Home

Blog

Changing the membership renewal price

As announced in the theme depreciation post we are changing the Club Membership price from $15 to $9.

Because of several system restrictions this change can’t be done automatically, you will have to temporarily cancel your current membership and renew it again. Canceling doesn’t terminate your membership right away, it’s still active until the end of the cycle (month). Because of this we recommend waiting until the end of the cycle (month) to cancel/renew your membership

It’s just a few clicks – here are the steps:
  • Login to member area and click on the Payments History tab
  • Cancel your current subscription
  • With that done click on the Add/Renew Subscription tab
  • Inside the “Select Membership Type” dropdown find and select the Renew – Premium Themes Club Full Access option
  • Click on “Add To Cart” and checkout like you normally would
  Please contact us if you run into any problems
Posted by templatic in August 1, 2012 |

Remove taxonomy slugs from your URLs

Since most of our newer themes use custom post types and taxonomies to handle content such as events, properties or products we started receiving a lot of questions on how to delete custom taxonomy slugs from URLs. We will do this using a plugin called WP htaccess Control available from the plugins directory. Even though the plugin has been available for a while it caused problems with blog categories so we decided not to recommend it. So far I did a quick test of the plugin using our GeoPlaces v4, Real Estate 2 and Emporium themes. It worked great with each one. So, to remove taxonomy category URLs from your theme do the following:
  • Download, install and activate the WP htaccess Control plugin
  • Go to wp-admin -> Settings -> htaccess Control and expand the “Remove Taxonomies and Author Base” section
  • Inside the section choose the category base you want to remove. The image below is for GeoPlaces v4, it’s one of rare Templatic themes with two category base slugs (places and events)
  • Click on “Save all changes” to finish the job
If you did everything correctly the taxonomy category slugs should be removed from your theme. Instead of something like this: Your category should show like this:

Please Note: 1. The above only works with Post Name permalinks. If you haven’t already, go to wp-admin -> Settings -> Permalinks and choose Post Name. 2. Avoid using the same slug for both blog and event/product/etc categories. It will cause conflicts and issues with the theme. If you have categories with the same name at least make sure that the slug is different

Ok, this solves the category slug problem, you’re probably thinking “What about listing detail pages”? Unfortunately this plugin can’t be used to remove slugs from detail pages. However, there is a plugin you can use. It’s called custom permalinks and works on a per-post basis. This means you will have to set a custom permalink for each of your places, products, properties or jobs (depending on the theme you use). So, to remove slugs from detail pages do the following:
  • Download, install and activate the Custom Permalinks plugin
  • Start creating a new event/property/product/etc inside the back-end and enter the title
  • Set the new permalink under the title
  • Your permalink can be the same as before just without the event/property/etc prefix or you can enter a completely new permalink. It’s up to you

At the moment Custom Permalinks plugin does not work with our eCommerce themes. App themes like GeoPlaces v4, Real Estate 2 work fine

If you want to translate taxonomy names inside your theme visit the following forum thread: http://templatic.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=88&t=7943 The tutorial is focused on GeoPlaces v4 theme but the general principle can be applied to any other theme. Do this only if you’re an intermediate WordPress user, do not attempt to do this if you just started using WordPress. Please note that WP htaccess Control and Custom Permalinks plugins are not officially supported. We will not be able to troubleshoot and fix problems caused by using these plugins.
Posted by templatic in July 14, 2012 |1 Response

Create an awesome job-centric community using Job Board v3

Back in May four theme upgrades were announced. JobBoard v3, the first of those upgrades is now ready! This next-gen Job Board is a mix of old design coupled with new and awesome functionality. If you got a chance to test some of our more advanced themes like GeoPlaces v4 or Realtr than you know what to expect from JobBoard v3. Advanced features like price packages and custom fields have all found their way into JobBoard v3.

View Live Demo or Test Drive and Purchase this theme

Probably the first thing you’ll notice in JobBoard v3 is the ability to submit resumes as well as jobs. One of the bigger changes in JobBoard is the inclusion of Job Provider/Job Seeker system. In a nutshell, all users that register on the site choose whether to be a job seeker or a job provider. Depending on their selection the theme will show or hide content on the site. For instance, job providers will have access to all resumes posted on the site but they will not be able to upload their own. Job seekers on the other hand will be able to upload their resume but not jobs.

