Here’s a new beta release of Project AR2 for the weekend crowd to join in the fun. For the current beta users, please update the theme to see if everything is working. Also, if you find any bugs, please let us know as soon as possible! All changes made are available at our GitHub page.

Download Project AR2 2.0-beta2

I’m excited to announce that the next major update to Arras is available to download for beta testing.

Project AR2 was started about a year ago in 2011 to update Arras with up-to-date web standards such as HTML5 and CSS3, and eventually be placed back up into the WordPress Themes Directory. As a result, almost the entire theme code, including its backend API, was rewritten to make the theme up to standard.

There are some features that did not make it to the first beta, such as RTL support and more Theme Customizer options. Hopefully they should be back up by the next beta release. Ideally the theme should be submitted to the Themes Directory for approval by the end of August.

As of now, you can download the first beta off the project’s GitHub page over at: https://github.com/zyml/project-ar2/downloads

As usual, install it at your own risk and do not install it in production environments

Current features include:

• Featured slideshow powered by FlexSlider
• Three customizable post sections in homepage, with four different layouts.
• Homepage layout customizable with WordPress 3.4′s Theme Customizer.
• Customizable archives page with four different layouts.
• Custom post types and taxonomies support, with Facebook-style taxonomies selection.
• Two widgetized bottom sidebars in homepage.
• Custom primary / secondary font selection.
• Supports video, audio, gallery and image post formats.
• Full-width, blog archives and redirect page templates.
• Supports WordPress theme features: custom header, custom background, navigation menus and post thumbnails.
• Relative post dates ( eg. 1 day ago, 5 hours ago, etc. )
• Built on HTML5 and CSS3.
• 5 custom color schemes to choose from.
• Default widgets – Tabbed Sidebar, Featured Stories, Facebook Activity Box, Facebook Like Box, Google+ Badge, Twitter Feed, Video, Social Buttons.
• Backend API to easily add new post sections, custom fonts, colors and theme options.
• Ready for translation. PO files can be downloaded at https://www.transifex.com/projects/p/project-ar2/.
• Child theme ready. WordPress action and filter hooks available.

If you have any issues or questions with the theme, please post them up in the Community Forums!

Welcome to the new website for our WordPress themes! It’s been a long time since this website has been updated (I presume it’s about 3 years ago). From now on we will be posting our announcements and developments here at the Development Blog instead of clumping everything at the Community Forums.

If you have any suggestions or feedback on what to do with the existing website, let us know by commenting below or send us a tweet over @arrastheme.

P.S. if you are wondering what’s with the new design, it’s the modified version of the default stylesheet for Project AR2 (Arras 2.0), more details to follow