When I originally created the Hybrid theme, I had done so with the thought that I’d only use it for my personal projects. It was not meant to be a publicly-released theme. A couple of months later, that changed. I released it into the wild.
Now, roughly a year after I first started working on it, I can honestly say that it was a good decision.
I’ve seen some great websites built with only a style.css file and other great child themes with just a few extra lines of code. The community we’ve built here has not only helped shape what Hybrid is today but also made me a better developer.
If you’re a fan of diving into Hybrid’s code, you might not even recognize this as the same theme. Much of what went into this was not on the schedule until version 0.7, but you can thank the long wait for WordPress 2.8 for that.
Lightweight
One of the most common complaints I’ve gotten is how bulky the theme is. While Hybrid has never had much code bloat, it has contained many unneccessary files. The original public release (0.3) was 504kb (zipped). Version 0.6 is now down to a lean 166kb.
The focus of this release was to make Hybrid as much as a framework as possible. I wanted to strip it down. To make it simply a foundation. Make it easier to build from.
I’ve taken a much more modular approach with this release, breaking much of the theme down to its most basic parts. The biggest improvement with 0.6 is that I’ve taken out all of the junk.
There are fewer processes running. The default CSS is lighter. The JavaScript is faster.
WordPress 2.8 compatible
Unfortunately, with so many new features in WordPress 2.8, I couldn’t make the theme backwards compatible. It’s something I wanted to do, but it wasn’t a viable option.
Everything has been recoded from the ground up. Widgets. Functions. You name it.
Since I was only worried about 2.8 compatibility, Hybrid is using all of the latest code from WordPress. There was no use in hanging on to old code.
Templates. Templates. Templates.
Many of you may be a bit overwhelmed by the number of template files in the theme. There’s somewhere in the range of 55 – 60 templates. Eighteen of these are custom page templates. Yes, that’s a lot compared to the average theme.
I want things to be easier to overwrite with custom modifications. I want people to be able to take my ideas and branch from these ideas with new, cooler things.
The new templates are:
daily.phpday.phpmonth.phpmonthly.phpweek.phpweekly.phpyear.phpyearly.phptaxonomy.phptaxonomy-link_category.phpnavigation-links.php
Most of these deal with different types of archives and may not be used by everyone. But, I wanted them available for those people that do need to use them.
And, you can also create custom author archives with author-1.php, author-2.php, and so on.
Other features
I’m counting three major bug fixes from Hybrid version 0.5.2, which was a solid release. Bug fixes get counted as features, right? 
Honestly, there’s more features and changes than I could possibly show you here, but here’s a list of some of the major stuff:
- Better default design to aid in child theme development.
- New theme settings (be sure to review these when you upgrade).
- New layout stylesheets for designers.
2c-l-fixed.css2c-r-fixed.css3c-l-fixed.css3c-r-fixed.css3c-c-fixed.css
- A few extra
<body>classes. - Better handling of custom taxonomies.
- Extra settings for some of the widgets.
- Drop-down menus built in by default.
- Ability to separate trackbacks and pingbacks from regular comments.
- More filter hooks for fine-tuned control.
- More action hooks to add extra content pretty much anywhere.
- User-selected date/time formats now used.
- Faster-loading and fewer JavaScript files (if users use them).
Of course, there’s much more.
Important things to note
Most of your widgets will probably be off. This is an unfortunate side-effect of the new widgets code for WordPress 2.8 and the changes within the theme. Fortunately, all you need to do is drag your widgets into WordPress 2.8’s new “Inactive Widgets” area if you have vital information you need to save. Once your theme is updated, you can drag them back easily.
If you’ve styled anything within the <body> class or the post <div> class with the .tag- prefix in your CSS, you need to change it to use .post_tag-. This is because of how the theme handles custom taxonomies.
Download Hybrid 0.6
Remember, this release is for WordPress 2.8+ only. Your site will break if using an older version of WordPress.
I hope y’all enjoy this release. I’m going to take a break tomorrow and play a little golf.
Hi Justin,
Firstly, well done on all the work you have put in to release a leaner framework and more effective base for us to create our sites.