Both Jobs and Resumes are a separate post type/taxonomy in JobBoard. As you probably suspected, regular WordPress posts will be used as blog posts. To make the transition from JobBoard v2 easier an update query was included that will automatically transfer all your jobs (currently listed under Posts) to the Job post type.

All Templatic upgrades are completely free for all existing members and this one is no different! If you’re running JobBoard v2 head over to member area to get the latest version! Also make sure you read the theme guide’s section about upgrading

Monetization options in the last version were fairly lacking and left a lot to be desired. All that is changed in JobBoard v3 which features the most advanced monetization system yet. What sets it apart from our other themes is the ability to switch to a subscription based model. So far users had to pay to publish each individual listing, if you turn on the subscription model users will be able to upload an unlimited number of listings in the time-frame you set inside the price package. Don’t worry if it sounds too complicated, the theme guide will explain everything in detail.

Even though all this new functionality was added you might have noticed that the design has stayed pretty much the same. No changes were made so that the upgrade process for those already running Job Board theme could go as smooth as possible. In case you made some css changes, chances are they will stay intact after the upgrade. Because of it’s responsive design Job Board will look great on your laptop, tablet and smartphone!

Helping you showcase useful information are the good ol’ custom fields. “Manage custom fields” section in JobBoard v3 allows you to create/edit custom fields for both the Jobs and Resumes custom post type. Custom fields you create in this section can be added both to the back-end and front-end submission forms. Job/Resume detail pages will show these fields at the top alongside the company logo/user image.

Video Overview

View Live Demo or Test Drive and Purchase this theme

Posted by templatic in July 10, 2012 | 5

Sleek, elegant and responsive. Say Hello to Education Academy!

Last week a teaser was published where you could suggest features for this theme. Some of those were included and made the theme truly shine. Thank you for your input! Education is a unique portfolio theme suitable for faculties, universities, colleges and even high schools. As you can see on the images below it features simple yet refreshing design with completely widgetized homepage and even some advanced functionalities like custom fields management. With it’s layout and color options Education Academy is fairly unique in our portfolio. Continue reading and see what else this theme has to offer…

View Live Demo or Test Drive and Purchase this theme

Responsive design will ensure that anyone, no matter the device he/she is using will be able to adequately read content on your site. Another thing that’s great about this theme is that it’s coming loaded with different layout options. 1 column, 2 column and even 3 column layouts are available to you. To make the deal even sweeter Education Academy allows you to set a different layout for every page.

To make content easy to organize and keep track of Education theme comes with multiple post types. Along with your standard WordPress posts you’ll be able to create and manage staff members, courses, facilities and galleries. It goes without saying that each of these can be easily added to one of multiple navigation bars inside the header area. Most Templatic themes feature widgetized homepages and Education is no different. Every widget area has a couple of appropriate custom widgets that make the homepage truly come to life.

In order to help you create and display information across these various post types advanced custom fields functionality was included. This feature will enable you to create various fields for any of the custom post types available in the theme. The existing fields are also listed in this section allowing you to modify, disable or even completely remove them.

In an attempt to make the theme easier to understand and dummy data more useful, some of the content was populated with useful information instead of lorem ipsum you normally see. Dummy data is very useful when it comes to understanding how the theme works. With Education Academy it’s more useful than ever!

What are your thoughts on Education Academy?

Video Overview

View Live Demo or Test Drive and Purchase this theme

Posted by templatic in July 3, 2012 | 19

Sneak peak of what’s coming next month

This June has been somewhat uneventful when it comes to new themes at Templatic. I’m afraid this won’t change in the next few days, June will stay theme-less :( Education was supposed to be released this month but some nagging issues pushed it to July. The bad news end there because July is looking out to be one of the busiest months in recent memory! Along with Education we plan on releasing the first announced upgrade for our existing themes – Job Board. To make July even sweater we’ll be wrapping up a project started a few weeks ago – an all new docs center!

