With the anticipated release of Vantage 1.1 coming this week, we have prepared and released our new AppThemes updater plugin. The plugin is going to make updates easy and a simple. Dave has created a full blog post about the updater. We suggest giving it a quick read to see what the updater is all about.

This tutorial Tuesday is going to be sweet and simple. We’re going to show you how to install and use the new updater plugin. Dave has a nice written tutorial with instructions on how to install the new AppThemes updater plugin. Once you have it installed, check out the video created by Vantage developer Josh Ronk. In the video, Josh shows us how to use the updater plugin to update a theme.

These tutorials are very brief. But that’s because the updater is that straightforward and uncomplicated. It’s also the best way to update all our themes. So hop on over and check it out then download your own copy of the AppThemes updater plugin.

We’ve just released a new plugin called the AppThemes Updater which now handles automatic theme updates. Previously, this functionality was baked directly into our themes but there were some limitations prompting us to separate it as a plugin.

Why the change?

As our product offerings continue to grow, we want to provide updates to our API more quickly — without having to wait for individual theme releases. Here are some other benefits:

We have one tutorial today, but it’s a really good one thanks to a tip from AppThemes user orangemedia.

You Gotta Be Social!

dlvr.it TutorialWant to jump start marketing and traffic generation for your ClassiPress, Clipper, JobRoller or Vantage site? Well, you’re going to need to be very active on social networks. Tweeting new ads, listings and coupons help announce new content on your site and attract new visitors.

We have a couple of useful tips for Vantage owners in today’s post. And another tip from Dave that will help you avoid the default WordPress error page. Let’s dive in.

How to Create a Child Theme for Vantage

Vantage child theme tutorialWant to take control of your Vantage site? How about giving it a good ol’ remodeling with new backgrounds, colors, fonts – the whole deal? Well, if you have enough HTML/CSS knowledge, giving Vantage a completely new look is well within your hands.

In our first tutorial about creating child themes for Vantage, we will show you how to make a basic child theme. We’ll also show you how to make some simple CSS changes with your new child theme. These tools alone will be enough to totally overhaul the look and feel of Vantage. Make it your very own. Change it to fit your branding. The choice is yours.

Hey, it’s me again, Tyler Carter, part of the product development team on AppThemes. I’m here to discuss Vantage, and the awesomeness that we are so excited to share with you. That’s right, I’m talking about Vantage 1.1.

Offer multiple payment plans

We’ve packed so many features into this release and we can’t wait to get it out. It’s even more solid, usable, and reliable than ever. Here’s just a few of the 6,000 code changes that were made so far:

Pricing Plans

With our new payments API, you can set up your own pricing plans to allow your customers to pick any combination of price and duration they’d like. Every pricing plan can also include either one of the site’s featured options, and can be assigned on a per-category basis.

Raise your hand if you like making money! Let’s see…1, 2, 3, 20, everyone? Hey, in the back – you don’t have your hand raised. This Tutorial Tuesday we’re going to look at job feeds and how you can make some income using them with JobRoller.

Indeed and Simply Hired Data Feeds for JobRoller

Indeed and Simply Hired are two, very well-known employment sites. They aggregate job listing data from thousands of sites from around the world. What you might not know is that all of this data is available to you. Even better, Indeed and Simply Hired will pay you to publish their job listings on your site.

My name is Tyler Carter, and I am a part of the product development team at AppThemes. I’m also am the lead developer of Payments, a new way for you to get more out of your AppThemes Products.

Payments – Make Money Easier

Payments is a set of tools that will allow developers to customize the payment process in many different ways. With Payments, it is easy for developers to do things like provide different payment methods to your customers, offer coupons/discounts, and more.

If you’ve already been using Vantage, you’ve already seen Payments at work. Payments makes it easy to track a transaction from start to finish, providing you a detailed list of the items your customers are buying, the payment methods they are using, and what step of the process they are on. All right from your own WordPress Administration Panel.

This Tuesday, we have some important information that affects users and developers of child themes. So let’s get right to it.

Introducing Wrappers

Click to read tutorialThe new AppThemes framework uses a file called wrapper.php. Wrapper provides a nice tidy place where the html, head, and body tags live. Since these tags are no longer in header.php or footer.php, it reduces the need to make repeated calls for get_header() and get_footer().

While it is more efficient, we need to warn you that the new wrapper file can break existing child themes. The good news is that you don’t have to do a lot to fix it. Dave Cowgill has created a tutorial introducing the AppThemes wrapper.php file. The more technically inclined might want to read Scribu’s post on wrappers.

It’s another week and another installment of our new feature: Tutorial Tuesdays. We are generating at least one tutorial a week, sometimes more. Along with new tutorials, we will highlight some archived tutorials that are worth another read. This week, we start with a little security tip.