Theme Test Drive WordPress plugin allows you to safely test drive any theme on your blog as administrator, while visitors still use the default one. It happens completely transparently and they will not even notice you run a different theme for yourself. Best part is you can even set the testing theme options (if it has them) in the Admin panel while you are testing the theme.
Since version 2.0 Theme Test Drive features instant theme preview using a website thumbnail service.
You can also preview any theme by adding "?theme=xxx" to your blog URL. For example http://www.myblog.com/?theme=Default (theme name is case-sensitive!)
For all questions about the plugin please visit my WordPress forums.
Download
Installation & Usage
- Upload the plugin folder to your /wp-content/plugins/ folder.
- Go to the Plugins page and activate the plugin.
- Use the Options page to set the theme you want to test drive.
The selected theme will be visible only to blog administrator. Other visitors of the site will always see the default theme.
Note: if you use WP-Cache plugin, you might need to disable it (or setup to exclude pages)
Changelog
v2.6: Added user access level
v2.0:
- Instant theme preview using a live thumbnail preview
- Added "?theme=xxx" to your URL's to preview the desired theme. Example http://www.myblog.com/?theme=Default
Nov 29th, 2007 v1.0
* Initial release
Visit my other interesting WordPress Plugins or my WordPress theme Amazing Grace.
If you are looking for WordPress consulting services feel free to contact me
278 Comments
I disabled theme test drive and now my widgets will not drag to the sidebar. I was using WordPress 3.1.2. How can I fix this? I need to know asap. Thanks
I'm having the same problem as some have reported over on the WP forums: After enabling TTD, all of my active sidebar widgets disappear.
You can login via FTP and delete the plugin folder. That is a sure way to disable any plugin.
I notice when I'm using theme test drive and testing the theme headway, when I add plugins, it erased all the plugins I have up on the regular site.
So then I have disable theme drive, go back and put all the widgets back in their place. and then use theme test drive again. It seems I can test the theme but not put plugins in.
Is this the case?
Headway? Do you mean this:
http://headwaythemes.com/
If you do, I'm guessing Test drive is (somewhat) incompatible with a system that's already designed to give you great amounts of flexibility and drag and drop and Ajax functionality and all that. It's quite a lot of technology you're putting into the backend of your site.
I've never used a system like Headway, but I can imagine how it could create problems for Test drive.
help
i have installed and enabled "TEST DRIVE" and it is not working. in the root directory I have a index.html file that I want the public to see while I am setup my WP site. When I am in the admin panel the link I get is the index.html file.
any suggestions.
A URL might help...
While you're testing a new look, the site should look the same as usual to everyone else but you. Ummm... are you talking about a temporary page while you work? That's not what Theme test drive does. It lets *you* look at the site with a different look while everyone else (who's not an admin) sees the site as usual. There's no change or disruption for them. That way you can update and modify the files for the new look without ruining the site for everyone else. There's no need to set up a temporary "we're under construction" type page. That's the whole point.
Hi Michelle, I'm having the same issue as the one I think Bruce has described. I've installed WordPress for the first time on http://www.adjuice.co.uk , activated a new theme and the theme test drive plugin. I still get the existing index.html unless I actually delete that index file and then the theme shows up. But that defeats the object of the exercise. Any ideas?
Actually, I just realized you both said index.html.
You shouldn't have an index.html, your themes should all have index.php files in them. If not, I suspect you're out of luck. And no, renaming the files probably won't help (though you're welcome to try).
HTML files are static, where PHP files are dynamic; that means the contents change depending on a series of preetermined conditions (for instance, is this a post or a page? Are comments allowed? etc etc in a dizzying array of choices, depending how the PHP file is configured).
However, by default, most servers will *always* read an HTML file before reading a PHP file, unless you tell it otherwise. The easiest way to do this I know of is through an htaccess file. You want this in the htaccess file (there should be one in your WordPress folder):
# BEGIN WordPress
DirectoryIndex index.php index.html index.htm
Lemme know if that works, I'm curious.
