Multiple Categories, Multiple versions of Altahualpa

Jaguwar · #1 Apr 20, 2009, 11:58 AM

This one's for Flynn (or whoever's looked at the coding deeply enough to know what I might be looking for).

First like everyone else, I have to say this: Altahualpa ROCKS! It's the best coded, best designed, and most flexible theme, without any doubt.

Now because my blog (like everyone else's, I'm sure) covers an eclectic mix of topics, I've decided some of my top one will have a different look to reflect their respective topics. For that reason, I'd already installed (long before I got Ata) GYS Themed Categories, which is very good at it's job.

The next step was to create a separate Ata install, which I renamed "atahualpa-books" (just to make it easier to tell them apart). A few false starts led me to look through the database, and I realized I also needed to change the $shrotname variable's value in bfa_them_options.php from:

PHP Code:


			
$shortname = "bfa_ata";

to

PHP Code:


			
$shortname = "bfabk_ata";

Likewise, in fucntions.php, I changed:

PHP Code:


			
load_theme_textdomain('atahualpa');

to

PHP Code:


			
load_theme_textdomain('atahualpa-books');

(as the second version is in the folder "atahualpa-books").

Unfortunately, now I can't get the book version to work at all (it seems to be missing all the header information from the theme), and the categoried version only works when I'm in category view, but not when I go read the individual posts in that category.

What am I missing? Is there something else I needed to change? I've been raking through the code, but can't find whatever it might be.

Thanks!

Flynn · #2 Apr 20, 2009, 09:32 PM

It'll be troublesome and require many file edits to do it this way, I suggest that you use HTML -> CSS Inserts to apply different looks to different sections of the site.

If you look into the source code you'll notice that on each page the <BODY> tag has various classes and often an ID, too. You can use these classes and the ID's to target specific pages with CSS or even "group style" a selection of pages differently from the rest of the site.

Start each CSS style with the body class or ID of the page or pages you want to target and add the element you actually want to style after that, like this

This would let you style the post container on the page with the ID 13

HTML Code:

body#body-page-13 div.post {
...
}

All Headline containers on the Category page with the ID 1:

HTML Code:

body#body-cat-1 div.post-headline {
...
}

You should be able to style every single element on any given page or group of pages with this method.

Jaguwar · #3 Apr 21, 2009, 07:08 AM

Hmmm.... that sounds even longer, considering I want to change the look of the whole page. Lots of elements there. I'll take a look again, though. Thanks for the suggestion!

Jaguwar · #4 Apr 21, 2009, 10:49 PM

I've solved it! I'm guessing there was a namespace violation problem preventing what I needed to have happen. And no tedious item-by-item css additions.

I'm nothing if not lazy...

rjholla2003 · #5 Apr 21, 2009, 11:49 PM

I had a question along these lines too. How much editing of source files would need to be done if one were to have multiple installs of a theme? I help run a fansite for a theme park, and we like to have special themes for holidays, and maybe even for new ride openings if it makes itself friendly to a theme. For the sake of conversation, let's say the default theme is Ata, and the special theme is Ata-Purple. Can Ata and Ata-Purple automatically have the same sidebar widgets, or would I have to start all over from scratch? Same with the overall layout (other than colors)?

Thanks for your help.

Jaguwar · #6 Apr 21, 2009, 11:58 PM

No, all widgets would still be in your sidebars and so on. However, I discovered that multiple installs of Ata doesn't lend itself to multiple color schemes easily. I had to change variable names....

rjholla2003 · #7 Apr 22, 2009, 01:59 AM

So Jag, what was the variable you had to change? I did the same tweaks as what you posted and now I'm left with a naked site. I'm not too great with code, but willing to learn!

rjholla2003 · #8 Apr 25, 2009, 10:08 AM

*bump*
No help for this one? Is this a task that's really just too big to be reasonable?

paulae · #9 Apr 26, 2009, 06:56 AM

Why not just have some custom post and/or page templates?

rjholla2003 · #10 Apr 26, 2009, 08:45 AM

I was looking to have the scheme change for the entire site based on events versus only a section of the site, and have them as different themes so that we cold just "one click" switch the look. If I understand correctly, the templates wouldn't be that simple. Of course, I could be completely wrong.

paulae · #11 Apr 27, 2009, 11:28 AM

I use the different post templates to show 2 types of things: 2 of our categories have exclusive sponsors, so the templates for those categories have just those ads in the header, and custom content in the right sidebar.

