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
273 Comments
Keep up the good work! 10q
Thank you
This plugin is great! I've been using it for a few weeks now while I tweak a design that I plan on switching to in the near future. Thank you!
Just released version 2.0 with some very cool new features like Instant Theme Preview!
This was exactly what I was looking for. WordPress.org should incorporate this plugin into their next release. It's so practical!
@Mandy
Yes, that's exactly that, what the plugin does. If the theme has an option page, you can edit things there without any change to the reader but the admin
This sounds like a very interesting plugin as I am thinking of changing my theme at the moment. I'm going to give it a go.
Can you change or add things to the theme that you're viewing and it not appear to the readers?
very good!!thank you very much~~~
hi. Thanks for plugin
perfect.
regards
你的插件的地址变化了哦！
eu que test drive apartir de 20R$
Great plugin, thanks !
Thanks http://www.trword.net
WRG-E-Commerce, Web Sites, Publicidade e MegaOmni - WRG
Muito Bom! Congratulations!
Eklentiyi Türkçe de kullanabilirsiniz.
Thanks for this useful plugin.
Turkish Version
Amazing and so effortless! Thanks a ton for this plugin, I will blog about it!
Your plugin is terrific! It certainly beats disabling the site via the Maintenance Mode plugin in order to tweak a new theme.
"to your folder" ...
You must upload the plugin in your own plugin folder of your wordpress blog, it has nothing to do with vladimir's plugin folder. normally you need a ftp (file transfer protocol) software. once you uploaded the plugin, you can activate in your admin area. if a new version has been released (theme test drive 1.1.1) you can also update with the new technique in wordpress 2.5 - just type in your ftp settings and wordpress does everything else.
@Vladimir: I'm going to translate version 1.1.1 now. But i also keep 1.1 on my server, because not everyone is using 2.5 :-)
Greetings,
Pascal
Hi Vladimir,
Greetings. I guess this is very trivial question, but it totally stumps me. Could you please tell me how to upload the plugin folder to your /wp-content/plugins/ folder? Where do I access this? I would be grateful if you could let me know. Thanks.
Sankar.
Simply great! :)
I rescind my comment. I guess it was operator error. I finally got my site reinstalled and working. Enabled the plug in and things are fine.
I can't duplicate the cause so don't spend any time researching this one. Sorry.
@Michael: great suggestion, will tinker on it.
@giulio: Grazie!
geniale!!!!!
dovrebbe essere un'opzione già inclusa in wordpress...magari nella prossima versione?!...
Hi,
suggestion:
wouldn't it be nice to have a link/button near by each Theme-Image to in the Admin Backend "Design-"/alias/"Presentation-"/alias/"Themes-" Page to Test-Drive a theme!?
It blanked out my site as well. I may have misunderstood how it worked. Once I selected one theme then another. I don't know if it worked on the first theme as that was the active theme.