=== Ariade === Contributors: anblik Author: Shivaji Mitra Company: M/S. Anblik Requires at least: 6.6 Tested up to: 7.1 Requires PHP: 7.4 Stable tag: 1.7.0 License: GPLv2 or later License URI: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html Ariade — a WCAG 2.2 AA Full Site Editing (FSE) WordPress block theme for accessible professional-services and business websites. == Description == Live demo: https://showcase.ananyoo.com/ Ariade ships accessible header navigation, predesigned, conformant page patterns, and an accessible footer toolkit: a newsletter band, theme-styled social links (a core Social Icons block turned into brand-magenta discs that match the footer contact icons, keyboard/focus friendly, no icon font) and W3C / accessibility verification badges laid out on one clean line — plus a ready-made "Footer: Connect" pattern that drops the whole Connect column in. A free Ariade companion plugin adds the theme's simple accessible drop-down menu header (keyboard operable, disclosure pattern, ARIA, Escape-to-close, mobile drawer), and the Ananyoo accessibility plugins add a screen-reader-tested carousel, forms and login. Built by M/S. Anblik (https://ananyoo.com). == Accessibility == Ariade targets WCAG 2.2 Level AA. It is built with semantic HTML, keyboard- operable components (header navigation and mobile menu), visible focus indicators, and contrast-checked colours. The Sitemap page is built from core blocks (Page List, Categories and recent posts) with an ordered H1 > H2 heading structure and list semantics. A richer auto-populated Sitemap block is available in the Ariade companion plugin. Automated tools cover only part of WCAG, so manual keyboard and screen-reader testing (NVDA, JAWS, VoiceOver) on a production install is still recommended. == Installation == 1. Upload the ariade folder to /wp-content/themes/ (or install the .zip via Appearance > Themes > Add New > Upload Theme). 2. Activate through Appearance > Themes. 3. Set a static front page (Settings > Reading > "A static page") to use the Ariade homepage layout, or the front-page template renders it automatically. == Ariade branding switch == Out of the box the theme is neutral: your logo or site title in the header, no theme mark in the hero, and a plain footer with your site title, tagline, page list, latest posts and one small "Theme: Ariade" credit. The showcase look (bundled Ariade logo when no site logo is set, brand mark in the hero, and the footer with the newsletter band and Theme / Plugins / Company columns) is still in the theme for demo sites. To switch it on, add this line to a small plugin or to a child theme's functions.php: add_filter( 'ariade_branding', '__return_true' ); The footer template part renders the pattern ariade/footer, which picks the right footer for the switch. If you have edited the footer in the Site Editor, use "Reset" on the Footer template part so the theme version loads again. == Newsletter setup (Mailchimp, MailerLite, Brevo, etc.) == The footer (branding switch on) ships a visual newsletter band with an email input and Subscribe button. That block is a DESIGN PLACEHOLDER and does not submit anywhere on its own -- themes on wordpress.org are not permitted to integrate with third party services or store subscriber data, so the actual signup is handled by a plugin of your choice. The theme styles the plugin form automatically so it inherits the footer visual (gradient band, white pill input, white pill button). We recommend the free Mailchimp for WordPress plugin (500,000+ installs, GPL, actively maintained). The theme has been tested against its output. The same slot works with MailerLite, Brevo, Constant Contact and Sendinblue plugins in the same way -- any form plugin that outputs a standard shortcode or block can replace the placeholder. Step by step for Mailchimp for WordPress: 1. Install the plugin from Plugins > Add New. Search for "Mailchimp for WordPress" by ibericode. Activate it. 2. In your Mailchimp account, create an API key (Account > Extras > API keys) and copy it. 3. In WordPress, go to Mailchimp for WP > Mailchimp, paste the API key and save. The plugin will list your audiences. 