Today’s drop is a significant one as it’s geared around targeting a particular niche that we feel deserves some attention. Designed in-house by pixel wrangler Jay Koster ‘Capital’ is a WooCommerce theme which has been designed specifically to sell digital products. There are options to strip functionality right back which makes this the perfect theme for boutique software agencies. Capital has also been fully optimised for use on hand-held, touch screen devices.

The products page, geared around a small amount of listings.

Dedicated product galleries

Furthermore we’ve developed a powerful extension to work hand-in-hand with the Capital theme, and also released it today.

Software Add-on Extension

The WooCommerce Software Add-on gives you the ability to manage licence keys and activations via your store.

The Software Add-on extension lets you define your products as software via the edit product page, and after doing so lets you define software specific properties:

The software settings

Customers purchase software like any other product, but after doing so (when the order is completed) they will receive an auto-generated licence key from the system within their order-complete email.

Customer order email with their license key attached.

Order emails contain the key, activation email, and activations remaining. You can resend these emails using the in-built ‘send’ button in WooCommerce on the orders screen.

Activations report

If enabled, users can upgrade old keys for a reduced price

If you ever introduce a paid upgrade for software you can define valid upgrade keys, and an upgrade price, which your customers can make use of. They will just have to enter their licence details during their purchase:

The Software Add-on allows you to view purchased keys associated with orders, track activations and view sales reports, as well as having it’s own API for generating keys, activating licences, de-activating and resetting. This API can be integrated into your software/web app to validate licences. See the documentation for more details on the API.

We hope club subscribers will appreciate it’s offering and welcome it is a great addition to their WooTheme toolkit they can use for client work & personal projects.

Please note: Capital does not depend on this extension, and functions out of the box with WooCommerce, but digital product sellers will appreciate the additional functionality it enables.

WooCommerce 1.5.6

We’re also releasing an incremental update to WooCommerce with some minor revisions to allow for the software add-on extension integration and future similar projects we have planned.

Aside from support for todays extension, WooCommerce 1.5.6 introduces a new shipping method display for the cart and checkout. We had feedback from several users that the ‘select’ box for shipping was going un-noticed, and we agreed that those methods could be presented better.

Therefore, we have introduced a new radio button display for shipping methods (pictured below). This lets the user see all available methods without having to click the select box. If you don’t like this change, don’t worry! You can put it back via the settings.

Shipping methods have been tweaked

You can view the full changelog for 1.5.6 here.

Affiliates Pro Integration Offer

Finally, our friends at itthinx are running a 20% off offer for their Affiliates Pro for WooCommerce extension up until June 1st. Check it out!

The design will also function great on tablets, such as the iPad. Furthermore, the design comes with formats for both portrait and landscape modes for smartphones and tables alike.

Mobile represents a huge shift in the way we consume the internet. I am happy that we can show initiative in  getting our customer’s websites ready, and I hope that all of our Nova users enjoy the update! Let us know what you think

Today we are announcing updates for a number of themes, four to be precise. The themes are:

• Job Board
• Classifieds
• Events
• Automobile

Upgrades for these themes will roll out in the same order as they are listed above with Job Board being first and Automobile last. To leave suggestions and feature requests please click on each of the themes in the list. You’ll be taken to a forum thread where you can leave your suggestion.

Just like all the theme upgrades I mentioned earlier these four will also be completely free!

Some of the features you’ll see in these themes are already included in our recently released themes. These are features like custom fields, custom user profile fields and price packages. To learn more about this functionality watch the overview video for our Realtr theme.

Which one out of these 4 themes are you looking forward to the most?

RealPro was developed by Chris Ford of Creativity Included, and is categorized as a Community theme. These are not included in the Pro Plus All-Themes package, but we assure you that the design and coding of them are top-notch.

Theme Features

The RealPro child theme includes the following features: 6 layout options, custom background, custom boxes, custom buttons, custom menus, featured images, fixed width, property listings, theme options.

Take the RealPro theme for a test drive…

Thus, we have released WooDojo version 1.1.1, a security update to remedy this issue. This update is required for all users of WooDojo and is automatically available for express download via the “Dashboard > Updates” screen in your WordPress installation.

Your security and experience with WooDojo is of paramount importance to us. We are, therefore, working on further securing WooDojo in order to enhance your experience with the product.

Our sincerest apologies for the inconvenience caused here.

The fires in the WooLabs have been little more than glowing embers these last couple of weeks. We’ve put aside our lab coats and been up on deck helping steady the mothership. But in our time of need we heeded a great man who once prophetically exclaimed “I’ll be back!”… and now, so are we. And we’ve brought gifts!

