Hi,

There are sites (like colorschemedesigner dot com) that help someone pick a coordinated color scheme for their site. I found a web API that will give you a set of hex values for all your colors, given certain paramaters. (One time, you manually pick some color-theory-based settings and preferences and it gives you a scheme ID; henceforth you give it a scheme ID and it gives you back, via HTTP, all the colors for that scheme.)

What's the quickest way to inject a whole coordinated set of hex colors into a site based on the Atahualpa theme? Is there any way to set it up (one-time effort) so that subsequent new schemes can be installed without having to manually edit a large number of places (CSS entries)?


EDIT:

More specifically, is there a repeatable/programmatic (or other quick) way to get the color values from an array like this:

Array (
    [col1] => primary,230-66-23,143-80-63,109-25-3,249-138-109,249-191-176
    [col2] => secondary-a,230-97-23,143-92-63,109-41-3,249-159-109,249-202-176
    [col3] => secondary-b,227-23-28,142-62-64,108-3-5,248-109-112,248-176-177
)

...into the corresponding CSS entries?
[NOTE: they will actually be standard hex color codes, not decimal R-G-B values as in the demo result above.]

EDIT: Further clarification: First choice would be a single place to just dump the array "as is", but of course probably no WP theme has that! Second choice, I guess, would be a list of all the color entries, all near each other, so that one could copy the hex values to a small block of CSS and have then override the corresponding CSS entries sprinkled around the site.

Do you have a list of all the CSS entries that constitute all the ingredients of the "color scheme?"

Thank you!

EDIT: Sorry, I didn't see the "general" forum. I should have posted this there instead. If I knew how to move it, I would.

there are 30 places in the style.css and over 100 places where color can be set in the options, plus the fact that that thru CSS inserts yo can change others and this could extend to plugins that you activate.
If you want a programmatic method of inserting all the colors, I'd suggest setting them all, then do an SQL dump of the wp-option table looking for all entries starting with BFA (you can just dump those entries - search the forum for export.php)

At that point, you could decide which option should fall into which color scheme and then create SQL updates to change the colors.

I'm not trying to be funny, just trying to point out the amount of effort it would take. There is a post with a table of options and colors, but I can't find the post at the moment.

Thanks! I can just modify the color values in the database directly, right? (That seems to be a good, compact place where they're all near each other.)

EDIT:

This query seems to give me all relevant rows:

SELECT * FROM `wp_options` WHERE `option_name` LIKE 'bfa%' AND (`option_name` LIKE '%color%' OR `option_value` LIKE '%color%' OR `option_value` LIKE '%#%')

Juggledad,

There is a post with a table of options and colors, but I can't find the post at the moment.

Was this the post to which you were referring? The second reply in this thread has a link to an XLS (CVS) that contains the primary style points.

http://forum.bytesforall.com/showthread.php?t=2062

Hope this helps.

fromtheranks
That's the one! I knew you would add a link to it. Thanks!

ardee
sure you can do it that way, I'll be interested in how it goes. Please report your progress.

Juggledad,

I ran across a couple of minor updates to my styles XLS last night. If I update this to my attachements with the same file name, will it replace the existing copy that's been already attached and linked too?

Thanks in advance.

I'm thinking it should, give it a try, then download it and see it it is the new one.

Revisiting this thread over a year later....

Have there been any notable changes to Atahualpa in the intervening period regarding color schemes / skins? Again, I refer to the ability to select entire color schemes rather than edit all the colors separately.

I have run across a tool called "Artisteer" which purports to generate WP themes more or less "on the fly" based on color scheme suggestions it makes (and tweaks you make to them), but I've heard that it generates messy code and it also looks like extreme overkill for my needs, so I'm looking again at Atahualpa and wondering if skinning has been changed in 13 or so months.

Thanks for any feedback!

There are some default theme "Styles" that you can start with but it still is more of a blank slate which is what makes is so powerful.

I bought and have used Artisteer and keep coming back to Atahualpa because of the flexibility. Artisteer is a theme maker and not a theme in itself so once you have it installed if you want to make changes you have to edit the theme and install the new one. Not a big deal but I like going into the theme options and tweaking. I can generate "suggestions" but they all tend to have the same look and feel. I just find it quicker to design in Atahualpa.

Atahualpa now has an export and import function for theme setting so people with the same version could swap theme styles if they like.

BTW I have also tried Thesis, Builder, Elegant Themes, and others. Atahualpa always comes out on top.

For me it is function before form and so far Atahualpa wins hands down.

lmilesw, thanks for the detailed response!

I do think Atahualpa is amazing, I just lack confidence in my artistic sensibilities to create nice color combos ... and also in my focus to edit numerous settings as one atomic operation.

I guess, like last year, it comes down to keeping really good track of just which color settings are where and which ones "go together" so you can edit them all at once, plus keeping track of the all values you want to enter in order to try out each color scheme.