4. Go to Mailchimp for WP > Form. Create a form, pick the audience, adjust the labels if you like. Save. Note the form ID shown on the form list. 5. Go to Appearance > Editor > Template Parts > Footer. Find the newsletter HTML block (the visual placeholder with the Email address label and Subscribe button). Delete that HTML block. In its place add a Shortcode block and paste [mc4wp_form id="XX"] using your form ID. 6. Save the template part. The footer form now submits to Mailchimp with the theme's visual language applied automatically. The theme styles .mc4wp-form inside .site-footer to match the placeholder exactly -- white pill input, white pill submit button, uppercase eyebrow label, response messages coloured to fit the gradient band. If you use a different plugin, add its wrapper class to your child theme with the same rules; the source rules live under the "Mailchimp for WordPress (mc4wp) integration" comment in /assets/css/theme.css. Contact form: the contact page patterns include a similar placeholder slot. We recommend the free Ananyoo Accessible Forms plugin (https://wordpress.org/plugins/ananyoo-accessible-forms/) for a WCAG 2.2 AA form with labels, focus states and announced errors. Drop its shortcode or block in place of the placeholder paragraph the pattern ships with. == Cover images == Recommended size for a blog post cover (featured image): 1600x900 pixels, 16:9. The blog cards (posts loop) and the default single-post header (aurora) both show covers in a 16:9 box, so a 16:9 cover is never cropped anywhere in the theme. Any other shape is centred and trimmed by object-fit: cover, so keep logos, badges, faces and text inside the middle 80 percent of the picture; that also protects the image when social networks crop the preview to 1.91:1 (1200x630). Your SEO plugin can set a separate share image if the cover carries a badge near an edge. To use another ratio site-wide, open Site Editor > Templates > Single Posts, select the Featured Image block and change its Aspect ratio; the editorial (21:9), split and cover single-post layouts keep their own framing. == Fonts == Barlow Semi Condensed and Geist are bundled in /assets/fonts and registered through theme.json (fontFace), so no font is loaded from Google Fonts or any other remote server. Nothing leaves the visitor's browser to fetch a font. == Copyright == Ariade WordPress Theme, Copyright 2026 Shivaji Mitra (M/S. Anblik) Ariade is distributed under the terms of the GNU GPL v2 or later. This theme bundles the third-party resources listed below; every one of them is GPL-compatible. == Images / illustrations == All images in assets/images are original works by the theme author, Shivaji Mitra (M/S. Anblik, https://ananyoo.com), and are released under CC0-1.0 / GPL-2.0-or-later: * Photographic images (hero-*.webp, portrait-*.webp, product-*.webp) were created by the theme author using Adobe Firefly (Adobe's commercially safe image models). * Remaining vector artwork (*.svg) is original flat illustration by the theme author. No third-party or stock photography is bundled in the theme. == Bundled fonts == * Barlow Semi Condensed — Copyright 2017 The Barlow Project Authors (https://github.com/jpt/barlow). Licensed under the SIL Open Font License 1.1 (assets/fonts/OFL-BarlowSemiCondensed.txt). * Geist — Copyright 2023 Vercel, in collaboration with basement.studio. Licensed under the SIL Open Font License 1.1 (assets/fonts/OFL-Geist.txt). == Changelog == = 1.7.0 = * WordPress.org review round (ticket 282312), all points addressed: * Skip link: the theme no longer prints its own "Skip to content" link, and the output buffer that tried to strip WordPress's copy is gone. WordPress prints the block-theme skip link itself whenever a template has a
element, which every Ariade template now has (the WooCommerce shop and product templates were the two without one). style.css restyles that link when it receives focus, undoes the screen-reader clipping so it is actually visible, and keeps it below the admin toolbar (32px, 46px on small screens). One skip link per page, always visible on focus. * Translation: every remaining user-facing string in the pattern files is now translation-ready (esc_html_e, esc_attr_e for alt and aria-label text, wp_kses_post( __() ) where a sentence carries inline markup), 343 strings across 70 patterns. Nothing changes on screen. * Theme URI now points at the theme's own page, https://ananyoo.com/ariade-accessible-wordpress-theme/, which also carries the licence statement: everything M/S. Anblik distributes for WordPress is GPL v2 or later. * Readme: copyright and licence block added; the fonts note corrected (both families are bundled and registered through theme.json, nothing loads from Google Fonts). * Screenshot replaced with a plain capture of the theme with placeholder content; no promotional text or feature list on it. * Neutral by default: a fresh install no longer carries Ariade branding on the front end. The header shows the site's own logo or title (no bundled default logo), the hero has no theme mark, the