Omeka’s How To, or Codex, section offers a wide array of information ranging from step-by-step tutorials for managing your archive to more general instructions on adding and modifying PHP functions in your theme.

One good example of the nuggets nestled in the codex is an instruction on how to add an advanced search to your public site. The advanced search is similar to what is available to you on the /admin/items page, and allows one to search or browse by a specific field which can be quite handy.

Follow the instructions and paste the code into your theme’s item/browse page to give your site’s users an easier way to mine the archive.

The seasonal suite continues, as we launch Winter today. You can also grab it from the themes page.

This screencast continues where last week’s left off by demonstrating how to edit an existing item type. This is useful for customizing your installation so that it can best fulfill your project’s needs.

Edit away!

After four months in public beta Omeka has grown into a useful and productive tool for many individuals and institutions. But, having workshopped the software with our many stakeholders (including our partners at the Minnesota Historical Society), and having learned many things from our active user base, we are now ready to go to the next level. In the next few months we will be rewriting a good portion of the Omeka code base, to make it faster, more flexible, and easier to develop. Expect big things from us, including:

• A new, more robust and flexible data model
• A new, more usable and attractive exhibit builder
• A new, easier-to-use theme API
• A new, easier-to-use plugin API
• Upgrades to the core software
• Automated data migration

We hope that you stick around to see this new release. In the meantime, feel free to continue developing in the current version of Omeka. We promise the transition will be near seamless.

The second installation in our seasonal suite of themes is up. Head over to the theme page and give Autumn a try.