Author Topic: Releasing my First Symbiostock Child Theme (Read 22093 times)

Amanda_K · « **on:** April 30, 2013, 20:36 »

I'm ready to put Clean Theme for Symbiostock out as the first official third party Symbiostock child theme! You can view the demo here: http://www.creativembers.com/symbiothemes/

As this is a first on several levels, I humbly request your gentleness if I need to work out a few kinks. I'm super excited to get some themes out there to start promoting Symbiostock and the principal behind the project. Hopefully people who are on the fence about jumping in due to lack of design knowledge or customization skills will be happy to see some plug and play options.

I've set up a support forum for the theme itself to deal with specific questions directly, (trying to keep MSG clean, and support streamlined) but if you any questions feel free to message me here. I have plans to add more themes in the near future, and will be adding features/patches to this theme as details in the parent theme get ironed out. Free updates are included as upgrades happen.

My road map for future development is taking shape, one of the first things I hope to get added is a working custom options panel that would allow you to choose colors without having to edit any CSS. I'm always open to suggestions and requests.

Soooo......here's where you can get Clean Theme 1.0.0:
http://www.creativembers.com/clean-theme-1-0-0-released/

Customizing a Child Theme - TUTORIAL

If you want to make color changes or edit fonts etc:

http://www.creativembers.com/customizing-a-symbiostock-child-theme/

Do you have something totally different in mind for a theme? Send me your ideas. Also I'm getting ready to do some video tutorials tomorrow, (on general Symbiostock topics and/or customization) please send me your requests!

Leo Blanchette · « **Reply #1 on:** April 30, 2013, 20:46 »

Was looking forward to this! Definitely the best "First child theme" I could have hoped for...but this is awesome even for a public child theme of any sort.

EDIT: I don't know if you've already done this, but often theme creators will release their theme with a lot of wordpress.org plugin zip files attached, thus allowing people to quickly plug in all the features you may be using. For instance if you suggest a certain contact form, or slideshow...anything you use on the demo can be automatically downloaded with it to save people time.

klsbear · « **Reply #2 on:** April 30, 2013, 21:14 »

That's terrific! And tempting too... I'm slogging along with trying to customize my own but it's like I'm doing it with my eyes closed and one hand behind my back. I have no experience in this type of programming. I may just have to bail and purchase a theme. Child themes will be a great asset to get more people involved.

Chico · « **Reply #3 on:** April 30, 2013, 21:15 »

Just buy it. I'll install it later. Thanks for put it availiable. Very nice theme.

Chico · « **Reply #4 on:** April 30, 2013, 22:10 »

Ok, i'm fast and a bit stupid about Wordpress, so i need some help.

I wanna my site with same layout show at http://www.creativembers.com/symbiothemes/

Right now, site looks like below. I'm using in my page "home" a template named "home page CTAs"

Where is my fault? I try others templates but i have no success. Thanks for any help.

Amanda_K · « **Reply #5 on:** April 30, 2013, 22:31 »

Hi Chico! So for the demo home page I put the slider in the "Home Page - Above the Content" Side bar, this way you can make the slider full width and the main content (text) will line up with your "See also" widget (as long as you have placed that in the "Home Page - Beside Content" widget area.

Here's what I did to set up the demo:

1) I installed Enhanced Text Widget, free from Wordpress plug-in directory here: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/enhanced-text-widget/ and placed an instance of that in the "Home Page Above Content" sidebar. This allows you to use shortcodes to display the slider.

2) I use the free version of the Soliloqy slider which can be installed from the Wordpress plug in directory here: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/soliloquy-lite/ and create a slider that is 1130px wide (my height was 300px but you can play with this) Once you've created a slider it will tell you what shortcode to use for it, ie: [soliloquy id="75"] so you just pop that into your Enhanced Text widget and you should be good to go.

Let me know if that clears it up! I'll write up a tutorial on this with some screenshots and post on my blog tomorrow in case anyone wants to follow along.

Kerioak~Christine · « **Reply #6 on:** May 01, 2013, 03:02 »

Hi Amanda
Am I likely to be able to correct the current errors in my theme (wide footer, some text in FAQ's, Eula etc overrunning page) if I buy yours and then try adapting it as you seem to have the widths of everything level which I have been unable to get right. I am almost there I think but it just needs a few tweaks that I cannot work out.

