Headway 3 Updates
Since Headway 3.0 was released, Headway Themes has set some lofty goals for creating the upgrade path for the “old” Headway Theme and the release of the new Headway Child Themes. They had intended to make an an easy upgrade from 2.0.13 to Headway 3.0. Since then, there have been several updates to version 3.0. Unfortunately, there have been other issues that pushed back the time frame to get out the upgrade path for the Headway 2.0.13 version.
Interestingly, within the community, it appears that websites continue to be developed with 2.0.13. That actually does not surprise me – being that most of us users tend to typically do what we can with what we have and make the best of things. Many of the 2.0.13 version users are taking advantage of this wait time to update the designs of their websites from version 2.0.13 to version 3.0.5. Again, somehow that does not surprise me. Obviously, this might not be possible for everyone to do, but it is refreshing to to see it being done and know that it is it is possible.
What about the Headway Child Themes?
Headway Themes has also been trying to work on getting the Headway Child Themes marketplace up and running. I am told that Headway Themes does, in fact, actually have several new blocks and child themes ready to go but they still have not found a solution to how they want to distribute them. Headway Themes speculated that setting up the child theme marketplace and the configuring the distribution process would not take much time if they used one of the available e-commerece plugins. However, they soon discovered that the plugin of choice, as well as the other existing plugins would need too much customization to work the way they wanted. It was determined that a better solution would be to just build their own system. This is causing yet another unfortunate delay in getting the child theme marketplace up and running.
So what does this mean for all of us who purchased or are already using Headway Themes products? Well, here is the good news: The support for the 2.0.13 version users is being extended. You might be wondering for how long? For now, indefinitely. As far as the rest of us who now have the new Headway 3.0+ theme version – we continue to await (still mostly excitedly) for the release of the new Headway Child Themes.
How Long Will We Wait for Headway Child Themes?
So, is having to wait bad news? I guess, it depends on your perspective.
Like the many Headway 2.0.13 version users who continue to develop, I encourage all of the new Headway 3.0+ users to take advantage of the time and be productive. Why not create some of your own child themes?
Don’t wait for things to happen, make things happen!
And let me know if you are interested in making your Headway Child Themes available in the Child Theme Store.
I think building their own solution is definitely an interesting move, and I speculate that we’ll even see a commercial product come out of it at some point.
My concern, though, is how long will the marketplace take? Building custom content solutions is a long process, for a valid reason, you want everything to work. But I think they should go with the “bare essentials” approach and get something that works, works well, and is easy to manage. Anything past that point is polish. Pretty things are nice, but at the end of the day, the people just want their child themes.
Headway needs to kick it in gear. I’m tired of their excuses, bad upgrade plan that renders earlier versions invalid, etc.
I really like the ease of use. but at what point to you give that up for stuff that just works? Very frustrating!
Looks like they have it “in gear” regarding the upgrade path… http://ultimatesolution.biz/themes/headway-themes-making-headway-with-3-1.
And, there never really was a “need” to upgrade to the newest version if you were happy with the pre 3.0 version. The older one works just fine and is certainly not invalid.
It is common for major version changes to completely replace earlier versions. It is just one of the cons (as well as a pro, really) of working with open source code and WordPress.
Headway 3.0 works. It just had some of the typical initial bugs to work through. Having a little experience with understanding what has to happen with these changes gave me a whole new respect for the developers I hope you decide to stick around and reap the rewards of their hard work.
We are pleased to finally be able to officially announce the grand opening
of our new Headway Marketplace.
When: Wednesday, June 13th, 2012
Where: http://headwaythemes.com
The new marketplace is officially called Headway Extend and we are really
excited with what this is going to offer to our customers and those
developing products for Headway Themes.
Headway Extend will open with our first selection of child themes and
blocks. There will be official Headway child themes and blocks. Plus, we
have some awesome 3rd party child themes and blocks in the initial
selection too.
The Headway Team plans to add new child themes monthly. Plus we plan to
continue to add Headway blocks to the inventory. Clay, I and the rest of
the Headway Team firmly believe the new blocks will add to the power
Headway Base already provides to our customers. The initial selection of
Headway Blocks are just a small sampling of what we coming. We plan to
introduce new blocks on a regular basis.
**Why was their such a delay?**
First of all, we would like to take just a moment to thank all of you for
your patience the last number of months as we worked our tails off to get
Headway Extend up and going. Needless to say, Clay and I are not happy
this took so long and I know some of you lost some faith in us and for that
we hope we can gain your trust back again. We also know it did take too
long. However, there is a reason we did not push the marketplace out when
we planned. Let me take a moment to explain.
We initially hoped we could use an already made solution available out
there in the WordPress plugin world to do what we wanted Headway Extend to
do. We looked at all of the major ecommerce plugins and some non-WordPress
solutions. The solution was just not there to do what we wanted or needed
in an ecommerce marketplace like Headway Extend. While there are some
amazing products out there. We had certain functions and elements to make
Headway Extend work the best it could for you, our customers. We wanted to
make it as easy as possible for you to grab those add-ons you wanted to
extend the function and power of your Headway built site.
To that end, Clay and his Team set out to basically build an ecommerce
plugin from scratch to do what we wanted it to do. In a sense, they built
an entirely new product. Once we get Headway Extend open, I am hoping we
can share some screenshots of the backend. I truly believe you will be
amazed at the power behind Headway Extend.
And that is why there was such a delay. It was not that we were not able
to build child themes or that building child themes was difficult. Those
have been done for sometime. The issue was that we did not have a system
to get them in your hands that worked like we demand.
Thanks Grant!
We just got your email and are really looking forward to this! Sometimes it pays to wait and be patient so things end up better than expected. I cannot wait to see them.
After all this talk, they still have not released the market place!
They are HERE!!!
I got a note today that because of some last minute WP changes the WP 3.4 release was the cause of this last little delay… But, I have seen them, they really DO exist. I hope you decide to give them another chance and make the best of the delay.
Here is how you get there: Click here —>Headway. Once there, select Extend in the top menu, then Themes!
They also have some awesome looking Blocks to help add some additional functionality too!