Hi Michelle,
Thanks for your reply. I did try your suggestion just now but without any luck. In fact it took my live site down for a few moments because the existing redirects in the htaccess file caused complications.
Your comment "you shouldn't have an index.html, your themes should all have index.php files in themes" clearly does not apply to me since I explained in my earlier comment that I'm not switching between existing themes but installing WordPress for the first time so there are no other themes.
I think this plugin presupposes that the test driver has an existing theme in place and wishes only to toggle between that and the one he wishes to test drive. That's not the situation I'm in. I want to test drive a theme on a domain where the live site does not use WordPress.
I'll look out for any further reply but I have in the meantime started testing on a different domain in the belief that this plugin was not designed for the circumstances applying to me.
Please let me know if I'm reading it wrong.
Great plug-in thanks for the update, only problem is I can never find a replacement theme that equals or betters the one I've already got :)
Wel.... slight problem. Now I can't access the "Theme Option" page for the theme I'm test driving.
It used to be I could turn on Theme Test Drive and, while regular users saw the site normally, I'd edit the theme I was testing to my heart's content. That is no longer possible.
Until this is fixed (or determined to be unfixable), where can I find the previous version? thanks.
Wow cool, quick turnaround time on the fix, thanks Vladimir! :)
Great plugin!
One thing I though of would to have the ability to show the theme to certain user roles. Say show the theme to Admin and Contributers as well as an example.
Jordan
Would it be possible to have this visible to vistors so they are able to select the theme? Alan
nice plug in, i use it over there, http://greenhost.gr , and it was helpfull
If I have a HTML website currently on the server and I would like everyone to see that page while I'm working on the NEW WordPress Site. Is this possible with this plugin?
This is something I do quite frequently. The easiest way is to install WordPress in a subdirectory which you then make password-protected. Upload a static index.html file to the root directory which will be your holding page (this will not be connected to your WordPress install at all). When you're ready to launch the site, you need to tell the WordPress backend and the database to redirect to the subdirectory you've set up when people visit the root directory. And don't forget to remove the password protection! When you get to that stage, I recommend looking in the WordPress codex.
Great plugin! It's exactly what I was looking for and it works fine on WP 3.0.1.
After install a theme by plugin menu, it cant be deleted (don't have permission to do this) =/
Thank you so much! This plugin works perfectly with wordpress 3.01 and makes tinkering with my site so much easier.
could there be a bug with the new trunk changes and the latest version of theme test drive (?)
i cannot choice the theme anymore in the theme testdrive panel under trunk of wordpress (?)
have a nice day & thank you for all your work
Awesome plug-in idea, but it looks like it no longer works with the latest version of WordPress, v3.0.1?
Please let the world know if it's updated.
Thanks,
Ansel
Awesome plugin, really easy to use and works kinda like Magic! Well done Vladimir ;)
Fantastic plugin. I am beside myself with gratitude! Thank you so much for sharing your expertise :)
Amazing... it works. Thanks form creating nice and useful plugin.
This plugin is amazing, and it WORKS with WP 3.01. I've been looking for something like this forever. Why isn't something like this bundled with WP?????
This is awesome.
Other theme switchers broke widget settings from theme to theme.
The ability to add an argument for a theme at the end of the URL (?theme=xxx) is the best part and spared me putting the theme switcher into the design.
Thanks!
Really nice job done there.
Works perfectly fine with wordpress 3.0.1 on my site
I've just have to force reaload and voila !!
I would like to use the Theme Test Drive plug-in. However, I see that VoiD says that this plug-in does not work with Word-Press 3.0 (post on June 18th). I have Word-Press 3.0. Has this plug-in been modified yet to work with Word-Press 3.0? If your answer is "no" or "not yet", this is ok-- I just need to know before I proceed with my website development. Thank you for your time.
It works normally with 3.0, WP is not always right
Hi! When i came to wordpress 3.0, theme test drive stop working. i very need it. help, plz.
I want to find a plugin which is related to theme managment ! Because I am going to build-up a themes sharing website which is similar to http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://www.wordpressthemesbase.com/ Can anyone help me to find out that plugin use to manage themes download?
Thank you !