starter home page uses placeholder copy about the site owner with the theme dashboard and Site Editor buttons shown only to logged-in editors, and the footer is a plain site footer: site title and tagline, page list, three latest posts, copyright line and a single theme credit link. The Ariade showcase footer (newsletter band, Theme / Plugins / Company columns) and the brand marks are kept in the theme for demo sites and switch on with one filter, add_filter( 'ariade_branding', '__return_true' ), documented under "Ariade branding switch" below. The footer template part now renders the registered pattern ariade/footer, so both footers share one code base. = 1.6.12 = * Fix: the coming-soon and 404 styles were attached with "class contains" selectors ([class*="ariade-cs-"] and [class*="ariade-nf-"]), so any other class starting the same way, for example a child theme's ariade-cs-lead or ariade-cs-btn on a case-study page, silently inherited centred text, centred buttons and the narrow search box whenever the utility stylesheet was on the page. The four pattern classes (ariade-cs-gradient, ariade-cs-thread, ariade-nf-thread, ariade-nf-navy) are now named explicitly, so nothing else can match by accident. * Fix: the front-page testimonial carousel styled a bare .dots class as a flex row. WordPress pagination prints its ellipsis as , and plugins may use the same class name, so both picked up the carousel layout. The rule is now scoped to .carousel-controls .dots; the carousel itself is unchanged. = 1.6.11 = * Blog post header (aurora): the cover box is now 16:9 instead of 3:2, the same ratio the blog cards (posts loop) already use. One cover size, 1600x900, therefore shows uncropped everywhere in the theme, and the two most common image sizes lose far less: a 1200x630 social image now loses about 3 percent per side (it lost 10 percent before) and a 16:9 photo or screenshot loses nothing. A 3:2 photo loses about 12 percent at the top and bottom instead of nothing, so sites that standardised on 1200x800 covers can keep 3:2 by changing the Aspect ratio of the Featured Image block in the Single Posts template (Site Editor). A new "Cover images" section in this readme explains the safe area for logos, badges and text. * Site Editor note: if the Single Posts template was customised on a site, use "Clear customizations" on it once so the updated aurora pattern loads. * Tested up to WordPress 7.1. = 1.6.10 = * Fix (module split): the Grid/List view toggle is added to listings by script, so its styles now live in the core file and reach the shop and portfolio pages too; the posts page kept its slim header (the .blog .wrap rule moved back before the header rule); the cart band margin rule moved into the WooCommerce file so it prints after the band's base rule as before. = 1.6.9 = * Fix: a stray closing brace at the very end of theme.css (after the author box styles) made browsers drop whichever rule came next in the combined stylesheet. In 1.6.8 that was the first rule of the contact module, so contact form labels lost their small-caps style. The brace is gone and the author name underline rule sits inside the forced-colours block it was written for, so the author box name keeps its violet underline in normal mode. = 1.6.8 = * Performance: the theme stylesheet is split. theme.css now carries only what every page needs (header, navigation, footer, hero band, typography, buttons and content rhythm; about 47 KB before compression) and thirteen module files carry the rest: landing sections, blog, WooCommerce, about, portfolio, services, FAQ, service detail, pricing, testimonials, utility pages, theme features and contact. A module is added to the page only when the page renders a block that uses its classes, or when the template calls for it (posts and archives, portfolio, search, 404, sitemap, shop, cart, checkout and account). A typical inner page now loads about a quarter of the CSS it did before; the rules themselves are unchanged. The editor still loads every module so inserted patterns preview correctly. * The WooCommerce stylesheet also loads only on shop, product, cart, checkout and account pages, or on pages that render WooCommerce blocks, instead of on every page when WooCommerce is active. The header cart badge rules moved into the core file so the badge is styled everywhere. * Site Editor note: no template change is needed. If a caching or optimisation plugin combines CSS files, clear its cache once after updating. = 1.6.7 = * Images keep their proportions when WordPress adds width and height attributes to them. The team portraits on the front page