This week we’re releasing 4 payment gateways (including the much anticipated PayPal Express), a brand new and much enhanced product importer suite, as well as two nifty product extensions.

PayPal Express

PayPal Express is a gateway plugin that adds an Express Checkout button to your cart page. This lets you skip the WooCommerce checkout and use PayPal instead.

After the customer adds products to their cart they can go directly from the shopping cart page to PayPal to retrieve their shipping information and authorize payment.

Developed by Daniel Espinoza.

View this Extension

Force Sells

The Force Sells extension allows you to link products together, so they will be added to the cart together. This can be useful for linking a service or required product to another product.

For example, if you are selling iPad glass repair as a service, you can link a new glass window as a forced sell product.

Product Image Watermark

This premium WooCommerce plugin allows you to easy add watermarks to your WooCommerce product images. These watermarks can be an image copyright symbol, company logo or piece of branding text as a transparent PNG image.

Developed by dtbaker.

GoCardless Gateway

GoCardless (available in the UK) is a simple direct debit based payment gateway that features:

• Simple, transparent pricing – just 1% per transaction up to a maximum of £2.00.
• Collect payments without a merchant account, payment gateway or anything else.
• No application process, no set up fee. Start collecting payments instantly.

Product CSV Import Suite

Mass import hundreds, even thousands of Products into your WooCommerce store with the CSV Import suite. CSV Import suite lets you import all types of products, even product variations!

The CSV import suite also has export and merge functionality making it very powerful for both new and established shops.

If you already purchased our Product Importer Deluxe extension you should already have access to Product CSV Import Suite which is it’s replacement.

e-Path Gateway (Australia)

The e-Path service collects your customer’s credit card details with an approval to charge. You are notified by email so you can log in to securely view the credit card details and process the order offline using your manual merchant account.

Developed by James Collins.

MyGate Payment Gateway

The MyGate extension for WooCommerce is a South African payment gateway which supports payments from VISA, MasterCard, Diners Club and American Express credit card payments.

Developed by Gerhard Potgieter.

WooCommerce 1.5.5

We’ve been beavering away adding new features in WooCommerce 1.5.5 which your going to love Highlights include…

Drag and drop product sorting

A simple drag and drop solution for those of you who want to have products listed in a specific order has been added in this release. From the products screen you will be able to click the ‘Sort Products’ link and drag and drop to re-order products (you can also use the menu_order field when editing products).

On the frontend, and ‘default order’ option has been added to the sort options.

Change WooCommerce theme colours from the admin panel

For beginners sticking with the default WooCommerce styles, we’ve added some simple colour options to control buttons and other UI elements within WooCommerce easily:

Control colours from the settings page

Once selected, WooCommerce will generate the new styles based on your selections making it even easier to get started with theming.

A revamped integrations section + ShareYourCart integration

We’ve revamped the integrations setting in WooCommerce sections to make it extendable by plugins.

The integrations section has been enhanced

On top of that, we’ve added integration with ShareYourCart – a great way to get customers talking about your products in exchange for a discount.

Share your cart for a coupon!

And more…

• Stock display options – for example, an option to only show the quantity left in stock when it gets low. Entice customers to purchase before your stock is gone!
• Hide free products from the best sellers widget
• A more flexible cart.php for developers to hook into, used by our new force-sells plugin
• Several minor fixes and tweaks making 1.5.5 even more stable than its predecessor

We hope you like what we’ve been doing with 1.5.5 and enjoy the new extensions

WooDojo version 1.1- now with Instagram!

WooDojo version 1.1 includes 2 new widgets in the “WooDojo – Social Widgets” bundle; an Instagram Profile and an Instagram Photo Stream widget. These 2 new widgets provide and quick and easy way to display your latest Instagram photographs or statistics in your sidebar.

The Instagram widgets in WooDojo

We’re certain those of you who are photographers and Instagram users will benefit greatly from this addition to the WooDojo bundled features. Instagram widgets are an upgrade away.

Along with these widget additions, we’ve made several refinements to the core and to the main WooDojo UI, adding a version number display for easily keeping track of the version you’re currently using.

WooTransmitter

The latest version of WooDojo includes WooTransmitter, a new tool we’ve developed as a WooThemes notification centre. This helps to make commuication easier by enabling us to send messages to your WordPress dashboard, notifying you of updates or new features. This also enables us to adivse of any important updates required to the WooThemes products you’re using, without you having to visit our blog or Twitter feed, or to wait for our newsletter.

This feature is fully opt-in and doesn’t log any of your website’s data.

