You must be logged in to post
Search Forums:


 






Wildcard Usage:
*    matches any number of characters
%    matches exactly one character

Forum Flexibility 2 Theme Customization Features php edit question

Features php edit question
Print this Post
Page: 1  2  
UserPost

5:40 am
February 7, 2010


verduijn

Member

posts 8
11

Ryan,

"(…) You are using a free theme that I spent several hundred hours developing (have you made a donation to show your appreciation by chance?) (…)"

No, I haven't. The theme is giving me grief, and I'm not the only one. On the BANS forum I have been discussing the "delayed CSS issue" with two others who experience it. One bloke wrote:

"2 sites, both using Flex2, one shows unformatted (No CSS), then goes to a normal screen; the other comes up normal".

The second bloke informed us:

"I have the exact same problem. I keep hoping people won't back out of my site before the CSS takes effect. It doesn't happen every time, but often. It also takes waaaay too long to make changes in the settings. The different options are great, as is the fact that it's free, but those are a couple of very annoying issues."

That's three people having an identical problem, which you choose not to address because the theme is free. Well… fair enough… but as a result all three have reversed their original decision to buy the paid FlexSqueeze theme. Please tell me who's the "winner" here. Can't be you, because you just "un-supported" yourself out of US$389.97. Can't be us three either, because we don't trust and won't buy the paid version on account of having been left with a wonky freebie.

Matey, with the Flexibility/FlexSqueeze combination you own a winning team, and using Flexibility as a "trial version" for FlexSqueeze makes a lot of sense, benefiting you even more if you approach genuine problems with the trial version in a serious way. With all the "stuff" on the market nowadays, support is becoming increasingly important. So is taking a complaint seriously, especially when it comes from a "freebie" customer who had the credit card in his hand in order to buy the paid version. I still have that credit card ready, by the way. Whether or not I use it to buy FlexSqueeze, is up to you.

Be well!

Jaap Verduijn.

8:35 am
February 7, 2010


Ryan

Admin

posts 1523
12

You do have some valid points, but Flexibility2 was never intended to be a lead in to FlexSqueeze. It was developed way before FlexSqueeze was even an idea, and it was an evolution from the original Flexibility theme. The CSS issues experienced by others is a non-issue in FlexSqueeze because it's coded to work differently. Essentially Flex2 is constantly running dynamically, and always pulling the settings from the database with each page load, hence the delay.  If you look at the source code, you won't find a style.css file, but rather a style.php file. The page load time was why I coded FlexSqueeze differently to use a static style sheet. So there isn't the constant pull from the database to populate the style sheet. And once it's cached, it doesn't need to load from the server again.

If I meant to use Flexibility 2 as a trial to FlexSqueeze, I'd definitely switch some things around so users would have a better idea of how FlexSqueeze actually works. And as far as the long delay when saving options, that's the trade off for having so many options. More options means more HTML which translates into a longer page load time.  And actually the biggest delay on page load is due to the color picker I'm using. Since coding FlexSqueeze, I've found a much faster alternative picker, but I haven't had the time to recode the theme to use it. It's not as flashy as the current one, but I think it's a valid trade off: looks for speed.

I would think much of the page load delay could be rectified using a caching plugin like WP Super Cache. The only caviat being the need to disable it when making changes to your pages, otherwise you won't see your changes as you make them. This was the problem Laura was having when I logged into her blog and fixed her issues yesterday.

Both Flexibility 2 and FlexSqueeze are due for some updates, so hopefully I can get some time to make some tweaks soon.

9:39 am
February 7, 2010


verduijn

Member

posts 8
13

Hi Ryan,

Your last message was sufficiently informative and supportive for me to go buy the FlexSqueeze theme. I've got it downloaded now, and will do a bit of reading on the forum and in the theme instructions to make sure I don't mess up when changing from "Ibility" to "Squeeze".

Be well!

Jaap.

10:02 am
February 7, 2010


Ryan

Admin

posts 1523
14

Hope the theme works out for you. If you upload the theme (only the flexsqueeze.zip file, not the whole download) into WP and preview, you won't see your former settings yet because it will be using the style sheet that's included by default, not the one using the db settings. But activate the theme, then immediately go into one of the settings pages and save the theme settings. This will take your prior settings and write them into the FlexSqueeze style sheet and then it should look very similar to Flexibility 2.
Page: 1  2