It seems that one of the things that make a great WordPress theme framework, is the ability for Admins to edit and customize a lot of the website right from the frontend–rather than just from the backend WordPress Dashboard. Well, we’re working on something you might be interested in knowing about.
We’ve already built a handy little plugin called JDM Frontend Admin Buttons, but that really just gets the WordPress admin bar out of the way.
We’re more inspired by the overwhelming success of frontend editing plugins like VisualComposer. That gave us an idea about adding theme editing links to various locations throughout the theme visible on the frontend.
For Admin users (with Customizing capabilities), clicking one of these “theme edit location links” would take them to the right part of the WordPress editor.
I know that’s not the same as what VisualComposer can do, but many novice theme developers get confused where to add or edit various elements, such as the menu, widgets (which might use a custom menu) and the actual content body (page, post, etc.). It still seems a step in the right direction.
I’m thinking about something where, as long as you’re logged in on a Desktop and have the right user capabilities, you’d hover over elements on the frontend and it would fade-in a box around the element to edit, with a link (top-right) you can click to edit that specific part of the theme.
This new feature isn’t slated for inclusion until at least v1.5–if not v2. Just thought I’d throw it out there for comment.