I am not a color expert either but I know what I like and rely on color scheme generators, other peoples ideas, and other sites for inspiration. The big deal with the latest version of Atahualpa is that if you get something you like but want to try some other ideas you can export the settings (title them something like blue setting), try some new things, export the setting (title them red settings). Then you can import either back in. This is a lot easier than trying to keep notes of all the setting.

Thank you again lmilesw. I see you are in Central NY State? I grew up right outside Syracuse. :-)

You mentioned that you tried the Builder theme framework. I just learned of that yesterday, and it's sort of interesting in the way it gives you control over the main page area without having to edit PHP. But it seems to have different features, strengths, and weaknesses from Atahualpa or Artisteer. I could imagine a tool/theme that does what all three of those do, but I guess that's a pipe dream. At this stage I'll bypass Artisteer but may take a closer look at Builder.

What did you think of Builder?

I live close to Syracuse... Small world. Builder still doesn't give me the flexibility I want in a theme. There are a bunch of child themes which give you a head start but I still keep coming back to Atahualpa. You do need to get familiar with CSS but that is the same with Builder, Thesis, and many other themes out there. Another tool in the works is Themeframe which is built by Flynn who is the author of Atahualpa. It isn't a theme but a theme build and is pretty much all WYSIWYG. For the non coders out there it's wonderful. That will be a premium tool however. There is still a learning curve as there is with any theme or theme builder that allows for a lot of configuration but it is pretty intuitive. You can still get into the Themeframe members forum for a donation of $80. After you have checked out things and think you have made a decision please post your choice before committing to anything as sometimes the things you think a tool will do is not accurate. For my money ($0) Atahualpa is still my theme of choice. You ought to check out the "Showing Off" thread and you will see some pretty neat ways people have used Atahualpa.

Regarding the Syracuse area: I attended the Jamesville-DeWitt school district my entire childhood, graduating in 1977. I lived down the road from Drumlins. Are these familiar to you?

Regarding Atahualpa: what would you say is the quickest way to try out a new set of colors for the entire site? Are there any shortcuts to individually entering each color, across numerous settings pages?

My aunt lived on Colvin St. right around the corner from Drumlins.

There are no "easy" ways to add sets of colors as you mentioned unless someone wants to start creating "Style Sets" which is what the other themes have in a sense. They either have a limited set number of colors to choose from or child themes, etc.

I think I know what you would like and I don't think any of the theme builders will supply what you want. Even with something like Artisteer I had problems with colors at times and it was ofter more difficult to "fix" than with Atahualpa. I really like starting with a clean slate.

You might want to just look at various themes at WordPress.org. You limit your flexibility but you make the style process a lot easier. That's really the trade off. Easier equals less flexibility.

OK, let's assume that I DO go with Atahualpa and I DO wish to try out various color schemes....

Any tips/tricks/shortcuts on making this task go smoothly and reasonably quickly?

For example, last year I looked at doing a phpMyAdmin query that lists all the relevant entries on one page, editing them there, and saving the results. But perhaps that's slower than just remembering where they all reside on the various setup pages?

Thanks!!

Here is what I do.

• Install Atahualpa
• Import the initial setting file I want to use as a starting point. (these are all pretty neutral so are good starting points)
• Decide on a general color scheme (there are all sorts of online tools for this)
• Decide on a background (image, color, or gradient)
• Start going through the various sections of the Atahualpa Options and make changes to border colors, font colors, etc. that initially strike my fancy.

This sounds more complex than it is in practice. I like building sites a bit at a time. The neutral colors that I mentioned in the settings won't get in the way of your initial design and I usually leave them until I am confident of the direction I am going.

What I would recommend is to install Atahualpa on a test site and start playing. This will give you the best idea of what it can do and whether it is the tool for you.

Thanks so much lmilesw!

Last year I made a blog for my sister and I used Atahualpa. That's when I initially created this thread.

This year I'm looking to create a site for a friend's small company. But, more importantly to me, I'm considering doing more sites in the future and don't want to relearn everything every time (i.e., use a different theme by a different author each time), so I'm trying to "standardize" my tools and methods.

In general, I expect each client (of which I have exactly one currently) to want to look at a variety of prototypes for menu styles, fonts, color schemes, etc., before they pick which they like best. So that's the reason I was hoping to make it relatively easy (or at least mechanical) to try out multiple color schemes (really, skins) one after another. Just trying to avoid spending huge amounts of time just to present a variety of color schemes to potential clients in the future.

Your kind help has been greatly appreciated!

(I also had a different question to ask, regarding putting widgets in the main page area, and discovered that someone else had already asked it -- and YOU had answered it!)

Thank you!

Through experience I no longer give clients as many choices as I used too. It usually makes the design process slower. I ask them if they have colors they want to use and if they have any pictures and start building.