Hi all,

is there a way to test a theme while developing it (but still showing another to all other visitors).

Something like a theme=mynewtheme on the URL ?

Erik

No, But if your ISP provides subdomains, you can create a test subdomain and load your test theme there. That is my approach.

Or simply a different subdirectory, like /zenphoto-test.

Set up a LAMP (or WAMP, even XAMPP will do it for testing purposes) at your local machine. There you can test and do whatever you want, plus: you dont need to edit the theme files online (slow saving) or even upload them again, and again, and again after changing, to test if it looks good.

For Mac users I recommend MAMP

A plugin would be nice for this. WordPress has one and it's called Theme Test Drive. With this enabled you can choose and play with any theme, while visitors still see the 'official' theme.
So perhaps someone with coding skills wants to take a look at this?

I think it's the easiest to work locally on a theme or on a extra installation and not on a running site.

Nah, more fun to live dangerously. How do you think I got myself into the mess I'm in (locked out)

For anyone who is interested in looking into this plugin I mentioned: Theme Test Drive.

I'm not a coder, but the part of the coding that handles the actual 'testdrive' is rather short (the rest is admin stuff), so perhaps it can be an example for a ZP version of this plugin...