As Ben Gillbanks has already mentioned, last week we quietly released a major upgrade of the Mimbo Pro theme for WordPress. Older quirks were smoothed out, suggestions from the forum were implemented, as well as vital new features we both felt were necessary.
The reason I say we released it quietly is because in addition to rewriting much of the codebase, we also launched a new accounts system, a new Pro Theme design, new pricing, and an overall difference in philosophy. Before trying to sell it aggressively or making claims we couldn’t back up, we chose to let users test it out for awhile and give feedback.
Overall, the results have been great so now we’re ready for the publicity!
Favorite New Features
The key phrase for Mimbo Pro 2.0 is “automation” – less is required of the user to get up and running.
- For starters, users no longer need custom fields to insert thumbnail images. Images are now pulled from the body of posts automatically, inserted on the homepage and resized with TimThumb. No way to overstate how much easier this makes life for the end-user.
- Ben also wisely included some code that ensures certain content areas on the homepage display duplicate content. Prior to v2.0, you might see the same stories showing up in the category summaries (middle column) as the carousel and Recent News – this is no longer an issue. It makes your content more unique, focused, and less confusing for search engines.
- We also got a fair number of requests from people who wanted the carousel to rotate automatically, which it now does, including custom speed adjustment.
- Mimbo Pro 2.0 is optimized for WordPress 2.7, making use of cool new features like comment threading, post classes and comment pagination.
- Smooth-fading, multi-level dropdown menus for categories or pages.
- More reliance on widgets, rather than custom functions, allows the user more control and requiring less code upkeep.
- The <body> tag is now assigned dynamic classes on each page, allowing developers a wide range of hooks for changing layouts via CSS.
- Mimbo Pro 2.0 has been marked up for proper localization, which means language translation files can be implemented easily. Net result: the theme is accessible to a much broader population in non-English-speaking countries. Get in touch if you’d like to contribute a language file in exchange for a copy of the theme.
Restructuring the Codebase
Overall Mimbo Pro now has less templates and template code, yet more functionality. How is this possible?
Ben wisely removed any excessive code logic from the templates and transplanted it to a series of PHP helper files. This is great for organization and keeping the templates lean and mean. This more distinct separation of logic and presentation ensures a smaller chance of the theme being confusing or being accidentally broken.
Anticipating Customizations and Child Themes
But breaking the theme shouldn’t be a risk now anyway, because we’re strongly recommending all customizations to Mimbo Pro be done by creating a child theme.
Taking a cue from projects like Ian Stewart’s Thematic and Justin Tadlock’s Hybrid, Mimbo Pro aspires to be something more like a framework or robust “parent theme”, supplying all the heavy features and functionality to the smaller “child themes”.
So what’s the point of a child theme? Users are able to modify the theme’s look-and-feel via CSS without having to edit Mimbo Pro’s core files. Child theme files exist in a totally separate folder. This means when future versions of Mimbo Pro get released, no one’s customizations are overwritten.
But instead of modifying look-and-feel, what if users want to replace the code for, say, sidebar.php? Thanks to WordPress 2.7, they can. Simply dropping a new copy of sidebar.php into the child theme folder will override sidebar.php in the parent folder.
Going forward, this process should be its own reward. Especially because developers who might use Mimbo Pro to build a dozen different client sites are now equipped with a child theme called “Basic Starter” (multi-license users only) which reduces Mimbo Pro to its bare bones while offering a lean yet heavily-commented stylesheet to get started.
Having already used it for projects, I can testify it speeds up development time tremendously. Not to mention, the Developer’s edition comes with a PSD folder for every design element you’d need (icons, backgrounds, textures, and so on).
Improved Accounts System
Ben has transplanted the functionality from our e-commerce provider (Plimus.com) to the Pro Theme site itself. This means user account systems are integrated with the site, making it easier to keep track of purchases, downloads and coupons. We will continue to expand this system as we receive user feedback and add new products.
New Pricing
Because the theme has been out for a year already and many other theme marketplaces have emerged since, we decided to bring the price down a bit. We also wanted to encourage more people toward a cheaper Developer’s Edition which offers support for multiple sites and includes tools (Basic Starter, PSD pack) which will hopefully inspire a greater number of sites built on Mimbo Pro.
What Now?
On a personal note, I’ve cut back my hours slightly at Category 4 so I can pursue more projects like Mimbo Pro and other ideas yet to be announced. I’d like to also use that time to connect with more people on the Mimbo Pro forums and generate dicussion about what else would make the theme useful.
In the meantime, Ben and I will be running specials and contests via Twitter in the next couple weeks so find us there (Darren | Ben) and stay tuned!
4:25 am
looks better now :)
2:08 pm
Wow really nice! I love colors pickup :D
11:33 pm
Awesome theme! I upgraded from 1.0 earlier tonight. Keep up the great work.
2:56 pm
mimbro pro theme is one of the best premium wp theme….
7:31 pm
Following you guys on twitter now. Looking forward to some specials lol. Personally, I dont like the carousel and would love to be able to turn it off, or place it down the side bar instead.
I also noticed that within the html, the content of the post is after the content of the side bar info. From an seo perspective, should the content not go first within the html?
9:08 pm
The carousel can definitely be removed with ease. Regarding SEO and column order, that’s one of those things I’ve read a million times but never seen hard data on. There are plenty of sites with left columns that garner plenty of traffic and good rankings, but it’s nearly always because of one thing – good, solid content.
2:40 pm
darren,
the upgrades are awesome. Is there anyway to get some of these features added to the current mimbo theme that I have? I’ve customized it alot and probably wouldn’t necessarily benefit from the full upgrade. Please email me with your answer if its not to be a public discussion.
thanks again.
