Create An Advanced Theme Options Panel in WordPress

This is the start of [wp]’s second ‘themed week’, which run every first week of the month. Last month we got started with WordPress theme development and this month we’re going to be creating an advanced theme options page.
Creating a WordPress theme options page is something that we’ve touched on before on [wp], and this week we’ll be expanding on what we covered before to create not just a theme options page, but an advanced theme options page; we’ll be creating something that lets users change layouts, hide and display different elements dotted around the theme, enter ad codes, footer text, tracking codes, Feedburner URLs, anything really:
This is a screen of the options page we’ll be creating over the next couple of days – as you can see, pretty impressive! The plan for the week is as follows:
- Day 1: Introduction
- Day 2: Creating the different options
- Day 3: Styling the options page
- Day 4: Implementing the options into a theme
And that’s pretty much it. Unlike last time there won’t be a free eBook to download at the end of the week, but this is a shorter series at only four days. Throughout the week you’ll be most welcome to ask any questions etc etc through the comments, and I’d ask if you’re going to save the series to any social media site then please save this post. The code for the tutorial series comes from my WordPress theme framework, [b] (that in turn is based on Thematic’s options page).
That’s all the admin stuff out the way, so [s], save this post to Delicious and grab a cup of tea. It’s going to be an interesting week.
27 Responses
Comments
As cosmin has said, I would also really appreciate if you create a wonderful pdf regarding the creation of options page. Looking forward for it.
.-= TechSlam´s last blog ..Aslam’s BlogBuzz >>>>> Aslam’sBuzz =-.Now this is what I’m talking about 🙂
BTW I like the new background you have on the site. Fits a lot better 🙂
.-= Ben´s last blog ..Elemental WordPress theme released =-.Alex, I haven’t noticed when I first commented, and I really feel the need to ask this.
Regarding the “choose a layout for your blog” option.
In the screenshot, I see you’re using checkboxes and you’re telling the user to only check one – which for us developers totally makes sense and we would never tick two of them.
But for people with no tech skills, wouldn’t it be much accessible to turn those checkboxes into radio buttons (so they really can’t choose 2 options).
What do you say?
Thanks,
Cosmin.
.-= Cosmin´s last blog ..Magazine Style Theme – Arthemia Premium =-.Nice tutorial here. I noticed in another post that you recommended using Thematic as a framework. If anyone is doing that and wants to save some development time, try checking out the tutorial and source files for creating a theme options panel with Thematic.. You could also look at how to code a logo upload box.
.-= Devin´s last blog ..Using TimThumb with WordPress MU =-.Really interesting tutorial. I’ve got it saved.
Thanks also to @davin for the link 😉
Cheers mate.
Hello,
I’m using studiopress lifestyle classic theme. It have option page for the themes. How i can have textarea fill with color code in option page that will changed background color, wrap border color & wrap background color.Thanks
Hi and thanks for this tutorial! Everything works well for me… but when I turn WP_DEBUG on I get the following error message in wp-admin:
Notice: Undefined index: page in C:\Documents and Settings\Daniel\My Documents\Programming\xampp\htdocs\wordpress\wp-content\themes\transparency1.1\library\functions-theme-options.php on line 29
Line 29 in my code is:
if($_GET[‘page’] == basename(__FILE__)) {
Can you help me?
I would try to follow this series!
checkout this service. If you don’t want to code it yourself.
http://www.peopleperhour.com/hourlie/create-custom-admin-option-panel-for-wordpress-themes/257810
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Looking forward to the series Alex 🙂
Just one small adivce: since the options page is quite complex, you should reconsider offering a pdf for download at the end of the week – I’m sure many will appreciate it 😉
Thanks for your efforts in creating this series.
.-= Cosmin´s last blog ..PSD to WordPress Theme Photoshop Plugin =-.