This is a sponsored guest contribution from Helen Bailey of TemplateMonster.com.
WordPress users on the whole are fairly used to developing their themes by adding, subtracting and altering code. It’s part of the game. You’ve got to tweak in order to stand out from the crowd. The only problem is writing and adjusting your own code can be a frustrating and time consuming experience—especially if you don’t have an abundance of development experience.
Enter theme frameworks.
A theme framework is a code library that isn’t used as a theme itself. Instead, it provides the support for “child themes” which can be used as website templates. A theme framework can be used to support many child themes and to power many websites. They are distinct from standalone themes, in which any changes you make actually overwrite the original theme.
The main difference is that a framework builds template infrastructure rather than frontend styling options. So what’s the major benefit of this arrangement? Most of the code you’d normally have to write from scratch is already taken care of. Plus, if you’re running more than one website you only have to update the framework, and not the individual themes themselves.
Trickle-down development.
She’s My Cherry Pie
One of the more popular frameworks among WP users is Cherry. The Cherry Framework for WordPress is an absolutely free framework that’s available at websites like CherryFramework.com, and in the GitHub code repository. Originally released in December of 2012, Cherry is currently compatible with more than 300 different child themes. Additionally, it powers close to a thousand distinct WP templates, all of which are available at TemplateMonster.
Overall, the purpose of Cherry is to meet the latest web standards while simultaneously providing users with a simple, intuitive, and usable theme management solution. And it really delivers on that goal.
Cherry framework is easy to setup, only requiring 3 clicks. And once it’s integrated it looks and feels almost exactly like your regular WP dashboard, so you won’t be overwhelmed with an unfamiliar interface. It also comes with most of the WP features you’re used to such as:
- Basic SEO options
- XML sitemap generation
- Easy import/export data procedures
- Excellent support structure
- Custom Post creation (i.e. Our Team, FAQs, Services, Testimonials, etc.)
- And so on
The fun, however, doesn’t stop there. Cherry is chock full of extra features. You can create and restore backups using data management, as well as update these backups whenever a new version of the framework becomes available. Because it was built with the RWD-savvy Bootstrap toolkit, Cherry adapts well to multiple viewports. In other words, it allows for high resolution viewing even on mobile devices.
Additionally, 90% of post and page types that you might want to include in your domain are already available using shortcodes, which make it easy to insert modules wherever you desire within the visual editor. This completely supplants the need to create the custom stuff on your own, so you can concentrate on delivering content rather than worrying over your styling options.
You can insert your shortcodes by clicking on the shortcode icon and selecting the area from a dropdown menu, including links to other posts, banners, carousels, sliders, service boxes, hero units (for site information and promotions), columns, alert boxes, buttons, and so on.
There are even widgets available to display photo streams, custom post cycles, social icons, ads (up to 4 separate 125×125 pixel ads), recent comments, recent posts, and vCards. Sliders come stock as well. There are two types: the standard horizontal and the accordion type; both one come with an image, caption and URL for each slide; and of course, their appearances are customizable.
Compatibility
For example, many complain that the reliance on shortcodes makes it difficult for users to migrate their templates to another parent framework. I would reply that you’ve got to really know which framework you want to work with before you start building multiple child themes on top of it, but the migratory wanderlust does occasionally force us from our comfort zones. That and/or other migrating mitigating circumstances. Along the same lines, custom post types in Cherry could make switching to another theme much more difficult, and recreating them under a new framework might indeed be irritating.
Fortunately, all Cherry templates available on TemplateMonster are already compatible with the latest version of Cherry and the associated plugin responsible for short codes. So if you follow any of the links in this article, you should be in the clear. Even so, issues do occasionally arise, so there’s a responsive support team available to field any complaints.
Everything is Sunshine and Roses
Well, nothing’s perfect, and it’d be downright dishonest of me not to mention the following:
Though Cherry child themes can look great, they’re often not spectacular. Despite this, cost for the child themes is fairly consistent. While the framework is always free, downloading custom WP templates built with Cherry can set you back a buck. Many child themes range from $75 to $115, although you do have to option to bundle with other services for an additional fee. You also have the option to buyout a child theme. Buyouts cost much more, but you do get exclusive use for the extra cheddar.
Conclusion
In summation, I’d say that the big benefits to the Cherry framework are ease of use and customization. There isn’t anything particularly groundbreaking about Cherry, but it does exactly what’s required by 99.9% of WP users. Last time I checked, usability and broad appeal are exactly the areas in which WordPress really excels, and it’s exactly why they currently dominate the CMS market.
What do you think about Cherry? Are you impressed with the framework? Let us know in the comments.
CherryFramework is not more a framework than any other poorly coded theme that you see on certain premium theme markets.
1. Install.
– ”This theme requires the following plugin: Contact Form 7.”
– This theme recommends the following plugin: MotoPress Content Editor.
Say what? Having a framework relying on a third-party plugin (even if it’s a good one straight from the WordPress.org Plugin Directory) is not what you expect from a Framework.
The MotoPress Content Editor plugin is a commercial plugin with a commercial license not compatible with the GPL what so ever (and by including the plugin itself in the Framework, the CherryFramework may break the GPL license which it ships with).
