Arras is a sophisticated, yet simple and clean WordPress theme for magazine/news blogs with the following features:
- Homepage comes with a slideshow and 3 featured post areas and 4 different customizable layouts.
- Comes with one-, two- and three-column layouts and 7 different alternate styles.
- WordPress 4.2-ready with two menu locations, custom post types and custom taxonomies support.
- Child theme ready with numerous action and filter hooks available for use.
Version 3 brings Arras up-to-date with WordPress 4.2 and adds a responsive framework. Arras 3 requires WordPress 4.1 or higher.
Because of the major changes in this version, it is not backwards compatibile with version Arras version 1.x.
- All theme settings and options are now in the customizer. The Arras Options page has been discontinued.
- The use of custom thumbnail sizing for various theme locations in a responsive grid system is of no use. Everything resizes dynamically. Setting of custom thumbnail sizes has been discontinued in favor of using the native WP thumbnail sizes, plus a small-square thumbnail and a wide-screen thumbnail size that sets the thumnail ratio for the slideshow and node tapestry to a 16:9 ratio (the same ratio your wide-screen TV uses).
- The Secondary Sidebar Widget area will appear only on 3-column layouts. Neither sidebar will appear on single-column layouts. Below-content widget areas appear only on the home page.
- Upon activation, Arras 3 will look for Arras 1.x options and attempt to import as many as possible. However, due to the substantial differences between Arras 3 and Arras 1.x, not all settings are able to be imported. Also, because of different handling of widget areas, your widgets will be reset to default locations upon activation. You should be able to find your old widgets in the "Inactive Widgets" section of the Appearance > Widgets screen, where you can drag them back into position.
- Setting taxonomies and terms/categories in the customizer requires having the appropriate post type already saved. When you update your post type, click the customizer "save and publish" button, then reload the whole page to get the customizer to reload with the correct taxonomies. When you select a new taxonomy, do the same to reload with the correct terms. It works, but I know it's inconvenient. I'm working on getting a "chain update" working in the customizer, but didn't want to delay the beta release any longer.
- Color Schemes: You can add/modify/remove color schemes from a child theme via the new 'arras_color_schemes' filter. See notes in library/styles.php for instructions.
- Move all settings and options to customizer
- Discontinue Arras Options admin page with Arras Info page
- Add default background color
- Add spacing between lines of nodes in node-based display mode
- Add custom customizer styles
- Fix site logo area collapse when neither header text nor logo image is displayed
- Fix home page sections not rendering when setting is left blank
- Add settings importer to regenerate Arras 1.x options on first activation
- Complete removal of duplicate styles from base.css
- Refactor color schemes
- Add Base Color Schemes to Customizer
- Remove Color Scheme option from Arras Options page Design Tab
- Add new color scheme functions to style.php
- Remove css/styles/$color.css files
- Remove minimum logo height
This version is for testing only. Do not install on production websites!
- Implement WP title-tag support, remove arras_title()
- Remove arras_setup() and relocate various sub-functions:
- Theme support declarations into new arras_theme_support()
- Move menu functions into new arras_menu()
- Move wp_head() actions to new arras_scripts() and arras_styles()
- Fix incorrect sidebar registration loading sidebars without an id
- Fix deprecated use of caller_get_posts() in sidebar.php
- Remove user.css
- Remove yarpp template
- Remove pagetpl-redirect template
- Rename pagetpl-single.php to no-sidebar-page.php
- Rename pagetpl-archive.php to archive-page.php
- Remove superfish.js menu, implement CSS3-driven menu
- Remove smoothness.js from admin
- Remove tabbed sidebar widget
- Remove tag cloud widget
- Add skip-links and styles for Accessibility
- Add Mobile Friendly capacity:
- Add Responsive Grid CSS
- Update all templates for use with Responsive Grid
- Update tapestry functions for use with Responsive Grid
- Update homepage slideshow for Responsive Grid
- Add mobile swipe gestures on slideshow
- Restructure thumbnail (featured image) support to use native WP sizes plus wide-screen size and small-square size
- Add mobile main nav CSS for small screens ( < 768px wide )
- Update dynamic footer widget sizing functions
- Update Options Page Tabs:
- Refactor for Responsive layout changes
- Remove "Thumbnails" Tab, move "Auto Thumbs" option to "Layout" Tab.
- Move Layout selection from "Design" to "Layout" Tab
- Update Header Background Color option to use WP colorpicker
- Fix backgrounds not appearing on multi-select dropdowns
- Update arras_styles() to load child theme stylesheet automatically
- Merge default.css into base.css and lint:
- Remove duplicate style definitions (still in progress)
- Remove px-based font-sizes, implemente rem-based sizes
- Remove all instances of !important
- Update Theme Tags
Alpha-03
- Refactor options to use WordPress.org array via settings API
- Review and refactor options security and validation
- Triage reported bugs from Alpha-02
Alpha-04
- Move options from Theme Options page to Customizer
- Triage reported bugs from all Alphas
Beta-01
- Second security review
- Implement bug fixes from Alphas
- Implement "easy" suggested features from Alphas
Beta-02
- Third security review
- Implement all bug fixes from Beta-01
- Punt remaining suggested features to 3.1
Beta-03 (if necessary)
- Final bug fixes before release
3.0
If you're using the theme with your own modifications, please use a child theme to avoid losing your customizations in future releases.
Arras Version 3 has a support forum at http://forum.arrastheme.net. You can also open an issue on GitHub.
If you're an Arras fan and want to contribute, I welcome any help and suggestions from anyone who wants to contribute.
Arras 3 is translation ready.
Arras was originally released as a Premium WordPress theme. In 2009 it was released as a public project on GitHub by Lead Developer, Melvin Lee (@zyml).
Lee's team worked on the project from 2009 - 2012, and started a second project, AR2, that was released as Arras 2.0 in 2012. The last commit was May 21, 2013, but a new version was never released.
As of May 1, 2014 the theme's website, http://www.arrastheme.com, announced that the developers were discontinuing the project, and releasing it to any interested parties for further development under the GNU General Public License v2. Inquiries were referred to a Google groups page (https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/arras-theme) for assistance, and to the project on Github.
iCaspar Web Development is undertaking this project as an open source project without any warrantee that development will continue, or that the results will be fit for use by anyone for any purpose. iCaspar Web Development is not affiliated with, nor do I have contact with, any previous developers of the Arras theme, nor have I received any payment or benefits from the former developers, other than the GNU licensed code itself.