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Steps to safely personalize a Genesis child theme with WordPress

October 30, 2014 Leave a Comment Netklik

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When we create websites in WorldPress, it is advisable to always work with a child theme. The reason is that when theme developer, in this case www.studiopress.com makes changes to the Genesis framework, this changes will not affect our website.

How can we safely personalize a child theme using custom.css?

The same applies to when we personalize a child theme in WordPress. We have to make sure we are doing it in a safe way. It is recommended we create a new css file, custom.css, where one includes the theme personalization. Next, I will describe the steps I followed to achieve this.

Step 1: Create a custom.css file

Make a duplicate copy of the style.css found in the child theme file. For our example, I am using the Genesis child them and am renaming it custom.css on my computer.

Step 2: Update the information of the custom.css file

In a text editor open the new custom.css document and delete everything except the details that describe the document, found in the upper part.

/* # Genesis Sample Child Theme
Theme Name: Genesis Sample Theme
Theme URI: http://my.studiopress.com/themes/genesis/
Description: This is the sample theme created for the Genesis Framework.
Author: StudioPress
Author URI: http://www.studiopress.com/
Template: genesis
Template Version: 2.1.2
Tags: black, orange, white, one-column, two-columns, three-columns, left-sidebar, right-sidebar, responsive-layout, custom-menu, full-width-template, rtl-language-support, sticky-post, theme-options, threaded-comments, translation-ready
License: GPL-2.0+
License URI: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html
*/

It is important to change the Theme name: it should read:

Theme Name: Genesis Sample Theme - Customized

Step 3: FTP the custom.css file to the server

The next step is to upload the custom.css file to the serves through a FTP tool. For our example, the location will be: wp-content/themes/genesis-sample

Step 4: Associate the Genesis with the new custom.css file

Now we have to tell Genesis to read this file, and to do this we have to click the Genesis>Theme Settings option on the dashboard. In the section that reads Header and Footer Scripts, under: “Enter scripts or code you would like output to wp_head(): we have to add the following codes:

<link rel='stylesheet'  type='text/css' href='http://www.mywebiste.com/wp-content/themes/genesis-sample/custom.css'  media='all' />

Click on Save Settings found in lower part of the page. This is the last step. Now we can go to Appearance>Editor and we can see the custom.css file that we just created, and where we will personalize the Genesis Child Theme.

How to add Blog posts to a static home page in Genesis for WordPress

October 13, 2014 Leave a Comment Netklik

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Usually, when we develop websites in WordPress, we can choose between two options:

Have a static home page
Have a blog on the home page and show the most recent post

Recently I was working on a website that had a different requirement. In this case it was important to have a static home page and at the same time show the most recent blog posts below the static home page.

After some research, I found the following website that includes an excellent explanation of how to achieve this change: : http://sridharkatakam.com/show-latest-posts-content-homepage-genesis/

In order to do this, one has to register a new widget area called: Home Below Content, and then one drags the widget from Features posts in Genesis to the recently created widget in Home Below Content.

These are the steps I followed:

Create the widget Home Below Content

In order to do this it is necessary to add the following code to functions.php inside the child theme:

// Register widget area
genesis_register_sidebar( array(
	'id'				=> 'home-below-content',
	'name'			=> __( 'Home Below Content', 'genesis' ),
	'description'	=> __( 'This is the home below content section.', 'genesis' ),
) );

//* Add the Home Below Content section
add_action( 'genesis_entry_content', 'sk_show_posts' );
function sk_show_posts() {
	if ( is_front_page() ) {
		printf( '<div %s>', genesis_attr( 'home-below-content' ) );
			genesis_widget_area( 'home-below-content' );
		echo '</div>';
	}
}

//* Modify the Excerpt read more link

function new_excerpt_more($more) {
    return '<a class="more-link" href="' . get_permalink() . '"> [Continue Reading]</a>';
}
add_filter('excerpt_more', 'new_excerpt_more');