It’s failing already from the beginning.
2. Ok, installed and activated. Wait a minute. The ”Framework” has installed and activated plugins without my knowledge silently in the background. While it’s good practice to keep plugin functionality separate from a theme, it’s not good practice to do like this. You can get blacklisted for less.
3. Oh, a everlasting nag! ”Import Sample Data – If you want to install sample data from livedemo you need to go to Import Content and follow the tips.”. Ok, where is the livedemo sample data? Looking for it in the theme folder, but nothing. Looking for it on CherryFramework site. Nothing. Looking for in the online documentation. ”Open “theme/sample_data” directory from the template package”. There is no ”theme/sample_data” directory”. Ok, so i skip this.
4. Cherry Options. Hooray! A special Options Page for everything in a Theme Framework! At last! Yes, i’m being sarcastic. And wow! They ALSO using the WordPress Theme Customization API for SOME options (but not all).
You have the amazing option to display a Cookie Banner!
5. Theme Check.
– Places without the theme text domain (for used for localizations).
– The theme uses shortcode functionality (why then even bother to bundle a separate plugin?
– ”Found ini_set in the file Requirements.php. Themes should not change server PHP settings.” WT*?
– ”WARNING: Found base64_decode in the file Shortcode.php. base64_decode() is not allowed.”
– ”WARNING: web.config Server settings file found.”
– ”WARNING: readfile was found in the file download_backup.php File operations should use the WP_Filesystem methods instead of direct PHP filesystem calls.”
– ”WARNING: fwrite was found in the file (a couple of files) File operations should use the WP_Filesystem methods instead of direct PHP filesystem calls.”
– ”REQUIRED: The theme uses the register_taxonomy() function, which is plugin-territory functionality.”
– ”REQUIRED: The theme uses the register_post_type() function, which is plugin-territory functionality.”
– ”REQUIRED: The tags can only contain a call to wp_title(). Use the wp_title filter to modify the output”
– ”REQUIRED: Please remove any extraneous directories like .git or .svn from the ZIP file before uploading it.”
– ”REQUIRED: Found a Customizer setting that did not have a sanitization callback function. Every call to the add_setting() method needs to have a sanitization callback function passed.”
– ”REQUIRED: screen_icon() found in the file motopressOptions.php. Deprecated since version 3.8.”
– ”REQUIRED: screen_icon() found in the file class-tgm-plugin-activation.php. Deprecated since version 3.8.”
– ”REQUIRED: (numerous of files). Themes should use add_theme_page() for adding admin pages.”
– ”REQUIRED: image_resize() found in the file aq_resizer.php. Deprecated since version 3.5. Use wp_get_image_editor() instead.”
– ”REQUIRED: get_theme_data() found in the file update.php. Deprecated since version 3.4. Use wp_get_theme() instead.”
-”REQUIRED: get_bloginfo(‘url’) was found in the file update.php. Use home_url() instead.”
– ”REQUIRED: bloginfo(‘url’) was found in the file update.php. Use echo esc_url( home_url() ) instead.”
– ”Hard-coded links were found in the file locals.php.”
– ”INFO: seo_settings_page.php The theme appears to use include or require. If these are being used to include separate sections of a template from independent files, then get_template_part() should be used instead.”
It was just 32 A4 Papers of errors, warnings, notices and infos. While some of them could be ”explained”, most of them is just not looking good.
And the Framework is using ”@import “css/style.css”;” oh lord…
And yay! Another thing that is not GPL compatible! (elastislide). And The Framework is using a old version of aq_resizer.
To be honest, this ”Framework” is more of a snippets cut & paste theme without no serious organization or quality. It really doesn’t matter if the ”Framework” was developed for a older version of WordPress.
They really need to refactor the whole thing and start over again.
Thanks for the honest feedback Christopher.
I have asked Helen to reply to your comment and will be interested in what she has to say about your feedback.
Christopher, thank you for an honest and emotional comment.
I’ll gladly answer your questions
1. Yes, we use some 3rd party plugins, like Contact Form 7. Such plugins enrich the functionality of the Cherry Framework.
We don’t think there’s something bad about it.
Btw, it seems more and more theme developers are moving functionality into plugins
http://wptavern.com/wordpress-theme-shops-move-towards-preserving-data-portability
http://wptavern.com/why-wordpress-theme-developers-are-moving-functionality-into-plugins
Please expect to see much more of this trend in the upcoming version of the Cherry Framework
You see, we don’t violate the GPL license by adding a commercial plugin to our framework.
Moreover, the plugin is recommended, but not required.
2. Most of our users love one-click installation. And we love helping users to get what they want.
That’s why our framework comes with this feature
3. “sample_data” is not available on CherryFramework site. You get it once you buy a Cherry WordPress theme on templatemonster.com
4. We didn’t want to hide the options page, really. And I should say you’re the only one who had trouble finding it. At least, you’re the first to mention this
5. We already know about it, but thank you for mentioning.
We’ll pay more attention to the information we get from the Theme Check plugin to ensure our framework is effective and easy to work with.