One of the ways that Cheezburger has made the most out of WordPress is through custom theme options. To save ourselves time and headache, we wrote a library to make creating new options super simple. And, we've made the library publicly available to anybody who wants to use it (at http://code.google.com/p/cheezcap/). This talk will walk people through the code and how to use it to make your themes more awesome than ever!

1. Making Custom
Theme Options Easy
Developing a Modular Theme for Multiple Site Use

2. O Hai Canada.

3. Who are you?
‣ My name is Toby ( @trademark ). A self-
taught WordPress / PHP / Front end
Developer.

4. Who are you?
‣ My name is Toby ( @trademark ). A self-
taught WordPress / PHP / Front end
Developer.
‣ I work for Cheezburger Networks

5. CheezCAP
CHEEZBURGER CUSTOM ADMINISTRATION PANEL

6. Cheezburger & WordPress

7. Farm Team
OMG MAKE LOTS OF SITES PLZ

8. Cheezburger & WordPress
THEN:
‣ Many self-hosted WordPress.org
installations

9. Cheezburger & WordPress
THEN:
‣ Many self-hosted WordPress.org
installations
‣ Each had its own customized (read:
totally hacked) theme.

10. Cheezburger & WordPress
THEN:
‣ Many self-hosted WordPress.org
installations
‣ Each has it’s own customized (read:
totally hacked) theme.
‣ Making ~2 new sites a week.

11. Cheezburger & WordPress
THEN:

12. Cheezburger & WordPress
THEN:

13. Cheezburger & WordPress
THEN:

14. Why this was bad.
‣ Spent half the time as a server admin.

15. Why this was bad.
‣ Spent half the time as a server admin.
‣ No history or version control of the
changes that were made.

16. Why this was bad.
‣ Spent half the time as a server admin.
‣ No history or version control of the
changes that were made.
‣ It looked bad.

17. Why this was bad.
‣ Spent half the time as a server admin.
‣ No history or version control of the
changes that were made.
‣ It looked bad.
‣ Easy to make new sites, difficult to
maintain and update them.

18. SOLUTION.

19. The “Unified Theme”
(.com)

20. The “Unified Theme”
(.com)

21. Cheezburger & WordPress
NOW:
‣ 10 Sites were already running a Unified
Theme on WordPress.com VIP

22. Cheezburger & WordPress
THEN:

23. Cheezburger & WordPress
NOW:
‣ 10 Sites were already running a Unified
Theme on WordPress.com VIP
‣ One file contained all the customization
settings for the sites.

24. Cheezburger & WordPress
NOW:
‣ 10 Sites were already running a Unified
Theme on WordPress.com VIP
‣ One file contained all the customization
settings for the sites.
‣ PROBLEM: Creating a new site meant
re-copying a bunch of code.

25. SOLUTION.

26. CheezCAP
Cheezburger Custom Administration Panel

27. CheezCAP
What is it?
CheezCAP is a library that
allows you to easily create
an administration panel for
your theme.
There are 4 main features
that make CheezCAP
totally awesome.

28. CheezCAP
Getting Started
‣ Add the folder to your theme directory
‣ Add the following to your functions.php
file:
require_once('cheezcap/
cheezcap.php');

29. CheezCAP
Getting Started
‣ Edit cheezcap/config.php

30. CheezCAP
Getting Started

31. CheezCAP
Getting Started
‣ Once you’ve created the options you
want to use, you can start adding them to
your theme:
if ( $cap->my_boolean_option ) {
// do stuff
}

32. CheezCAP
Boolean Options
Boolean Options serve as basic toggle
switches:
new BooleanOption(
'Simple Boolean Example',
'This will create a simple true/false switch.’,
'simple_boolean_example',
true
),

33. CheezCAP
Boolean Options
Boolean Options serve as basic toggle
switches:
new BooleanOption(
'Simple Boolean Example', <- Title
Description -> 'This will create a simple true/false switch.’,
'simple_boolean_example', <- ID of the parameter
true <- Initial Value
),

34. CheezCAP
Text Options
Text Options can represent alphanumeric
strings to be inserted, code, etc.
new TextOption(
'Simple Text Exmaple #3',
'This will store a string value.’,
'simple_text_example3',
'Say Cheez!'
),

35. CheezCAP
Dropdown Options
Dropdown Options serve as more
complex switches:
new DropdownOption(
'Inline Options Dropdown Example #3',
'This dropdown creates its options using an
inline array.',
'inline_options_dropdown_example3',
array( 'Red', 'Yellow', 'Green' ),
2, // Green
),

39. CheezCAP Work For Me?
How Can I Make CheezCAP
‣ Text Options: Google Analytics accounts, site
announcements, customized text in your
theme ( comment links, page navigation, 404
pages )

40. CheezCAP Work For Me?
How Can I Make CheezCAP
‣ Text Options: Google Analytics accounts, site
announcements, customized text in your
theme ( comment links, page navigation, 404
pages )
‣ Boolean Options: Turn Features on and off,
beta or A/B testing

41. CheezCAP Work For Me?
How Can I Make CheezCAP
‣ Text Options: Google Analytics accounts, site
announcements, customized text in your
theme ( comment links, page navigation, 404
pages )
‣ Boolean Options: Turn Features on and off,
beta or A/B testing
‣ Dropdown Options: switching stylesheets or
color schemes, enabling or disabling sets of
features, more complex logic than boolean

42. CheezCAP Work For Me?
How Can I Make CheezCAP
‣ CheezCAP uses the WordPress options
tables.

43. CheezCAP Work For Me?
How Can I Make CheezCAP
‣ CheezCAP uses the WordPress options
tables.
‣ Able to specify required user permissions
level to edit.

44. HOLD IT! YOU SAID THERE WERE 4 FEATURES!

45. CheezCAP
The Elusive 4th Feature
‣ Import / Export!

46. CheezCAP
The Elusive 4th Feature

47. CheezCAP
The Elusive 4th Feature

48. CheezCAP
The Elusive 4th Feature

49. CheezCAP
The Elusive 4th Feature

50. CheezCAP
The Elusive 4th Feature

51. CheezCAP
The Elusive 4th Feature

52. CheezCAP
In Summary
‣ Create Text Options, Boolean Options
and Dropdown Options.
‣ Use them to control and modify your
theme on the fly.
‣ Export your settings to a text file for
backup and portability.

53. Thank you.

54. Thank you.
Special Thanks to:
CheezTech
WordPress.com VIP
Michael Fields - @_mfields
Matt Martz - @sivel
#WCDEV Organizers

55. Thank you.
@trademark
DOWNLOAD CHEEZCAP:
http://tmckes.com
http://chzb.gr/CheezCAP
toby@cheezburger.com
http://cheezburger.com