Other categories are written by people who want custom stuff on every post, like a psychologist who writes a column for us and wants her photo and contact information, plus a contact form, on her posts.

If you just want to change the look of your site for different events, you could use different photos in the header, change background colors, etc.

rjholla2003 · #12 Apr 27, 2009, 11:59 AM

Yeah. Looking at the project, it seems that the simplest way would be to keep a list of the different options we like for the site for different events and just change them all manually in the CP. Thanks!

Jaguwar · #13 Jun 4, 2009, 06:35 PM

Well shoot, I never saw this or got an email about it. Must have ended up in my spam box, and I apologize for the loooooooong delay.

Ok, here's what I did. I have a really neat little text editor called NoteTab Pro that allows me to search the disk for a particular string, and make those changes without having to open the file. If you have something like that, it will be very easy. If not, it might be a little longer, but not impossible: just open every file in the theme and use your software's "Search/Replace" function (hitting CTRL+F should launch said function).

Either way, in your COPY of the theme files (they should be in a separate folder and everything) you want to replace the string:
bfa_ata
with something else

In my case, since I wanted the theme to be adjustable for various categories, I used abbreviations of the categories. For instance, "bfa_ata" became "bfapoe_ata" for the poetry category.

Save the files, and upload.

Now you also need some way to give each category it's own theme (I'm using GYS Themed Categories), and something else that let's you view and CUSTOMIZE each of your Atahualpa versions. I'm using "Theme Test Drive" for that.

Hope that h

Jaguwar · #14 Jun 4, 2009, 06:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by paulae

Why not just have some custom post and/or page templates?

Because the database stores things like color schemes for the entire theme, regardless of the template. I wanted to be able to have various color schemes on the same blog, depending on what category you're looking at.

You can see how I've done that on my blog:
The "Gardening" category has a look that's different from the default, the "Books" has another look, and the "From the Kitchen" one has yet another look. When I tried doing that with just one install, I discovered modifying the color scheme of one changed it for all areas, thereby defeating the purpose.

It was simpler for me.

Burn · #15 Nov 10, 2009, 04:51 PM

This is exactly what I would like to achieve!!

I followed your instruction.
My ORIGINAL folder is atahualpa-red.
I made a COPY of it called atahualpa-twp. In that COPY I changed the bfa_theme_option.php $shortname to bfa_ata_twp

in functions.php got load_theme_textdomain('atahualpa-twp');

then with smultron I opened EVERY FILE of the COPY and look in every file for $bfa_ata that I replaced by $bfa_twp_ata

And even with that, it's not working properly... I get a white screen with the hardcoded text of the footer without anything else...
Did someone encounter that issue and found a solution? I'm sure it's nothing big... but a finger pointing in the right direction will help greatly

Burn · #16 Nov 17, 2009, 06:20 PM

So no one got to crack this except jaguwar? (I try to get in touch but no reply so far...

)

Faenwolf · #17 Apr 27, 2010, 09:55 AM

Hello,

sorry that I am reviving this Thread but I have kind of a similar issue...

My idea was that I wanted to have a light and a dark color scheme for my site... i.e. one black font and white background and another one white font black background...

Then I wanted to place a Widget on the right via "Theme Switcher Reloaded" so that a visitor can change between the two different styles if he wishes to.

Problem is: I want the page to look basically the same, designwise. I just want the colors to change. So I was trying to have two Atahualpa Installations that only are different in their colors but similar on everything else. I cloned my Atahualpa-Folder and tried to switch between them... But soon I realized it isn't that easy because they seem to share the databank or whatever...

So I found that thread here and tried it the same way by doing as Jaguwar told... unfortunately I run into the same Problem that "Burn" had... I don't get it to work...

Maybe someone here has an Idea how I can solve this?

Thank you!