More New Features in Thesis 1.7

In my two previous posts, I wrote about the new SEO-related features in Thesis 1.7 and changes to the Options panels, including the new Options Manager. There are a slew of other new features, as described by Thesis creator Chris Pearson here, but I don't think any of them warrant a full post of their own. So I'm going to go through the list here and make whatever comments I think may be helpful.

Increased efficiency from every angle
This one seems pretty self-explanatory—some back-end coding changes have apparently improved performance both for the sites we create as well as the Thesis admin pages themselves. I say "apparently", because I didn't find the previous version to be slow at all (unless I made some coding error myself), but I'll take Chris's word for it that it's even better now.

Include a slew of JavaScript libraries!
I'm not very strong in JavaScript. I use it on my business website's home page (www.ElizabethKricfalusi.com) but it doesn't use any library (as far as I know...). So I'll consider this a benefit to more advanced developers who already know what the advantages are. If any of you happen to be reading this, I'd love to get your perspective on this in the comments below! :)

Note that you can add the libraries on a sitewide basis on the Design Options screen; to your home page or specific category and tag pages on the Page Options screen; or to any individual post or page as you're writing it.

New home page controls
The SEO and JavaScript options available for your home page are now all together on the Page Options screen.

Flexible new comment system
I mentioned this in the post about the changes to the Options panels. You can now pick and choose (and reorder) which fields you want to use in your Comments area. It's a nice add, and one of the few that I think new Thesis users will really benefit from.

Easy 301 redirects for affiliates!
This isn't actually working properly for me at the moment, so I am going to write a separate post about it once I figure out what the issue is. In the meantime, you can find more information about this feature, including an instructional video, on the DIYthemes site.

New hooks
Thesis 1.7 has two new hooks where you can add your own custom functions.

The .post_box now contains hooks inside its opening and closing <div> tags—thesis_hook_post_box_top and thesis_hook_post_box_bottom. I also added similar hooks to the #content_box—thesis_hook_content_box_top and thesis_hook_content_box_bottom.

New headline filter
I've never quite wrapped my head around how filters work, but the basic principle here is that you can write a custom function that removes the headline from specific posts—for example, if you wanted to create a special graphical headline style for posts in a certain category. The function would have this basic form, where you're basically setting it to true or false, true being that you show the headline, false you don't.

function custom_hide_headline() {
if (in_category('special')) {
return false;
else
return true;
}
}

add_filter('thesis_show_headline_area', 'custom_hide_headline');

Note that hiding the headline area will also hide the byline information.

Beefed-up internationalization
Thesis 1.7 works better now with translation software. (I can't actually vouch for this, as I don't use it but, again, I'm happy to take Chris's word for it...)

The last two features, "improved core element defaults" and "dramatically improved code quality" are behind-the-scenes fixes meant to make the theme more flexible and improve performance. I'm not really sure how noticeable these will be to most users, but I assume they won't hurt. :)

So that's the end of the rundown of the new features in version 1.7. In my next Thesis-related post, I'll talk about a few improvements I'd really like to see included in the next release.