From now on, we will be posting Storefront announcements to the WooCommerce core blog. This will be the last post to be published on this blog.
Storefront is the official theme for WooCommerce and this change should increase the visibility of the project.
By the way, Storefront 2.2.6 was just released. 😉
Storefront 2.2.5 has been tagged for release and uploaded to WordPress.org.
Here’s what’s changed pulled directly from the changelog:
rgbaster.js.SCRIPT_DEBUG is defined.storefront_sidebar_args.grunt-contrib-compress to the build process.remove_action, it only accepts 3. Kudos @ashfame.300px in the order review table.mouseover to dynamically check if the height needs to be limited.z-index value to 9999 to prevent conflicts with other elements. Kudos @iamdharmesh.Storefront 2.2.4 has been tagged for release and uploaded to WordPress.org.
Here’s what’s changed pulled directly from the changelog:
:hover and :active states on .screen-reader-text.storefront_before_site.wp_kses_post() from shortcodes output.Last week we released Storefront 2.2.3 which comprehensively addresses the widget related issues folks were having when updating from 2.1.*.
You can download this release directly from your dashboard or manually from WordPress.org.
Hey folks, after the excitement of the 2.2.0 release yesterday we were quickly made aware of a couple of bugs that made it through the beta test and have consequently released two small fix releases to address these issues. Thanks to everyone who brought these issues to our attention and our apologies for any disruption caused.
If you spot any other problems please do not hesitate to open an issue on github (with full details). We’ll investigate and release another fix if required.
I’d also like to remind anyone who hasn’t pushed the update button yet that 2.2 is a major release. To be 100% safe, we recommend that you always test major releases (whether it’s Storefront, WooCommerce, or any of our other products) in a non-production environment first. Or even better – participate on our pre-release beta tests.
Storefront 2.2.0 has just been tagged for release an uploaded to WordPress.org. That means it should be available to download very soon! This is a major release, you should not update live sites without adequate testing.
Please read the previous post which includes all of the details of this release.
For the condensed version, here’s the relevant info pulled directly from the changelog;
storefront_jetpack_infinite_scroll_before, storefront_jetpack_infinite_scroll_after, storefront_jetpack_product_infinite_scroll_before and storefront_jetpack_product_infinite_scroll_after.storefront_footer_widget_rows and storefront_footer_widget_columns to easily control the number of widget rows / columns in the footer.storefront_upsells_columns.storefront_loop_columns.npm install next time you try to build.grunt-postcss + autoprefixer to the build process to reduce reliance on Bourbon.background-image styles for the header and homepage content sections if an image exists.You can download Storefront now from your dashboard or from WordPress.org.
If you’re updating an existing store to Storefront 2.2.0, as mentioned previously; please test the update in a development environment first. If you are using any additional Storefront products (child themes and/or extensions) be sure to check for updates for them before updating Storefront and test everything in your development environment.
I’ll say it one more time; test the update(s) in a development environment. 🙂
If you find a bug then as always, please be sure to report it on github. If you have any other problems with Storefront please post on the WordPress.org support forum, or contact us if you’re a WooCommerce customer.
I’m happy to announce that Storefront 2.2.0 beta 1 is now available. You can download it and begin testing by clicking here.
The focus of 2.2.0 was primarily to improve New User Experience. Making use of WordPress 4.7’s Starter Content feature, new Storefront users now benefit from a much richer experience when they first start using the theme. The improved NUX can be broken down in to three main additions;
After activation Storefront will perform a quick check to see if WooCommerce is installed or not. If not, a prompt will be displayed asking you to do so via a single click. After which you’ll be guided through WooCommerce setup via the wizard that exists in core.
Of course, in most cases folks won’t see this prompt. Storefront is a WooCommerce theme and generally WooCommerce will already be activated. In those cases, users will instead be prompted to customise the look and feel in the Customizer.
When the user enters the Customizer they will be greeted with a step by step guide to set up some of the core design options in Storefront.
Depending on whether the store is fresh or established, Starter content may be included. For brand new stores that means the following tasks will be performed automatically:
Once the user finishes customizing their store and returns to wp-admin they’ll be greeted with a revamped landing page. This landing page has been tidied up and now focuses on informing folks on how they can enhance their Storefront experience, either through free plugins, Storefront Powerpack or commercial child theme designs.