pattern were stretched to 800px tall after a WordPress update started adding those attributes; the base image rule now sets height to auto so aspect-ratio and object-fit rules apply as designed. = 1.6.6 = * Links in running text now take the colour and weight of the text around them and are marked by the underline alone, with a slightly thicker underline on hover. The bold blue links pulled the eye away from the sentence. Buttons, menus, cards and other components keep their own styles, and the same setting shows under Styles > Links in the Site Editor. = 1.6.5 = * The header now keeps the mobile drawer until the desktop row genuinely fits. Once a menu had a few items the nav and the header icons ran past the header between roughly 980px and 1075px, which gave the page a sideways scrollbar on small laptops. * Em dashes removed from the theme's own copy and from the pattern labels, so the shipped wording reads in plain sentences. = 1.6.4 = * Images now carry their real width and height. Core only fills these in for images that hold a wp-image class, so pictures written by hand in HTML blocks or template parts, and pictures produced by some core and third party blocks, were served with no intrinsic size and the page shifted as each one arrived. The theme now reads the size once per file, caches it for a day, and adds the attributes at render time. Root relative sources such as /wp-content/themes/... are resolved, and SVG is measured from its own viewBox. = 1.6.3 = * Blog toolbar: the filter label and its dropdown now sit side by side. WordPress ships a rule that forces the Categories label to full width, so the select dropped to a second line; the theme now matches that rule's specificity. On phones the label and select still stack full width. = 1.6.2 = * Blog and archive listings: the category filter and the Grid/List view switch now share one toolbar row above the posts - filter on the left, view switch on the right - instead of sitting on two separate lines. On phones they stack and the dropdown goes full width. * Accessibility fix: the filter used a separate paragraph reading "Filter by category" while WordPress printed its own visible "Categories" label for the dropdown. Two labels showed, and the visible text was not the select's accessible name (WCAG 2.5.3 Label in Name). The dropdown now carries "Filter by category" as its own real label, so there is one label, correctly tied to the control. * The filter moved from the blog hero (ariade/blog-heading) into the listing toolbar (ariade/posts-loop), so every listing that uses the shared loop - the blog index, the posts page and category archives, including sites whose child theme builds its own blog header - gets the filter and the view switch together. Site Editor note: if the Blog or Archive template was customised on a site, use "Clear customizations" once. = 1.6.1 = * Author box: on a site where the author profile has no biography, the box no longer prints at all - previously it showed a panel holding only a user name, and gave screen-reader users a landmark and heading that led to nothing. It appears by itself as soon as a biography is saved in Users > Profile > Biographical Info. Developers can force it with the ariade_require_author_bio filter. = 1.6.0 = * Author box: new "navy band" design - the box now sits on the theme navy (#0e1b36) with a brand-gradient top line and a soft violet glow, white name, light-slate biography (13:1 contrast) and white links with a lavender underline. Windows High Contrast mode gets a plain bordered box with system colours. Same accessible structure as before (aside landmark, heading, real text, visible focus rings). = 1.5.9 = * Author box: quieter styling - white card instead of the tinted one, smaller type (name 1.05rem, biography .88rem, heading .7rem) and an 80px avatar (64px on phones), so the box sits under the article without competing with it. Contrast is unchanged: navy and slate text on white stay above 7:1. = 1.5.8 = * Author box: the author name is no longer a link by default. Many sites switch author archives off (Rank Math and similar plugins then redirect /author/... to the home page), which turned the name into a link that silently went to the home page - poor link purpose for screen-reader users. Put a link to your About page inside the biography text instead, or set "isLink":true on the name block in the Site Editor. Links inside the biography now carry the theme's navy/violet link styling and focus ring. = 1.5.7 = * New: "About the author" box on every single-post template (ariade/post-author-box) - avatar, author name linked to the author