Wordpress Themes - WP Forum at BFA

Wordpress Themes - WP Forum at BFA (http://forum.bytesforall.com/index.php)
-   Atahualpa 3 Wordpress theme (http://forum.bytesforall.com/forumdisplay.php?f=2)
-   -   Hacking the setup-Goal:customised theme for multi-blog hosting w consistant look (http://forum.bytesforall.com/showthread.php?t=4124)

fairpoint Oct 29, 2009 03:19 PM

Hacking the setup-Goal:customised theme for multi-blog hosting w consistant look
 
My grand plan: I am hoping / trying to use Atahualpa to design a base blog layout/style of a prototype blog site. I would then either hard-code the modifications for future implementations or use a script to copy the modifications out to other blogs. I plan to then import the remaining blogs using this new base theme that is my modified Atahualpa theme and settings. What I liked about this idea was that I could have a good base setup and then hopefully still be able to tweak individual blogs as needed rather than having to install the Atahualpa theme and make the same changes over and over again to make them consistent.

Development platform: WP-mu on WAMP.
Production platform: WP-mu on Linux
Objective: Import multiple blogs from Movable Type to WP-mu using a consistent base style.

My Questions:
1- Should I plan to hack the code that creates the entries in the wp_options so that upon activation, the new settings take effect or should I plan to script this using a sql code after activation? (I think I prefer the former)
2- For example there is this value in the table options table after I update the theme: [224 0 bfa_ata_layout_width 99% yes]. Where can I change 99% to 984px; so it is the default that shows on the theme options panel and then is what is loaded in the options table? Or Where exactly can I edit the default options that show up in the theme options appearance admin panel?
3- I see that each blog gets a new options table, but that the custom options are not loaded until they are updated from the theme options appearance admin panel. Does this mean that I will need to go through this step for each blog? Or I guess I could run a sql script against the tables. Any advice on this?
4- I read that the css.php should not be modified if upgrade issues are to be avoided. So should I use “one of the many text areas in the theme options to apply CSS to specific parts of the layout.”? I am not clear on how to do this and apply it to multiple blogs. My goal is to have a custom base theme that then can be modified only on occasion.

Thanks in advance?

fairpoint Nov 2, 2009 04:06 PM

I have gone a head and tried some tweaks. I realized that the changes I needed might be able to be done as simply as pre-pending to the top of the bfa_header_config file. Adding Divs to contain some things I need at the very top of every page.
I then managed to get the search box to display inside the opacityright div. And placed the feed links on the right on the same line as the menu items. So far so good.


However, the links to Categories, Archives, and recent posts are 404. I must have bungled something.

The next step is to see if I can get the menu items and the feed items just below the Title and image with the opacity divs. So it is the last thing in the bfa_header.

I realize that upgrading will be messy.

juggledad Nov 2, 2009 06:27 PM

I would create your base theme, do a 'save' on every theme page and then do an SQL export of the theme options. Now you have your base. then you can just import the base into each of the blogs you want and all the options will be there as you originally set them up.

I've been working on a Atahualpa theme option export/import php program, but have been busy answering questions on the forum and raking the yard :p I'll have to see if I can get that going.

I'll will warn you, if I do post the code, it will be in the gold forum as a bonus for people who have donated.


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 11:11 AM.

Powered by vBulletin® Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.