To ensure that WooTransmitter stays as much out of your way as possible while you manage your website, we’ve included the notifications centre at the top-right corner of your WordPress Toolbar- out of the way of your website management experience. We’ll also try to keep these notifications as short and infrequent as possible.

The WooTransmitter notification centre

WooDojo version 1.1 is available via an automatic update if you’re already using WooDojo. Alternatively, download WooDojo for free.

The Features

Ladies and gentlemen… the list you’ve all been waiting for… the newly released WooDojo features.

Along with WooDojo version 1.1, we’ve released a range of downloadable features to further enhance your WooDojo and WordPress experience. These features are entirely optional and can be downloaded and activated directly within WooDojo.

Maintenance Mode

Maintenance Mode enables the quick activation of a maintenance mode screen when performing routine maintenance on your website. Customise the page title, add a heading and a quick note, check the “Turn on maintenance mode” checkbox and, within a few seconds, your website will only be visible to administrators while you work on getting it up to date and maintained.

The screen when Maintenance Mode is enabled

Launch Pad

Working as an addition to Maintenance Mode, Launch Pad enables the display of a “coming soon”-style page when Maintenance Mode is active. Containing optional social buttons, newsletter subscription and a countdown timer amongst other features, Launch Pad is the perfect compliment to Maintenance Mode, enabling you to create a following while working on designing and developing your website.

The Launch Pad add-on for Maintenance Mode, using our "Placeholder" theme (bundled)

Launch Pad comes with 4 bundled templates which are added to Maintenance Mode’s template selection when activated.

Widget Preview Mode

This feature is, for me, the ethos of what WooDojo is all about- small components: big impact. Widget Preview Mode performs a single task: allow a widget to be hidden from everyone except administrators.

Widget Preview Mode adds a checkbox to each widget, enabling it to enter “Preview Mode”. When in preview mode, only administrators can view the widget on the website’s frontend. This can be especially useful when setting up a website for a client, or styling and setting up a widget on a live website.

The Widget Preview Mode Checkbox

Dynamic Menus

Have you ever wanted to have your main navigation display different menu items on a specific page? Dynamic Menus provides this exact functionality. When adding or editing a page or blog post, Dynamic Menus adds a box to select which menu should display in each of your defined menu locations.

This can be useful for displaying contextual menus for different sections of your website (for example, specific menu items for shop-related pages of your website, or a shorter menu for your blog posts).

The Dynamic Menus box on a blog post's "Add" screen

All of the above features are available for download and activation through WooDojo directly. If you don’t see them in your WooDojo dashboard right away, they should be available within 24 hours.

If you haven’t yet got your copy of WooDojo,

More features on the way

As we’ve mentioned, we have a queue of features lined up to be polished and released to you all. We look forward to sharing these with you in the coming weeks.

The Mindstream theme is the tenth theme released here which has been developed to be mobile responsive in design. The first nine themes are Agency, Balance, Decor, eleven40, Focus, Generate, Mocha, Prose and Streamline.

Click here to see how the Mindstream theme looks across mobile devices.

Post Formats

When WordPress 3.1 was released, they added the ability to publish various “types” of posts called post formats – similar to the way Tumblr allows you.

Mindstream supports the following post formats: aside, audio, chat, gallery, image, link, quote, status and video.

Theme Features

The Mindstream theme includes the following features: 3 layout options, custom background, custom menus, featured images, fixed width, mobile responsive, post formats, theme options, threaded comments.

Take the new Mindstream theme for a test drive…

Live DemoFeatures Info

Fully Responsive Design

Trim features a fully responsive design. This means that the theme will adapt to various screen sizes to insure that your content is readable on any device. The theme will display beautifully on your desktop computer, as well as your mobile phone. The theme even includes different designs for portrait and landscape modes.

The theme will also adapt to tablet displays. Your website will display beautifully and readable on your iPad. No longer will your visitors need to zoom and scroll around to read or navigate your website.

Lightweight and Super-Fast!

Trim is called “trim” for a reason. It is stripped down and optimized to be fast loading and lightweight. I put my graphic-heavy style on a diet and slimmed this theme into shape. We used CSS3 wherever possible to avoid using too many images. In fact, the entire theme only contains a few tiny graphics!

Tons of Customization Options

Trim comes packaged with our CSS control panel, allowing you to easily adjust your website’s colors and fonts. You can adjust your background using any possible color, choose from our many pre-made textures, or even upload your own custom background image. Choose from dozens of fonts and adjust your body and heading color with a click on your mouse.

I hope that everyone puts the theme to good use! Please leave a comment and let us know what you think