:00 (Pacific Daylight Time)
Developers are the life-blood of any tech company. It’s no secret that developers make what we do possible. They create great things, fix bugs and make magic happen. They are our modern day wizards and the grand architects of the new technology age.
At AppThemes, we believe that having a team of great developers is essential to accomplishing our goal. As one of the few theme shops dedicated to making only application themes for WordPress, we will keep surging ahead and continue to be the leader of our market. We want to provide the most robust and useful application themes for our customers.
WordCamp San Francisco is just TWO DAYS AWAY! The biggest WordPress event of the year is almost here and were stoked. So stoked that we’re ready to celebrate in more ways than one.
David Cowgill Speaks at WordCamp
First, we’re excited to announce that our very own David Cowgill will be part of a panel at WordCamp San Francisco. The panel includes Drew Strojny of Theme Foundry and Brian Gardner of StudioPress. Now that’s some impressive company. Lance Willett, WordPress theme developer at Automattic, will be the master of this three-ring circus. I’m sure he has his work cut for him. More details here: Making Money and Having Fun Selling Themes.
What can you say about San Diego – it’s almost perfect. The weather is the same year round, it’s sunny every day and it’s surrounded by water, beaches and palm trees. If that’s not enough reason to make a trip down there, attending and sponsoring the very first WordCamp San Diego is good enough for us. So Dave Cowgill and I packed our bags and headed down.
WordCamp San Diego is bound to become one of the better WordCamps around. Dre Armeda and Chris Daley put on a great show. Throughout the weekend, it was obvious that these two and their staff of volunteers poured a ton of effort and loads of passion into making it fun and memorable.
The excitement started on Friday night with the speakers and sponsors dinner atop the Ramada Gaslamp in downtown San Diego and continued on through Saturday night, wrapped up by an after-party at Downtown Johnny Brown’s. There was good food, good drinks, informative speakers and even an appearance by Matt Mullenweg himself. Luckily Dave took some time to capture it all on video.
Again, a big thanks to all the organizers at WordCamp San Diego. If you have not attended a WordCamp yet, we highly recommend that you go to the next one near you – or hey, start one yourself. Next up: WordCamp San Francisco. If you plan on being there, drop us a line in the comments. We want to see how many AppThemes customers we can meet at WCSF. See you there.
With the release of ClassiPress 3.1 now behind us, we have dug back into Vantage to see where we are and what still needs to be done.
Dave, Pete and myself spent all of yesterday reviewing where things stand with Vantage and tried to gauge how long it will take to complete. At this time, though, we just do not have a reliable timetable for its release.
While I write that, it feels like I can hear a thousand groans reverberate across the land. We definitely know how much everyone wants to see Vantage in the marketplace. Trust me, we want to make it available to you just as much as you want it – really.
Why is It Taking So Long?
When I joined AppThemes back in March, development on Vantage had slowed to a crawl. There were just not enough resources to work on Vantage, complete ClassiPress 3.1, address support issues and take care of all the other issues that come with managing a business.
Dave and I sat down and spent a lot of time discussing and reshuffling our priorities. At that time, I strongly suggested that all resources be applied to finishing
Each month we (along with Exygy and Automattic) organize the San Francisco WordPress Meetup which is a local gathering to discuss all things WordPress. It’s conveniently held just a few blocks away from our office at Pier 38 and topics typically vary from “What’s your favorite plugin”, “WordPress in the cloud”, “Speed geeking”, to name a few.
This past Meetup’s topic was, “What’s your favorite WordPress theme” and we had six different presenters showing off their stuff. As usual, we had a great time but what was really special was that some of our customers stopped by to chat. On top of that, our friends from Page.ly attended and they put together a video of the Meetup highlights which includes some footage from the AppThemes team.
We have a lot of news-worthy things going on here at AppThemes. We decided that we would put it all in one big news post. So here we go:
ClassiPress 3.1: We’re Almost There
Is it a miracle? You might think so. The release of CP3.1 is just a couple of days away. We had a very good round of testing and the developers are taking care of the last of any lingering issues. We expect that a full release candidate will be ready very soon.
We made an extra effort to review internally before releasing CP3.1 to beta testing, so we think we will have a very solid update. However, there always seems to be one or two things that are uncovered after a release as big as this. We are planning to follow up with a minor release in about four to five weeks.
Moving forward, we are going to make an effort to update ClassiPress once every six months. As soon as we complete this update, we will be making plans for the next release.
We would like to extend a big “Thank you!” to everyone that helped us test ClassiPress 3.1. Your assistance is greatly appreciated.
It’s official! We’re about to launch the beta testing program for ClassiPress v3.1 and we need your help!
We have a limited number of spaces available, so a selection process will take place in order for us to gather the most suitable team of testers for this release.
Since it is important for us to ensure that the beta testers have the relevant amount of experience using ClassiPress, testing spots will be limited to existing AppThemes customers already using this theme.
Being a beta tester actually requires a lot of work on your part, so before signing up, please make sure you are ready for the commitment. You will need to dedicate several hours of your time (over a two-week period) to help flush out any bugs before 3.1 is ready for a GA release.
That’s right me lads and lasses. AppThemes is having a one day sale to celebrate 
Developers are the life-blood of any tech company. It’s no secret that developers make what we do possible. They create great things, fix bugs and make magic happen. They are our modern day wizards and the grand architects of the new technology age.
It’s official! We’re about to launch the beta testing program for ClassiPress v3.1 and we need your help!