Updated WordPress Theme: Black Hat

May 26, 2009 by Nicki

This update contains several fixes and enhancements.

Details

Black Hat is a dark minimalist theme based on Adrian Diaconescu’s Corporate Sandbox, which is of course based on the Sandbox framework. It is has been built specifically with WordPress 2.7 in mind, but is also backwards compatible for version 2.6. (Sorry, I will no longer be supporting version 2.5 or older.)

Stickers icons courtesy of DryIcons. Favicon by Brian Brasher.

Features

Theme option for changing sidebar location – Pretty self-explanatory, there’s a theme option so that the sidebar can easily be moved from left to right and back again from within the WordPress admin panel. The sidebar can also be removed altogether using this option.

Sitemap template – If desired, you can create a sitemap for your blog by simply using this template.

Links page template – If desired, you can create a links page by simply using this template.

Printer-friendly stylesheet – Something I think a lot of users don’t think about until someone tries to print a post. Personally, I think all blogs should have these!

Admin & Login links – Many WordPress-savvy users don’t need a link to get to the Admin panel, but it’s nice for those of us who can’t remember the exact URL for it!

Favicon & “web clip” icon – Something else I think a lot of users don’t think about. Personally, I hope all my users replace these files with their own. A favicon helps your blog stand out, IMO. Web clip icons are used by iPhone and iPod touch users when adding a bookmark to the Home Screen.

Visual sticky post indicator – With the introduction of sticky posts in WordPress 2.7, I’ve noticed that it’s hard to tell if a post is sticky or not. I like visual aids, and this is one.

Easy to implement Feedburner links – By default, Black Hat features a feed icon linked to the blog’s RSS feed. This can be changed to a Feedburner RSS feed by simply updating the Theme Options page. Additionally, you can also add the Feedburner email subscription link for your feed.

Default and conditional feed options – By default, Black Hat includes the coding for the following feed types: RDF/RSS 1.0, RSS .92, RSS 2.0, Atom 0.3. The RSS feed for all comments for your blog is also included. (note: these are overwritten if using the Feedburner option instead)

Conditional feeds: If viewing a single post, the comment feed for that post is available. If viewing a category, the feed for all posts in that category is available. If viewing a tag, the feed for all posts with that tag is available.

Additional/SEO meta tags – When developing my themes, I take the liberty of adding many commonly used meta tags. Most of the information is automatically filled in via various WordPress commands and can easily be modified by the user.

Twitter integration – In the post footer (when you click on a post, not viewing the index or archive page), there is a “Share on Twitter” link. You can also display your latest Tweet in the sidebar by updating the Theme Options with your Twitter username.

Related Posts feature – This function looks at the tags for a post and finds all posts matching those tags. If no tags are specified for a post, this function will not show up. This function can be disabled via the Theme Options.

Customized default avatar (Gravatar) to match theme design – Black Hat includes an avatar to match the theme style. To use, you would simply login to the WordPress Admin panel and set the custom avatar as default.

More detailed information on these and other features can be found in the theme’s readme file!

Fixes

Comments displaying improperly (or not at all)

Related Posts function now matches all tags, not just the first one listed.

If a tag has been used only once, it is not included in the search.

If only one tag is used, and it has only been used once, Related Posts function will not show.

Comments and trackbacks now separated.

If both trackbacks and comments exists, comments count corrected.

Favicon corrected for backend (WP Admin).

Navigation links added to post single view.

Availability

Demo | Download

Filed under: Cool Stuff
Tagged as: Black Hat, Free stuff, Geek, theme design, Twitter, updates, WordPress

Comments

38 Responses to “Updated WordPress Theme: Black Hat”

Barry Martin on May 27th 2009 at 12:10 am

This is the cleanest, most legible ‘dark” theme out there. GREAT work!

Kudos…

Barry Martin´s last blog post: “All Buyers Are Liars”
- Nicki on May 29th 2009 at 8:41 am
  
  Thank you, Barry, I’m pleased that you like it.
Rick on May 27th 2009 at 6:34 pm

Hi Nicki –

Very happy to see this update… Will give it a spin.