Amanda_K · « **Reply #7 on:** May 01, 2013, 03:28 »

It's Amanda, actually but Gillian is floating around here somewhere

I've been meaning to update my display name on here anyway, thanks for the reminder!

It looks like you've made a lot of adjustments, you'd certainly be able to make your customizations to this theme as well, though it would take some time to recreate what you currently have, and unless you are doing a child of a child them (I'm going to look into this further) it might be a few extra steps to update.

Can you do me a favor and send me a message with a summary of the main changes you've made and the bugs you still want to fix (other than the footer?) It's a bit late here, but I can take a look tomorrow for you and see what we can figure out.

cathyslife · « **Reply #8 on:** May 01, 2013, 05:11 »

I just want to be clear. So i purchase and download Clean Theme. I use this instead of the SY child theme? I keep Leo's main theme installed and activate this?

Kerioak~Christine · « **Reply #9 on:** May 01, 2013, 05:23 »

Thanks Amanda, I have sent you my CSS file as well

Chico · « **Reply #10 on:** May 01, 2013, 05:44 »

I'm doing some progress. Below, a little help for my friends. Thx Amanda.

Chico · « **Reply #11 on:** May 01, 2013, 06:13 »

How to setup this nice news bar?

Chico · « **Reply #12 on:** May 01, 2013, 06:18 »

Quote from: cclapper on May 01, 2013, 05:11

I just want to be clear. So i purchase and download Clean Theme. I use this instead of the SY child theme? I keep Leo's main theme installed and activate this?

Yes, just replace SY child theme by this one.

cathyslife · « **Reply #13 on:** May 01, 2013, 06:29 »

Thanks chico!

cascoly · « **Reply #14 on:** May 01, 2013, 11:22 »

there's no way to set up a child of a child is there? eg, if we're interested in using a 3rd-party child theme & still want to make our own adjustments later?

Amanda_K · « **Reply #15 on:** May 01, 2013, 12:31 »

Hi Cascoly, that can be doneso the short answer is yes, but...as you might expect it gets a bit trickier the deeper you go Give me maybe a day or two and I will finish my research and see if I can find or make a good tutorial. The better way to go about this is probably being able to save theme options if we are talking about color and font changes so right now I'm focusing on getting a working "Theme Options Panel" going either to add to this theme or to put in future versions depending on what people want. That would hopefully allow you to change things like color, background images and heading fonts without having to mess with code, and be able to save between updates.

Thanks Chico for helping Cathy and for the cool screenshot

That bar I'm using at the top of my site is pretty cool, it's called Foobar and there is a lite version available here: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/foobar-notifications-lite/ and a commercial version with a ton of features here: http://codecanyon.net/item/foobar-wordpress-notification-bars/411466 I think I'll make a blog post with a review of the ones I'm using on CartoonPictureShop, so many cool plugins around!

Tinny, I'll take a look over what you sent me and get back today, thanks!

daveh900 · « **Reply #16 on:** May 01, 2013, 13:46 »

This looks great! I'm going to purchase and install soon.

Phil · « **Reply #17 on:** May 02, 2013, 18:54 »

Just bought it, thankyou for producing this. (Interesting the sale site makes you choose a Canadian province - I'm now in Alberta, I'm sure it is nice there

- took me five minutes to find the download link in the email but eventually got there

Anyway, it all looks good, but a feature request if I may. Is it possible to remove the images / blog dropdown in the child theme? (I've hacked it out of the main theme a couple of times, but each time I update it does the Arnold Schwarznegger and comes back

Chico · « **Reply #18 on:** May 02, 2013, 19:16 »

Quote from: Phil on May 02, 2013, 18:54

Just bought it, thankyou for producing this. (Interesting the sale site makes you choose a Canadian province - I'm now in Alberta, I'm sure it is nice there - took me five minutes to find the download link in the email but eventually got there

Anyway, it all looks good, but a feature request if I may. Is it possible to remove the images / blog dropdown in the child theme? (I've hacked it out of the main theme a couple of times, but each time I update it does the Arnold Schwarznegger and comes back

Just cut and paste 9lives answer picked from other topic. I did it and works fine.

