Yeah! We’re releasing Stacks 1.3 today!
Download: Stacks 1.3.0
More Info: About Stacks
And just between you and me, this release is a really big deal. There are some really great new features in Stacks 1.3 and best of all… it’s a totally free upgrade!
HUD stands for Heads Up Display
We’ve made some simple changes to the Stack Info HUD. It’s the part of Stacks that you probably use more than any other, so we wanted to make sure that it was really easy to use.
- New layout to show off custom controls.
- New behaviors like remembering where it was and animating custom controls.
- New features like custom stack help and custom stack info.
- New info like the custom stack version number.
Behind the Scenes
A lot of the power of Stacks isn’t built in; it’s what 3rd party developers have added on. Stacks 1.3 introduces a brand new Stacks API. Stacks API 2 introduces tons of new templates, new ways to build Javascript powered stacks, and lots of ways to make custom stacks easier to use. We’ve taken lots of time to ensure that stack developers can smoothly upgrade their new stacks, too. Here’s some of the great new features:
- Automatic Sparkle update
- Double-click to install
- Integrated jQuery and MooTools
- Repeating elements
- Improved asset use
And there’s lots, lots more too. It’s all documented in the new Stacks API documents. And if you need more help, please come join the Stacks Developers Group. We’re always talking about the latest API goodies.
There is One More Thing — Simple Stacks
We couldn’t help but take advantage of all the new Stacks API 2 features. We wanted to show off. We’re launching a few add-on stacks of our own. Our Simple Stacks are a great way to build some complex layouts without knowing HTML or resorting to too many nested stacks. Build lists, columns, or grids of many items. Then go ahead and get creative with your content; it’s stacks — so add columns to your lists or drop a grid of items into a three column stack. Get creative!
More Info and Live Demos: Simple Stacks
Simple Columns
Simple Columns lets you build lots of little fixed sized columns or cells that “float” into your layout. It’s a great way of creating a grid of products, or just a few columns that are exactly sized and spaced. When your layout gets wider, more columns float in, when it gets narrower the extra columns wrap around to create a grid.
Simple Lists
Simple lists let you build numbered or bulleted lists simply and easily. No need to write HTML or built them up from a ton of stacks. Just drop them in and select the number of items in your list. Simple Lists will pick up the CSS from your theme but let you override the font sizes and list margins.
Simple Definitions
A definition is a special kind of list. It’s a list with the content completely indented into its own column. A great looking layout that used to be only for pro-coders. Our Simple Definitions stack lets you easily build definition lists, edit the layout and font sizes, and drop in whatever sort of content you like.