12:42 pm
So much nicer that the later, congrats!
12:35 am
very nice!! I would totally buy that theme.
3:58 pm
Please someone tell me why this was named Mimbo pro? Just curious if this is an inside joke.
8:52 pm
I will definitely look into this new pro theme. Especially the automatic thumbing would make me very happy :)
Great work, Darren!
10:39 am
Okay, I have actually bought the Mimbo Pro Theme…
Apart from the sql-errors I get, it looks great :) I will have to look what’s going wrong at my server, maybe I need to upgrade WordPress to 2.7, well… I will figure it out.
The child themes is just what I was looking for. Check back in couple of days for a Queen’s Day special theme ;)
10:52 am
Not bad one. Thank you. The top is somewhat overloaded but it will do…
6:23 pm
No changes in the mid area Darren? Means, mid category area bellow the carousel :)
3:26 pm
It’s a realy nice website. Desigh of this Website is more usefull for all Users.
9:47 am
hello,
i use mimbo pro and i would like ton know how coul i include this
<a href="" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to "><img src="/scripts/timthumb.php?src=/&w=150&h=150&zc=1" alt="" />
in the part of “recent post” to change my title in thumbnail…
Hope you have enough time to answer, I ‘m not able to find the solution by my self…
regards
Olivia
12:42 pm
Beautiful themes. Thanks
12:46 pm
I am still very happy with the theme and even during the busiest days until now (thanks to Queen’s Day in the Netherland) it served just fine! Thanks and I look forward to your new themes!
5:10 am
The upgrades are amazing you should try Mimbo Pro 2.0
8:18 am
Great job Darren. I like things you’ve done in the second version as well as the third.
Thanks!
5:08 pm
Beautiful themes. Thanks. Ich will give you a link from my german website!
3:31 am
Hallo Darren
I use mimbo 3.
I upload in http://www.mywebsite.com/test
On the first day, thumbnail image still appears in the home, but the next day image is missing.
but in the page detail is still there.
I have set chmod mimbo, cache, a 0777 script.
What is the solution ..? im using wp 2.8
I really like your Themes.
11:57 am
its cool one
5:22 am
hallo great theme darren…
thanks…
11:51 am
Hi,
Could someone kindly tell me how I can easily enable a website visitor to easily switch languages by either clicking on a flag, or clicking on their language as a word (for example ‘Français’ or ‘Español’ on the front page of this site:
http://www.agroforestry.eu
I have installed the plugin qTranslate, and it seems to have done a good job enabling a user to switch between languages at the click of a mouse at the backend/dashboard, for foreign visitors wanting to post in their language, but the actual theme itself still doesn’t have an option to switch languages on the front page.
I am using the Mimbo theme, and we have the .mo and .po files downloaded, but don’t have a clue where or how to insert them so the front end can switch languages at the click of the mouse.
Should I be looking at the WPML, Gengo or Poplarware plugins instead?
11:53 am
I have never heard of MIMBO until now. This is really great. Very helpful tool for designing websites. Going to look more into this.
6:10 pm
Hi Darren!
Wow, this is really a great theme! Was this tested with WP 2.8.x? The style is… excellent!!!
Greetz from Germany :)
6:21 pm
Hi Darren – this theme is really great!
Was this theme tested with WP 2.8.x ?
Thanks for your feedback… :)
1:31 pm
Hi Dennis, yep it’s compatible with 2.8+.
8:00 am
hello,
i have bought the mimbo pro version, but where is the control panel.. i dont see the control panel and the automatci custom fields are not to see.??
5:46 pm
I will have a look into this pro theme. Especially the automatic thumbing and many more features would make me very happy ;-)
Thx for great work!
2:55 pm
In Mimbo 3.0 :
Is there a way to input 1 picture for the main post and it never changes? Such as a fixed company logo or head shot?
Better yet, is there a way to input 3 images for the lead post that keep switching out? Maybe by the day or something…..???
I’m not trying to steal a link, so I don’t want to put my domains. Let me know if you need to look at my domains… but, I’m sure you have gotten this question before, thanks!
12:19 pm
Hi Darren! Really cool – nice work!
Was this theme tested with WP 2.8.x ?
Thank you for your feedback :-)
4:25 pm
Hello,
First of all I want to thank you for your free theme Mimbo 3. It has all the nesessary features to begin with. Now I’m thinking to buy Mimbo Pro, but I still have some questions.
1. Do you have a child theme with quiet colour scheme?
2. What is happening to the pictures in the posts? In your DEMO there are pictures on Home page, but not in respective posts.
Best regards.
1:21 pm
1. Yes, it’s called Dispatch
2. You can either use a custom field and it will display that photo on the homepage. Or, if there is a photo in the body, it will take that and display it.
1:16 pm
Possible interest in Mimbo Pro 2 for the agency
12:15 pm
Great Job and Beautiful themes.
regards from germany
7:12 am
hello, and I have version 1.2, then I do an update? You have to pay? Thank you
3:00 pm
Accidentally found your site. And then so many good themes for wordpress!!! Thank you!
2:45 pm
Hey Darren,
cool theme, I like that… go on.
2:21 pm
hi darren, it looks really great. good job and nice theme. tom
2:07 am
I know the new technology is too expensive for most people, but if the American government could get more involved to make electric cars on a mass scale in factories, prices would eventually go down to where the general public can buy new emission free cars. At first if we stopped using oil the economy might get even worst, but obviously would be better for our planet and for people in the long run
4:14 pm
http://www.web-klassiker.de say thanks. great job! wonderful themes!
1:31 am
Thank you Darren!