2. Add the following code to the style.css file that corresponds to the child theme:

.entry-content a.alignleft,
.entry-content a.more-link {
	border-bottom: none;
}

.entry-content a.alignleft img {
	margin-right: 2rem;
}

.home .entry-content .widget-title {
	font-size: 3.6rem;
	text-transform: none;
}

2. On the WordPress dashboard, go to Appearance>Widgets, drag the widget in Featured Posts to the widget Home Below Content. Once this is completed, it is possible to configure it. For example, it is possible to specify the categories one wants to show, the number of posts, it one wants to include a thumbnail for an image, etc.

3. Update the website in the browser and enjoy the results.

Steps to Update Thesis for WordPress

October 3, 2014 Leave a Comment Netklik

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Recently I was adding content to a website that uses Thesis for WorldPress, and was surprised to get the following error: Warning: Illegal string offset ‘type’, with the warning that there was an error in the options options_post.php file. After researching the possible reasons for this new error, which came out of nowhere, everything seemed to indicate that the error could be corrected by updating the version of Theses I had. Since, I thought some of you may also bump into this error as well, I decided to write down the steps to update Thesis for WordPress.

In my case I had version 1.8 and to updated to 1.86. I studies the updating process suggested by diythemes.com, and here is a summary of the steps I followed:

Steps to Update Thesis for WordPress

The first step was to back up the complete website, using a FTP tool, just in case things did not turn out as expected. Prevention is better than cure!
Under the Thesis option, go to Manage Options and click on All Design Options to download on the computer the current configuration for Thesis.
Download from diythemes.com the new version of Thesis
Upload the new Thesis file to the server and put in the themes file. After this step, the themes file will include the old and new versions of Theses.
Upload to the server the custom file of the old version and replace with the custom file of the new version.
In the custom file, change the permits for: cache (file permissions) to 775 (instead of 755).
In the custom file, change the permits for: layout.css (file permissions) to 666 (instead of 644).
On the WordPress dashboard click on Appearance>Themes and activate the new version.
Click on Design Options and upload the backup file that was installed in the previous version.
Upload the page again and everything should be functioning now!

Why use WordPress for Website Development?

May 5, 2011 Leave a Comment Netklik

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As someone that has built web sites for the past 10 years, I have used plenty of tools and applications, believe more than you want to know. Having had this experiences allows me to choose the right tool for the right project.

Reason we use WordPress for website development

One of our favorite tools when considering the creation of a website is WordPress and here is why:

Even though WordPress was designed for blogging, it can easily be used to run a website, with or without the Blog. It’s a great tools for small business owners because it comes with great feature and best of all it’s FREE.

WordPress is an amazing content management system that offers small businesses an easy way to manage their website.
SEO: We all know the importance of Search Engine Placement and Google loves WordPress sites. WordPress excels on ease of publishing and making changes to your web pages content. We all know that getting good search engine rankings requires fresh, unique content , so having a system that does not get in your way when you want to update your website is a great advantage.
Website Design: Another great features for Small Business Owners when considering WordPress is that it’s possible to design their website with their unique design style. One of WordPress core elements is something called a theme. This is essentially the design template that controls the look and feel of all of the pages throughout the site. At Netklik we excel in WordPress Customization, particularly WordPress Thesis Customization. Creating a custom look for your web site, will allow your website to look like a real website and not like a blog. Most important as a result of using WordPress your business will have a Search Engine Friendly Web Design
Affordability: We understand that keeping your website affordable is key for small business owners. As I mentioned before, WordPress is a FREE tool that comes with a huge collection plugins. There is literally a WordPress plugin for everything. This is another key feature for small business owners, it cuts down on web development time and there for costs.

Do you want to know more about WordPress website Development?

Request a Small Business Web Design Free Estimate or contact us to learn more about why WordPress Website Development can be the right choice for your small business.