"Hi guys, just saw this. I got this working with help from theruchos! But I actually edited the search form. for some reason every CSS trick I tried gave me search errors. If anyone else has that problem this is how I did it.

You edit the searchform_symbiostock.php to make the change, now I have a copy of this file in my child theme because I made some adjustments to the header.

The lines that need to be edited are Lines 27 to 33 which read:

<select id="select_type" name="post_type" >

<option value="image">Images</option>

<option value="post">Blog</option>

</select>

You replace that with just one line:

<input type="hidden" name="post_type" value="image" />

That's it! I suggest maybe making a duplicate of your child theme to try it if you are unsure, otherwise just a back up and you should be fine. Hope that helps! If you have questions feel free to message me."

cascoly · « **Reply #19 on:** May 02, 2013, 19:22 »

Quote from: 9lives on May 01, 2013, 12:31

Hi Cascoly, that can be doneso the short answer is yes, but...as you might expect it gets a bit trickier the deeper you go Give me maybe a day or two and I will finish my research and see if I can find or make a good tutorial. The better way to go about this is probably being able to save theme options if we are talking about color and font changes so right now I'm focusing on getting a working "Theme Options Panel" going either to add to this theme or to put in future versions depending on what people want. That would hopefully allow you to change things like color, background images and heading fonts without having to mess with code, and be able to save between updates.

actually, I was concerned about additional elements that I might add that didn't relate to the thee -- eg, statistical routines or other tracking and reports

steve

Phil · « **Reply #20 on:** May 02, 2013, 19:33 »

thank Chico

Amanda_K · « **Reply #21 on:** May 02, 2013, 19:59 »

Hi Phil, thanks! I'll have to check the store, I'm in Canada myself so I know it's an option but a couple of people from other countries purchased with no problems so I think it may just localize for everyone!

I don't want to disable the search in the main theme since some people may want it, but what I can do easily is add a "twin" version of the theme with drop down removed as an option. I'll get that put together as a freebie to anyone who purchased it already. I can email you the download link as soon as I have it set up.

Customizing a Child Theme - TUTORIAL

http://www.creativembers.com/customizing-a-symbiostock-child-theme/

On another note, since some people asked if you are going to customize the theme further there is a way to do this without touching the child theme code so you'll be able to save between updates. Please see the tutorial linked above and comment with any questions!

Amanda_K · « **Reply #22 on:** May 02, 2013, 20:02 »

Steve, sounds like you have some pretty interesting things you are thinking of adding! Maybe you could build anything like that as a plug in?

cathyslife · « **Reply #23 on:** May 02, 2013, 20:57 »

Quote from: 9lives on May 02, 2013, 19:59

Hi Phil, thanks! I'll have to check the store, I'm in Canada myself so I know it's an option but a couple of people from other countries purchased with no problems so I think it may just localize for everyone!

I don't want to disable the search in the main theme since some people may want it, but what I can do easily is add a "twin" version of the theme with drop down removed as an option. I'll get that put together as a freebie to anyone who purchased it already. I can email you the download link as soon as I have it set up.

Customizing a Child Theme - TUTORIAL

http://www.creativembers.com/customizing-a-symbiostock-child-theme/

On another note, since some people asked if you are going to customize the theme further there is a way to do this without touching the child theme code so you'll be able to save between updates. Please see the tutorial linked above and comment with any questions!

Uh oh. I've already made a bunch of changes to your css. oopsie.

I think I can copy all of your child theme code and save in text wrangler. Then reload the child theme, then make the changes in custom css. Will that work?

edit: to answer my own question, yes it will work. I just did it.

Amanda_K · « **Reply #24 on:** May 02, 2013, 22:06 »

Glad it worked!

MicrostockGroup Sponsors

Author Topic: Releasing my First Symbiostock Child Theme (Read 22093 times)

Amanda_K

Leo Blanchette

klsbear

Chico

Chico

Amanda_K

Kerioak~Christine

Amanda_K

cathyslife

Kerioak~Christine

Chico

Chico

Chico

cathyslife

cascoly

Amanda_K

daveh900

Phil

Chico

cascoly

Phil

Amanda_K

Amanda_K

cathyslife

Amanda_K

Related Topics

Sponsors

Microstock Poll Results

Sponsors