Smashing Magazine has quite the reputation for releasing very high quality free WordPress themes. They have recently released an absolutely gorgeous free theme called Infinity. I finally had the chance to give this theme a test drive and thought I would share my findings in a review post.
And now onto the review…
First Impressions
Obviously the first thing that stood out with this theme is the beautiful artwork. Another thing is the unconventional index page. Instead of the same old boring blog layout, Infinity uses a more gallery-oriented approach. These two elements give the theme a much more unique look.
Setting Up
Upon uploading and installing the theme on a fresh WordPress installation, you’ll notice a fatal error due to a missing FlickrRSS plugin. Although this plugin is included in the download package, I personally find this to be bad coding practice to not use a conditional tag to prevent this error.
To quickly fix this error, you can either remove the following code from the ancillary.php file:
<div class="flickr"><?php get_flickrRSS(); ?></div>
Or you could replace it with the following, if you plan to set up your FlickrRSS later:
<?php if (function_exists('get_flickrRSS')) { ?><div class="flickr"><?php get_flickrRSS(); ?></div><?php } ?>
After doing this, your Infinity set up should look something like this.
Setting Up Thumbnails
Infinity makes use of WordPress custom fields to set up the thumbnails for posts on the main index. To use them, use the “thumbnail” custom field key, and the full path to the image as the value.
Editing The Sidebars
Unless your name is yichi, and you just happen to be a GUI designer, you’ll probably want to customize the sidebars. They are broken up into 2 files, left.php and right.php. These 2 files represent the left side of the sidebar, and the right side, respectively. The left.php has all the stuff you’ll want to change, such as the Twitter and del.cio.us accounts, as well as the description of yourself.
Things I Would Add
Aside from making the FlickrRSS code error proof, I would also add tag listings on the single post pages. More information on how to do this is in my adding tag support to your theme tutorial. I’d also make use of Gravatars on the comment section, which I’ve gone over in my adding Gravatar support to WordPress comments. One major feature that’s missing in this theme are widget-ready sidebars. So yes, I would definitely make this WordPress theme widget-ready.
Another small mistake which I noticed is that the feed link in the top right corner linked to http://yourFeedUrl. I would replace this with the following template tag:
<?php bloginfo('rss2_url'); ?>
Although those using FeedBurner may not need this.
Conclusion
Hope you found this WordPress theme review useful. Head on over to Smashing Magazine to download the Infinity theme to try it out for yourself.
Anyways, how can one contact you to do...
It’s a gorgeous theme on the outside. too bad the code needed so many fixes.
When I tired it, I got a WSOD and didn’t bother to track down the error, so thanks for that.
I woudl love to see this re-released with fixes and yes, a widgetized sidebar.
nice post, sorry but better than the release one
@Andrea: No problem. Maybe I could release a new functions.php, left.php, and right.php for widgetized sidebars. I’d probably have to contact Smashing Magazine prior though, since I’m not sure of the licensing.
@desu: Thanks for the comment! Unfortunately the readme file included in the theme didn’t really cover much besides using the thumbnails.
This is my blog using Infinity theme, but I make some changes.
http://www.loadmemory.com/digisource
another small problem of Infinity is no search function.
@kevin: Ah…that is true, I didn’t notice that. I see you managed to add a search box though. Looking good!
wow.The design is excellent. i will surely download it and play with it too.I think it is very attractive that when put into action, it will surely invite users.
I have published the other day
hi all,where can I access the custom field menu in WP admin?
hope somebody could share. TQ
It’s on the write menu. Scroll down until you see something headed “Custom Fields” and click the down arrow to expand it.
thanks leland. one more, regarding that flickr rss thing..after replacing the code, what do i need to do / change to activate the flickrRSS? hope you can explain again. Many thanks.
@rosli: Well, as long as you don’t remove the code completely and use the second option - upon activating the FlickrRSS plugin you should be able to configure the photo stream in the backend.
nice themes thanks
hey i am thnking of making my whole portfolio site like this one as it kicks bum… would you aprove the theme… i really like it but i am just feeling a bit cheap for using it and not designing it myself…
i am more of a photographer and have a huge knowledge of what everything can doo but not the best designer and coder…
so why not.?? thoughts any one just wack it on my blog or email me..
http://trcwest.com
http://trcwest.com/blog
I currently have a kick bum urban artist theme… (its not that great but i like it as in my work not the theme)
I was unable to insert a table with a different colored background into my comments using this theme. Does anyone know how to fix this?
Also @kevin, I like your design. Can you share the code on how you accomplished the changes you made?
schwinghamer@gmail.com
oh the home page I can see the thumbnail image, but when I click on the thumbnail image to open up, I get the default gray one.
How can I get my image to show there instead ?
How do I disable the thumbnail gallery view? I just want one big post after another.
thank you!
hi all, is there anyway to have more then 2 images across, my plan is to remove of the side bars and and have 3 thumb. across…… anyway help would be sweet….
thanks
Anyone got a widget ready version please ??
¡Oh my..! You are good at this.
Thanks a lot. You save me a lot of trouble setting up this theme.
Thanks again.