There was another significant change. For single posts that are actually attachments, WordPress looks for a template file in the theme directory that makes the abbreviated mime-type. For JPEG image (image/jpeg), WordPress will look for a template file named image.php in the current theme directory.

If that file isn’t present, it then looks for attachment.php and then falls back on single.php. So each theme includes a new file, image.php. The general attachment file remains and was modified accordingly.

For Sandboxers, the relevant changesets from version 1.5 to the just-released version 1.5.2 are 247, 248, 249, 250, 251, 252, and 253. So now go on and enjoy new themes.

This means if you using the Sandbox /trunk/ with WordPress 2.3.x and you svn up, well, you’re going to get some errors. Apologies.

There are also a number of new classes for the body: body.page-parent, body.page-child. My favorite new class, though, is the new .untagged class for posts without tags.

So far WordPress hasn’t provided a good way to search for untagged posts. Well, add

.untagged {
   color: #F00;
}

and you’ll figure out quickly which posts are untagged. Crude, but fun.

I’m quite excited about the use of get_avatar and much richer hCards for commentators. You’ll now see the appropriate use of a.url for commentators with links and img.photo with avatars.

I also looked at how to best use the new is_front_page() function. There has always been a body.home class, so now I had to differentiate .home and, well, something else.

So right now we have is_front_page() producing body.home and is_home() producing body.blog. As the front page will be the, er, home page, and the home page will be the page with blog posts.

So chew on that sentence and then figure it out.

So what’s new with the latest version? Mainly it now features several localizations, including Chinese, Japanese, Italian, and Norwegian. I’d like to add more languages, so I’m hoping there are some international users out there willing to help translate. Please.

For those of you interested in a precise change log, I’m happy that Google Code has stepped up and is offering a much better UI. Much better. So you can browse the repository online and check out exactly what is new.

Special thanks to Kjell Knudsen for providing the Norwegian translation and the sandbox.pot file. Nokao has been kind enough to provide the Italian translation.

Subversion users can get the latest version from the Sandbox repository:

svn checkout http://sandbox-theme.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/

Kjell was kind enough to provide an outline on how to help translate on the Sandbox project home, Sandbox in Your Language. When you have your .mo and .po files ready to submit, just open a ticket on the Sandbox project home and I’ll email you for the files.

And I’m excited to be opening up the Sandbox to a wider audience—the non-English speaking world. A much wider audience.

Issue 48 resolves the stripping of whitespace in sandbox_globalnav(), the list of pages that occurs in header.php. Thanks to Adam.

Issue 49 resolves a problem with the new wp_link_pages() function parsing incorrectly.

Issue 51 fixes an i18n problem with translation of the text “and tagged” in single.php and attachment.php. Thanks to Lloyd.

Enjoy your holidays.

Alister Cameron, WordCamp Melbourne (video permalink)

Of greater interest, a number of fixes and updates went in to Sandbox, though nothing affecting design or layout but just internals. This only applies to Sandbox 1.0, which is for WordPress 2.3.x.

And there’s actually a bit more coming soon. Wink, wink.

Please report any issues, bugs, or enhancement requests over at the Sandbox bug tracker.

If you’ve been watching the repository, you’ll also have noticed that in the 1.0 version, the previously packaged ’skins’ have been changed. Instead they are separate downloads and are their own ‘theme templates.’

Additionally, you may have noticed that the packaging of Sandbox with WordPress has been slated for the 2.4 release and will be sadly missing from 2.3. Sigh. Yet if WordPress development continues at its break-neck rate that only means a delay of three months.

And we’re all quite aware of the pace I manage to work at.

If you’ve been watching the Sandbox repository, you may have noticed two branches now existing: v0.9 and v1.0. Let me explain.

Version 1.0 is designed specifically for WordPress 2.3 and utilizes its native support of tagging. That means additional semantic class names for tags. Additionally, there had been a number of functions that had to do a bit more work since they had to work seamlessly with WordPress versions 2.0.x, 2.1.x, and 2.2.x. Those have been simplified to be 2.3-specific. All deprecated tags have been dropped, too.

Version 0.9 is exactly the same as 1.0, except it retains some of those exotic functions and works with pretty much any WordPress version (at least 2.0.x and later). It doesn’t have any incorporated native tagging support. This version will remain around so that 2.0.x legacy users will be able to use the Sandbox as well.

For fun I’ve also added the milestone versions from v0.1 to v0.8 in the repository. These are quite entertaining if you’ve been following the development of the Sandbox for the past 13 months.

Finally, there are some bugs in v1.0. Mostly with tags. As developing for pre-release software is rather difficult, I’ve found.

You thoughts and comments on where the Sandbox stands are welcomed.

Anyhow, check out The Designs. You can leave comments on the individual design pages, so let us know what you think.