archive, and the biography from Users > Profile, shown after the post content and before the previous/next navigation. Plain core blocks inside an aside landmark with its own heading, so screen-reader users can jump to it; nothing is hidden or duplicated (the avatar is not a second link). Empty-safe when a profile has no biography. Also available in the inserter under Ariade - Single post for custom templates. Supports E-E-A-T author signals for search engines alongside the Rank Math Person schema. * Site Editor note: if the Single Post template was customised on a site, use "Clear customizations" on it once so the new author box loads. = 1.5.6 = * Fix: the "Posts page" chosen in Settings > Reading (for example /blog/) showed the starter home page instead of the blog listing. WordPress uses the same "home" template for a fresh site's latest-posts front page and for a dedicated posts page; the template now goes through a small render-time router pattern (ariade/home-router) that shows the blog heading and the shared posts loop on a dedicated posts page, and the starter home page only when the front page itself shows latest posts. Sites that had worked around this with a customised "Blog Home" template can keep it or use "Clear customizations" to pick up the theme version. = 1.5.5 = * Blog post header (aurora): the featured image is now an "overlap card" - it rises about 10rem into the gradient band at wide width (960px) with a white ring and a deep navy shadow, so it reads as part of the hero instead of a small picture below it. The band grows to make room; on phones the overlap and ring reduce. Cover aspect ratio changed from 21:10 to 3:2 so a standard 1200x800 cover is not cropped. * Blog post H2 headings: new "tinted panel" style - 34px / weight 700 on a soft lavender band fading to the page colour, with a 6px brand-gradient edge. Navy text on the tint is 15:1 (WCAG AAA); the gradient is decorative only, and Windows High Contrast mode gets a solid border instead. Portfolio H2s keep their existing accent bar. * Site Editor note: if the Single Post template was customised on a site, use "Clear customizations" on it once so the updated aurora pattern loads. = 1.5.4 = * Docs: corrected the navigation wording. Ariade's header menu is a simple, WCAG-friendly drop-down menu (disclosure pattern) - earlier descriptions mislabelled it as a "mega-menu". No functional changes. = 1.5.3 = * New page template, "Full width, no header" (page-no-header): renders the page content and footer without the site header, for full-bleed hero layouts such as a carousel landing page. Registered in theme.json and available in the page Template picker. = 1.5.2 = * The default-favicon feature has moved out of the theme into the Ariade companion plugin, so the theme no longer outputs any favicon markup (this clears the last Theme Check favicon notice). A standalone install now uses the site's own Site Icon (Appearance → Customize → Site Identity); the companion plugin restores the bundled default icon for fresh installs. The now-unused favicon-32.png, favicon-192.png and apple-touch-icon.png files were removed from the theme. = 1.5.1 = * Docs: the theme description and readme now describe the standalone theme accurately — accessible header navigation ships in the theme, while the accessible drop-down menu header and the auto-populated Sitemap block are provided by the Ariade companion plugin. No functional, template or style changes. = 1.5.0 = * WordPress.org compliance — plugin-territory functionality has been moved out of the theme so it passes Theme Check for the theme directory. The four dynamic blocks (site-header, primary-nav, header-actions and sitemap) are no longer registered by the theme; they ship in the Ariade companion plugin, which restores the accessible drop-down menu header and the auto-populated sitemap. The base theme now builds its header from the core Navigation block and its Sitemap page from core blocks (Page List, Categories and recent posts), so a standalone install stays fully functional and accessible with no plugin required. * Footer brand logo is now the registered pattern `ariade/footer-logo` (a pattern is PHP, so it resolves the theme URI) instead of a shortcode — the theme no longer calls `add_shortcode()`. * Removed the bundled `favicon.ico` from the theme. A site's own Site Icon (Appearance → Customize → Site Identity) is used when set; otherwise the theme still supplies default PNG icons. = 1.4.76 = * Fix (footer social links feature): the footer Social Icons row now always lays out horizontally, even when a child theme styles its footer `