As an avid user of the Options theme, I have taken the plunge to opt for your Hybrid framework.
I hope this will be the right move as it does mean a lot of work initially to move things over.
Plus, the issue of custom fields like Image, Feature Image, Thumbnails etc. How am I going to convert my site to utilise these in the new version etc.
If there is a guide or pointers that could help with the overall process, please let me know. As any help with this will be much appreciated.
Indi
I typically use all the same custom field keys, so transferring between my themes should at least be made easier with custom fields. Really, there’s not a whole lot of difference between the themes as far as markup goes, so any design ports should be pretty straightforward.
Oh.. I was waiting for this release. Came at a perfect time.
I had a client convinced to wait till this version is out before i start working. Also I planned to come up with few child themes based on hybrid for distribution. Good i waited else i would have to revisit the code again..
Time to go to the sandbox and begin testing the new theme. Gzip with Wordpress 2.8 coupled with leaner hybrid code smell good pageload times to me. Off late I have been very picky on decreasing page load times wrt SEO. Thanks again.
Regards
TJ
Well, I’m glad I could get it out for you. Good luck with your client. I’ll be awaiting some cool child themes.
As I commented before – started tinkering with previous version, considering it for custom child theme. Took a pause for this release and happy to see it.
Question – is Skeleton (that is suggested basis for child theme as I understood) need/will be updated to reflect changes in WP 2.8/Hybrid 0.6 ?
Skeleton doesn’t need to be updated. It’s just a blank theme. I do plan on updating it at some point though, giving it some more classes and showing the layout stylesheets. I’ll probably do that this week. It shouldn’t take more than half an hour.
thanks for the update
gotta move my music blog from options to Hybrid now ..
Cool. Let me know when it’s done. I’d like to see it.
Hello Justin,
I am a great fan of hybrid and has been using it on both of my blogs. One thing I noticed and is bugging me that the auto thumbnail function is not working after upgrading to WP 2.8 and Hybrid 0.6. Any idea why this might be happening.
Thanks,
The auto-thumbnails are working great on WordPress 2.8 and Hybrid 0.6. I’ve tested this to death on my movie database. Stop by the forums, and we’ll see if we can figure out what’s going on. But, I can honestly say that little has changed with the code in both the theme and WordPress in this area.
Thank you Justin for clearing this out….I will definitely check my side of the problem as if you have checked this completely then there should be some problem at my end….
Thank you again and any idea when some new child themes are coming ?
I’ve created several sub-theme based on Hybrid. It makes designing so much easier.
Thanks very much for Hybrid Theme!
That’s good to hear. I’m glad you’re enjoying the theme.
Huh. Something changed, noticeably, with my titles.
Now my home page title is ‘Welcome’ and none of my pages have my site name (it used to be ‘title’ – ‘website name’).
That’ll be easy enough to change. A couple of things have changed here, which I should’ve mentioned in the post.
*heh* I was all confused and trying to figure out what’d happened (switched back and they came back). Did the settings move, or is it all functions now?
Justin, you never detailed how to change the site title back. There was a setting before – did that get moved somewhere else or do I need to look in the functions? Thanks for a great theme!
Will you be detailing these changes?
Yes, there was a post on this somewhere in the forums with the code. There was also a discussion on this in 0.6 thread in the community forums. All I did was just change it back to how it was before 0.5.
Thanks:) 0.6 is here yay!!!
You sound even more excited than me.
Great release, Justin!
I am especially impressed by all the functionality you cram into so little code.
Going to test it immediately on a clients project!
I bow to your generosity.
Let me know how your client’s project turns out.
[...] Tadlock announced on the ThemeHybrid blog earlier this morning that version 0.6 of the Hybrid Theme Framework was released to the [...]
Hey, Justin, good job! I hope you enjoy the game of golf… you deserve it!
Any effects the new Hybrid will have on Hybrid News?
I enjoyed the game, but today, I’m not enjoying anything — sunburn and soreness.
Hybrid and Hybrid News play well together.