So far so good.

Rick´s last blog post: Roofies
Rick on May 27th 2009 at 6:41 pm

more…. (did not allow me to save edited comment).

Is the main column width different?

I had some 320 px wide images that I could display 2 across that are now going on new lines.
- Rick on May 27th 2009 at 6:51 pm
  
  Last One (I hope)
  
  Comment above was difference in browsers.
  
  IE8 & FF give me one across.
  Google Chrome gives 2 across.
  
  Go figure.
  
  Rick´s last blog post: Roofies
  - Rick on May 28th 2009 at 2:21 pm
    
    Actually behavior is same for “default” template. “Classic” puts the pix side by side.
    
    Rick´s last blog post: Roofies
    - Nicki on May 29th 2009 at 8:43 am
      
      Hey Rick, thanks for stopping by and commenting.
      
      I think Google’s Chrome handles some padding differently than other browsers.
      
      Have a great weekend!
Chris on June 8th 2009 at 5:34 pm

Nicki:

I am using your black hat theme (v1.2) and am *really* new to PHP and the inner workings thereof. My question is about the “comment / trackback / share” bar that shows up on the individual posts. I was wondering if you could tell me painlessly (for you at least) how to add that to my pages.
Any help would be appreciated — thanks for your time. (I tried your contact form and it hung up, so if those show up, I apologize!)
- Nicki on June 11th 2009 at 6:58 pm
  
  Hi Chris,
  
  I’ll add that to my “to do” list. I don’t remember off the top of my head why that wasn’t added. I’m a little out of it for a few days, but will look into this and other feature suggestions when I’m well enough.
  
  Thanks for using my theme, and for stopping by!
  - Chris on June 12th 2009 at 9:09 am
    
    Thanks Nicki! After I posted my request, I read the posts above this one and realized I was asking a favor of someone getting ready for surgery. Sorry about that and I hope you get to feeling better soon.
    - Chris on June 18th 2009 at 9:23 am
      
      I think I got it working. I hunted and pecked until I found code that looked promising and pasted it where I thought it belonged. I only broke the template twice!
      
      Chris´s last blog post: Can we clip $10 of coupons in a year?
      - Nicki on June 18th 2009 at 11:16 am
        
        Hi Chris,
        
        Glad to hear that you were able to get it sussed out. And, I’m feeling a LOT better, thanks!
        
        Thanks for dropping by!
- Chris on July 1st 2009 at 10:20 pm
  
  Hey Nicki — I do have question for you that I haven’t been able to figure out on my own. Since I got the trackback stuff into my pages file, I was wondering how to get it onto the main page. Since I don’t use the ‘more’ feature, I wanted to add these to the main page… Thanks for any help in advance…
  
  Chris´s last blog post: Getting Motivated
Okey on June 13th 2009 at 4:39 pm

was a very nice article thank you I’d put my archive
John LaSala on June 19th 2009 at 11:01 am

Hey, I really like this theme! I’m trying it out and seeing if I can tweak it to suite my tastes. One question, however: any tips on how to give it a second sidebar?
- Nicki on June 22nd 2009 at 2:48 pm
  
  Hi John,
  
  Thanks for trying my theme. Having a second sidebar is actually on my “to do” list for the next update. If you are WP/CSS/HTML-savvy, you are free to try to add one yourself if you’d like.
  
  Thanks for stopping by!
Ana on July 4th 2009 at 9:40 am

Hi Nicki,

I tried to install this theme on a fresh wordpress install but got the following error:

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_ENDWHILE in C:\wamp\www\wordpress\wp-content\themes\black-hat\index.php on line 45

I tried to redownload the files and everything but I’m stuck. Any ideas as to what might have prompted this error?

