Some Questions regarding the iBlogPro theme

[slesage 0]

Hi again Andrew, Well, I have been playing with the theme and figured most of the things out myself. There are still a few things which I can't seem to fix though. I'm hoping you can give me some pointers in the right direction. I am going to use the Theme for one of my Video Podcast websites (Website is in Dutch, current layout : http://www.itutorpodcast.com). The Video Podcasts are all available on quite a few video Sharing websites (Blip.TV, Revver, ...) and of course they are available on iTunes / Downloadable from the website themselves. I don't think I'll be using the Flickr thingie in the final version, but you never know. Now that you have a basic idea about what I'm going to use it for, here are my remaining questions :-) I have set up the features page, and the Blog page is the main page with all our content in it. Works great (no problems here) I have created a page called Podcast in which I would like to show only those posts from the Podcast category. I have used the same template as with the blog page, but get a blanc page instead. I guess I'll have to change something in the code somewhere ? I'll be using this setup for other pages as well (Hardware / Software which should only display posts from the Hardware or Software category). Is there an easy way to set this up ? Is there some way to indicate that a given page should not appear in the Top page navigation bar (the Gray area) ? On my current website I have a Google Adds bar in each of my posts ( single post page ) and inbetween posts on the overview page. Not sure if I'm gong to do it here, but could that easily be done using another ad-minister position in one of the template files ? I was thinking about using a Custom Field called 'Blip.TV', and if a value is entered, then display it between the excerpt and the content of the post, if no value is entered for that field, then don't display it. Think I will have to modify _posts.php and add somthing like this :

<?php $postvideoeurl = get_post_meta($post->ID, 'Blip.TV', true); if ($postvideoeurl) { ?>
	<div class="<someclasshere>">
	     <embed src="<?php echo $postvideoeurl; ?>" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="600" height="390" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed>
	</div>
	<?php } ?>

And figure out which URL I'll have to use in there :-P What would be the best way to do all those modifications without loosing them on the next update of the template ? (Not necessary, could always do a file compare if necessary) As you can see, there are just a few questions left. I have been able to get everything else working the way I expected, and am really loving the theme so far. It looks a lot cleaner than my current template, and I love that ! I hope you will be able to help me out with a few of these things, meanwhile I'll try to find a solution myself as well :-) Thanks a lot in advance, Stefaan

[Andrew 207]

I have used the same template as with the blog page, but get a blanc page instead. I guess I'll have to change something in the code somewhere ? I'll be using this setup for other pages as well (Hardware / Software which should only display posts from the Hardware or Software category). Is there an easy way to set this up ?

To my knowledge there isn't an easy way to do this (without writing custom code).. of course I haven't looked to see if there is a plugin for it.

Is there some way to indicate that a given page should not appear in the Top page navigation bar (the Gray area) ?

Yes, there is a plugin for this called Exclude Pages.

What would be the best way to do all those modifications without loosing them on the next update of the template ?

Your solution is probably the best one, custom code this and then just compare versions of '_post.php' in updates.

[slesage 0]

To my knowledge there isn't an easy way to do this (without writing custom code).. of course I haven't looked to see if there is a plugin for it.

Hm, that's a pitty. Some other Templates I used allowed me to add Categories to the Navigation Bar instead of Pages. I guess it would be hard to have the best of both worlds.

Yes, there is a plugin for this called Exclude Pages.

Thanks, will have a look at that.

Your solution is probably the best one, custom code this and then just compare versions of '_post.php' in updates.

Ok, I'll try to get everything working tomorrow. Really looking forward to uploading the new theme on my website. It really looks great !

[slesage 0]

I have set up the features page, and the Blog page is the main page with all our content in it. Works great (no problems here) I have created a page called Podcast in which I would like to show only those posts from the Podcast category. I have used the same template as with the blog page, but get a blanc page instead. I guess I'll have to change something in the code somewhere ? I'll be using this setup for other pages as well (Hardware / Software which should only display posts from the Hardware or Software category). Is there an easy way to set this up ?

Ok, solved this in the _nav.php page. What I wanted was to display the default blog page, then the Podcast page (which would display all posts in the Podcast category), and after that all other pages. This is how I changed the code :

<div id="nav" class="fix">
		<ul class="fix">
				<li class="page_item navfirst">/" title="Home">/images/home-icon-trans.png" alt=""/>
			<?php
				$frontpage_id = get_option('page_on_front');
				/* sLesage : We want to get our Blog Page first, then the Podcast Category page, then all others */
				$blogpage_id = get_option('page_for_posts');
				wp_list_pages('sort_column=menu_order&include='.$blogpage_id.'&depth=1&title_li=');
				wp_list_categories('include=116&title_li=');
				wp_list_pages('sort_column=menu_order&exclude='.$blogpage_id.','.$frontpage_id.',260&depth=1&title_li=');
				/* sLesage : Finished custom coding here */
				/* Original Code
				wp_list_pages('sort_column=menu_order&exclude='.$frontpage_id.'&depth=1&title_li=');
				*/
			?>
	
		<?php include (TEMPLATEPATH . '/searchform.php'); ?>
	</div><!-- /nav -->[/code]

It works as I would have expected it :-) On to the next bullet point ! Regards, Stefaan

[slesage 0]

Ok, second problem fixed too by changing the _post.php code where the content gets displayed. Just needed to add a little something in there.

					<div class="post-content">
							<?php
							/* sLesage : Added this piece of code to automate the Blip.TV embed a little */
							$postvideourl = get_post_meta($post->ID, 'Blip.TV Link', true); if ($postvideourl)
							{ ?>
								<p><embed src="<?php echo $postvideourl; ?>" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="600" height="390" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></p>
							<?php }
							/* sLesage : End of Blip.TV Emedding customisation */ ?>
						<?php the_content(); ?></div>
	
						<?php link_pages('<p>Pages:  ', '</p>', 'number'); ?>
					</div>
	[/code]

The only thing I need to do is add the Google AddSense block somewhere in the Post, but will have to try a few things out to see where it fits without 'disturbing' the content. Think I'll be uploading my stuff later today, wonder what the users / visitors will say about the new layout :-) Regards, Stefaan

[Andrew 207]

Cool, thanks for posting your changes. Put up a link or pic of your site, so I can see how it turns out

[slesage 0]

Hi, I surely will. Still trying to do a few things though. Must include some one click subscribe buttons on the site as well, working on that right now. Regards, Stefaan

[slesage 0]

Hi, Just a little message to let you know that the website is up and running with the iBlog Pro theme (with slight modifications). You can see the result at : http://www.itutorpodcast.com/ the content is in Dutch though. Not 100% happy with the block containing the one-click subscribe buttons yet, and the 'Donate' part in the Sidebar. Apart from that, it's great and a wonderful theme. Regards, Stefaan

[Andrew 207]

Looks great. Let me know if you have any more suggestions for development.