Following the release of our Venture Joomla template late last week I have just released updates for all of our other Zen Grid Framework v4 (ZGF4) based themes - Xero, Rasa2, Focus2 and Venture.

This update adds two new features to the framework and a stack of improvements and a number of bug fixes.

Row Styles

Since the release of Xero - our first theme on ZGF4 - we have had numerous requests on tips for how to apply a full block of colour to specific rows of modules. As of v1.2 this is possible from within the template admin and without adding any new custom code.

The row style functionality can be found in the Theme Panel in the template admin.

The styles are referenced from the less/styles folder which means that you can add your own styles into the theme as well. Just add a file called mystyle-row.less in that folder and it will appear in the template settings as an option that can be applied to any of the rows listed. The new style is then added as a class for that row in your template markup eg .mystyle-row.

The new styles are automatically included in the framework compiler and are compiled into your template's css file.

Typekit Fonts

In addition to the framework font stacks and Google fonts it is also possible to use fonts from Typekit. Typekit offer an extensive range of quality fonts. It is a paid service but in my opinion the service is well worth the $2 to $4 per month.

To use Typekit fonts in your template simply specify the typekit idea and set your intended selector to inherit fonts from Typekit. Easy!

A Road Map (of sorts)

Now that the framework has reached a level of maturity we are beginning to think about the future direction of the framework.

To restate our aims we want the framework to be:

• Lightweight and fast

• Easily extendable

• Appeal to both developer and site builder

• Ensure that maintaining zgfv4 based themes requires a minimum of effort.

So with this in mind the features I am looking at for the next few iterations of the framework are:

• Expanded social media functionality. This would include the ability to easily add more social networks as well as embed share, like functionality in our content overrides.

• Better integration with Zentools. Mainly focussing on streamlining the use of assets to improve performance.

• A more fleshed out UI for controlling theme colours, layouts etc.

• Skeleton themes that allow for easily updating from older ZGF based themes and T3 themes.

What do you want to see?

We have had some great feedback on our forum regarding what they like and displike about the new framework, but we would love to hear more from you. What features is the framework missing? How can we improve what we have? What do you like about the framework? What could we remove from the framework?

In the meantime you can check the changelogs for the new updates for Rasa2, Xero, Focus2 and Venture.

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