The other big change in 2.2.0 is a design refresh we’ve performed which lightens the overall aesthetic, gives more prominence to product photography and transforms the homepage content into a hero component.
You can read more about the design refresh in this post.
If you’re using any Storefront extensions, plugins or child themes we thoroughly recommend that you check for updates available for those first and perform any that you find. Many of our own child themes for example have had patches to provide compatibility with 2.2.0.
If you’re keen to test the guided tour / starter content features then you’ll need to set up Storefront on a fresh installation of WordPress.
If you find issues we encourage you to open an issue on the Storefront github repository with a clear description.
The design refresh is the biggest change for existing users. Custom child theme authors / users will need to pay careful attention to this and potentially patch their own products.
You can download Storefront 2.2.0 beta 1 right here.
Hey folks, Storefront 2.1.8 has been tagged for release and will be available to download from WordPress.org very soon.
2.1.8 is a tiny release that takes into account some tweaks made to WooCommerce core with regards to how themes declare support for the new gallery feature;
WooCommerce 2.7 is currently in beta and I’d encourage any users to give it a try before it’s released, in a staging environment.
While the main focus of Storefront 2.2 is the new user experience, we also intend to make small adjustments that improve the overall design.
The first design change we’ve made is the treatment of the homepage content when using the homepage template included with Storefront. Currently, if you add a featured image to your homepage you’ll see something like this;
Not particularly inspiring, huh?
From 2.2 onwards, adding a featured image to your homepage will automatically create a ‘hero’ component. The featured image will be used as a background and your homepage content will be overlaid on top of it. It’ll look something like this;
You’ll no doubt have noticed that the content section isn’t the only difference between the two screenshots above. The other noticeable change is the header colors.
All Storefront versions prior to 2.2 set the header background to a dark gray/blue color by default. We’ve decided to change this to white moving forwards. Here’s why;
With such a vast contrast between the header / content background colors in 2.1 there is a lot of visual competition for attention, especially when pages first load. The eye is generally drawn to the header first. But seeing as the header is right at the top of the page it already occupies an appropriate place in the visual hierarchy and doesn’t need additional focus. In 2.2 we want product imagery to be the star of the show and making the header background white (to match the main content area) facilitates this.
Generally speaking, logos are designed to be placed on lighter backgrounds. I’ve noticed a lot of Storefront users don’t always change the header background color straight away so this will provide a better experience in most cases when first adding a logo.
In fact, a lot of users don’t change the header background at all which suggests that many folks just want to install a theme and go, with minimal set-up shenanigans. Using a more appropriate default background color will improve the Storefront experience for many folks who exhibit those tendencies.
Adjusting the header background to be lighter revealed just how heavy our typography styles were. So, embracing the ‘make products images top dog’ mantra from before we’ve lightened font weights here and there. We’ve also adjusted button background defaults and a few typographic treatments when using the full width template. The overall result is a more streamlined / minimal aesthetic.
Below you can see before and after side-by-side:
Hopefully you’ll agree that the new design helps shift the visual focus squarely on to the most important thing at the store – the products!
While the differences are quite visually striking, there’s not a huge difference in the code, so I hope that backwards compatibility won’t be a big issue. Of course, the new header background color will only be applied to existing stores if you’ve not already changed from the old default. The same goes for buttons. If you’ve customised Storefront it’s unlikely you’ll even notice any of the color changes.
The typographical changes can easily be reversed with a few lines of CSS to change the heading weights, if required.
If you’re doing something unique with the product content then the new hero component should be thoroughly tested before updating Storefront core.
This is all a work in progress and we still have quite a bit to do. But we still hope to release at least a beta by the end of Q1. Stay tuned!
Hey folks, Storefront 2.1.7 has been tagged for release and will be available to download from WordPress.org very soon.
2.1.7 is a small release that essentially just adds some compatibility tweaks to ensure everything will work smoothly when the next major WooCommerce (2.7) release is available;
.stock is empty.WooCommerce 2.7 is currently in beta and I’d encourage any users to give it a try before it’s released, in a staging environment. But you can rest assured that as of 2.1.7 Storefront is fully prepared for WooCommerce 2.7.
