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
267 Comments
Hi Vladimir!
Can you fix your fantastic plugin for work with WP 2.8?
Works great! This is a very useful plugin. Thanks.
Nice plugin. Thanks.
mersin
Nice plugin. thx :)
The plugin is great but dont work with WP 2.8. After activating, the admin panel become unusable. No access level stuff.
Than you.
This is the plugin I've been waiting for!
thanks you :)
this is very good and fantastic nice :)
Hello:
I wasn't clear as to whether or not there was an answer for me.
Will the plugin work if my index.php file is outside the wordpress directly and is located on the save located as the wordpress folder (public_html)? Or does the plugin expect to find the index.php file in the wordpress folder. Right now, putting index.php in the location described above shows the new theme but no content and a 404 error inside what would be the main content area.
Does not seem to work with WP 2.8. :(
Super!
Thank you Daniele.
This plugin really rocks, thank you Vladimir, I will post a review on my site...
thanks
” The plugin doesn’t have any advanced option to control. If you want to customize you can do it with the theme files.”
Okay, I think I see part of the problem, but I can still use some assistance.
I saw some directions on using "?theme=xxx," so I entered a theme name to test. When the theme was displayed in the browser, it was missing the content body.
My blog's address is http://www.urbanlandscapes.org. Not wanting to have /blog or /wordpress after the address, I moved the index.php file outside the /wordpress folder and up to the same level as the wordpress folder.
I'm not sure if the plugin is smart enough to be able to work even when index.php is outside the wordpress folder. I thought this info might help you out in order to help come up with a solution that will help me fix things.
Thanks again!
Hello:
For some reason, the plugin isn't working for me.
I tried it out on my WP blog, using WordPress 2.7.1. I'm able to choose a theme fine, but when I view it via the admin account the old site is still displayed. To me, it looks as if a theme is selected, but there's some sort of disconnect that prevents things from working properly.
Any assistance on how best to fix this would certainly be appreciated; thanks!
Velanche
thank you
Thank you very much, an excellent share...These are really very useful...
Thank you very much so thats perfect! :)
Its really wonderful to have look at this site. I have been helped alot by reading the most valuable information.
greaat plugin.ı'm searching like it. thx : )
Thank you.
this is very perfect.
thanks a lots of for shared
it's what am i searching for thanks :)
Hi, thanks for this post. I think I'll be needing this in the future.