Thanks for updating the theme and making it much cleaner and lighter.
I have two questions for you though. Is the default Hybrid supposed to be this bare? As in no colors/design?
And….Hybrid News. Maybe its just me and I am having some bad luck but when I download it and activate it doesn’t display how the demo displays it. Is this because of the changes you made to 0.6?
Question 1: Yes.
Question 2: Follow the tutorials on setting it up. If you need help, just ask in the support forums.
[...] Hybrid 0.6 Theme Release Announcement [...]
[...] version of Hybrid theme [...]
[...] Demo | Download Hybrid WordPress theme [...]
I’m using Hybrid News on a site. Will it continue to work if I upgrade the Hybrid theme?
Yes, it will continue to work.
Great stuff Justin. I’m going to update some sites right now….
Cool. Let me know how the upgrade process works out.
hey bro. just finished a new design. let me know if you want to convert it for hybrid06 and if you need help.
Do you ever make simple designs?
I’ll send you an email.
Great job, Justin.
I am waiting for releasing the hybrid 0.6.
I am impressed by the new templates and the layout stylesheet files.
Especally, I’m happy knowing to include the layout stylesheets files.
Going to test it immediately.
I’m glad you’re excited about the layout stylesheets. This is something I’ve always been planning, but I just needed to finish it. It should help cut out much of the mundane work of building a site.
Thank you so much.
I really love working with the hybrid theme framework. I can go from mock-up to a full site within a day instead of a week.
Great Work!!!
That’s what I like so much about it. If I have the design, the child theme can be created quickly.
[...] Tadlock, designer of the Hybrid theme, recently announced that Hybrid 0.6 has been released. This release has a number of new features, a lot of which are WordPress 2.8 specific. [...]
Hai justin,
Coming here after a couple of months.
1. can you please discuss the latest widget problem of hybrid and also the solution here on the blog or atleast give us an updated zip file of hybrid v0.6 ?
2. please update the demo to the latest version of hybrid and wordpress.
3. and why not update the Theme Hybrid Lab (http://themehybrid.com/lab) ? I would love to live on the Bleeding Edge.
anyway Congrats on the 0.6 release.
Yeah, I hadn’t saw you around in a while.
1) There is no widget problem with Hybrid. Whatever issues with upgrading and widgets is described in the post above.
2) The demo is currently running both WordPress 2.8 and Hybrid 0.6.
3) It never really took off because not enough people were interested in it at first. I do hope to do more with it in the future though.
sorry. I mean to say about the demo of hybrid news (and not the hybrid theme) is still running on wp 2.7 and hybrid 0.5
and where is hybrid 0.7 beta ? (eager to try that )
I might update the Hybrid News demo one day. It looks and behaves the same either way.
Hybrid 0.7 Beta? That’s a long way off.
I like Hybrid News and every time I got time, I am trying to study the codes so that I could customize the appearance of the site. Great work Justin, keep it up!
Thanks. I’m glad you like it.
It really looks awesome. Possibly the best free them out there. But too bad I can’t get it to work and cant afford to spend $25 bucks for support either.
The problem isn’t with the theme. Its somethng else. No theme or plugin using jquery is working. I even tried disabling all plugins. Even that didn’t work. I am out of ideas as to how I should fix this issue. This occurs even with the current theme I am using. Plugins based on jquery refuse to work.
Sounds like you have a WordPress problem.
I must say my best words to your Hybrid theme – I wanted to create a new design to my website, and after long search for premium themes..to buy, I returned here, bought your support.. and now browsing through all tutorials to get my feet on.
It’s pretty hard to remember all those snippets if you’re not coding and using it daily, but I hope at the end there will be very good child theme
And I really promise I will write review about using this beautiful framework, when I will be finished, though I am a little bit shy to ask for support, because 25$ is really cheap for such services..
Feel free to ask support questions anytime. That’s what I’m here for.
I’m happy to have you as part of the community.
so many themes look styling and fancy color over the page, but i found Hybrid news theme not only awesome design but suit for SEOer, glad to be a part of your theme fans, thanks for the fully support, Justin.