Thanks in advance.
- Nicki on July 7th 2009 at 10:12 am
  
  I see that you’re running this locally, so I’ll need more information to try to troubleshoot the issue. What version of WAMP are you using? What version of WordPress? What version of PHP? And you are downloading the latest version from WordPress.org, correct?
  
  Thanks!
Dan Cooper on July 10th 2009 at 5:25 am

I use Black Hat on my blog. I love it! I’ve found very few dark themes that give each post it’s own ‘floating’ box that I like.

Thankyou!

Dan Cooper´s last blog post: Photobookery.
- Nicki on July 10th 2009 at 2:13 pm
  
  Thanks, Dan, I’m glad you like it. Thanks for stopping by!
JohnHeart on July 10th 2009 at 2:10 pm

I really like this theme. If you can workout the problem with IE7, this would be great! Thanks.
- Nicki on July 10th 2009 at 2:14 pm
  
  Hi John, what is it doing in IE 7?
JohnHeart on July 10th 2009 at 2:42 pm

This one.
- Nicki on July 10th 2009 at 2:49 pm
  
  Ah, that … I have not yet found a way around that; if I ever do, it will be added ASAP, but until then I will keep recommending Firefox.
David on August 3rd 2009 at 4:42 am

Thanks for the theme.
Have tested it out and it looks great. I’ll be using it in the future definately.

David
Dan Cooper on August 4th 2009 at 12:04 am

Hi Nicki,

I upgraded to the latest version of Black Hat and I’m using the built-in twitter display. Sometimes though, it throws some weird exception that me with my limited knowledge of webby stuff cannot explain. Somewhere between 1 and 5 applications of the F5 button usually rights the display, though.

Is there a known bug that might be causing this to happen? Is there anything I can do to prevent it?

-Dan
- Nicki on August 4th 2009 at 8:04 am
  
  Hi Dan, what does the exception/error message say? Or can you get a screenshot of it when it happens? Thanks!
  - Dan Cooper on August 4th 2009 at 5:34 pm
    
    Hi Nicki,
    
    True to Murphy’s Law, as soon as I mentioned this error to you, I couldn’t reproduce it for the first couple of attempts! The problem did reoccur though; here is the error message:
    
    Warning: file_get_contents(http://search.twitter.com/search.atom?q=from:phrantic_snr&rpp=1) [function.file-get-contents]: failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.1 503 Service Unavailable in /home/wwwdanc/public_html/wp-content/themes/black-hat-1/sidebar.php on line 53
    
    Is this error Twitter’s fault? Or sidebar.php’s?
    
    Any help would be appreciated.
    
    -Dan
    - Nicki on August 5th 2009 at 1:16 pm
      
      I blame Twitter.
      - Dan Cooper on August 6th 2009 at 12:30 am
        
        I figured it was Twitter’s error as well (too sporadic to be the theme’s), but I would be remiss in my duty as a theme-user if I didn’t at least bring it to your attention .
      - Nicki on August 6th 2009 at 7:36 am
        
        Very true, and I’m glad you did.
Alex6411 on August 22nd 2009 at 9:24 am

Love the theme. Very clean. I really like it.
Blackhat on August 25th 2009 at 7:48 pm

I love the theme and it is named after me!! I will be using it!! Thanks
Marco on September 2nd 2009 at 12:05 am

Dark, but great theme.
Predelahabana on September 14th 2009 at 9:38 am

Nicki:

Great Job!
Dark & Neat, yet simple and functional!…hard to ask for much more!

Q: Is it available in WordPress.com as a choice Theme?

I am hosting it locally with no prob whatsoever, happy w/ it, but unable to find it for a friend’s Blog…

Thanks!
- Nicki on September 14th 2009 at 9:44 am
  
  Unfortunately, no, this theme is not available to WordPress.com users. But if you ask nicely, maybe Automattic will consider adding it.
  - Predelahabana on September 14th 2009 at 11:02 am
    
    I will; Thanks a lot!
Lyle on September 21st 2009 at 4:57 pm

It should be a great help and a big time saver. Now I just need to get it tweeked to my needs.
THANK’S