Education

With Education we wanted to create a theme simple enough for anyone to use but also powerful enough to be used by smaller colleges and universities. Based on your input for the past week I’d say we’re pretty close to accomplishing both. Education will feature multiple taxonomies/post types to make content easier to handle. Along with standard posts and categories you’ll be able to create courses, add staff members, facilities and create galleries. To make all this manageable the theme comes with support for advanced custom fields (as seen in themes like GeoPlaces).

Education theme has been released! You can read all about it in the following blog post

Job Board v3

Following suggestions you all left in our forums we made some great improvements to the Job Board theme. Inside Job Board you’ll fine many features available in some of our newer themes like Realtr, Real Estate 2 or GeoPlaces. Certain aspects have been improved even further. One of the most requested changes was the inclusion of a subscription model. In Job Board v3 you’ll be able to define whether to create standard price packages where users pay for each listing individually or subscription packages which will enable users to submit multiple listings at once. This time around job seekers and job providers will have a totally different experience. Instead of a “Post a job” button job seekers will be presented with an option to upload a resume instead. Job providers on the other hand won’t be able to submit resumes but they will be able to submit new jobs. This preference (seeker/provider) is selected while registering on the site

Job Board upgrade has been released. Click here to see what was included

Support changes + Docs Center

In order to make support as painless as possible (both for you and us) we are continuously making small tweaks to our Helpdesk, forums, theme guides and the way we approach support. With this in mind, from now on our support forums will be the primary place to get support. Why the forums you ask? With over 30,000 posts forums are growing every day which means a number of problems can be solved by simply searching your theme’s forum. To make searching better we removed the overall search on the forum homepage (that searched through all themes) and modified searchbars inside each forum to search through posts only in that forum. All this will make finding that useful thread a lot easier (and faster).

If you were a big fan of our Helpdesk don’t worry, it will remain fully operational. Helpdesk will be used to handle more serious issues, problem where we need to connect to your site in order to fix it.

Wrapping all this together will be the Docs Center. It’s location (on our site) hasn’t been decided yet but it’s almost done and will feature all content published on our main site over the years. This includes theme guides, videos, various tips and tutorials, etc. Our WikiBase theme was used to make this docs center a reality. Because of it’s structure it will be very easy to spot new content making it a great destination for all of you who want to know more about the themes and WordPress.

All of this is coming in the first half of July and we are all super-excited. What about you?

Posted by templatic in June 28, 2012 | 4

What would you need in an Education theme?

Education theme has been released! You can read all about it in the following blog post

Team over at templatic office is working on next theme in queue – Education. While this is kind of like a portfolio theme, it is kind of a significant leap for us in terms of front end coding and adapting new things WordPress has to offer. Here’s a preview to Education theme design. The theme will be a responsive, expertly coded portfolio theme. We would love to know your input – on what is the most important thing for you in an academic/education theme? What are the features that it must have and what are the stuff that it must include? Remember, ask what you need in this kind of theme and chances are, we might actually include it in the theme being coded. A win-win for everyone :)
Posted by templatic in June 14, 2012 | 13

Update streak continues with Vacation Rental and seasonal prices

Vacation Rental is a Templatic theme for showcasing rental houses and similar properties. Nice looking design and an easy-to-use booking form made this theme a fan-favorite. There was however one feature missing, a feature that we’re including with this update – seasonal prices. If this is the first time you are reading about Vacantion Rental make sure you visit the initial blog post and sales page. With seasonal prices you are now able to define a different price for specific time-frames during a year. The theme allows you to create as many seasonal prices as you want/need. As you can see in the screenshot above, the section is easy to understand and setup.

This update is completely free for all current Vacation Rental owners. To get the update visit the member area and download the latest version of Vacation Rental. All those interested in purchasing the theme can do so by clicking here

Along with already mentioned seasonal prices Vacation Rental also comes with Closing Days functionality. With this functionality you can quickly make specific dates unavailable for booking – for instance when you are using the house.

Watch the following video to learn more about Vacation Rental

This update wasn’t as extensive as some of our recent ones but it does include features that were requested (by far) the most. Let us know how you feel about the update in the comments below
Posted by templatic in May 31, 2012 | 13

Price Compare WordPress theme

We at Templatic love niche themes so when the opportunity presented itself to create a price comparison theme we jumped right on it. This theme has been on our radar for a while so it’s a relief to finally release it. Please welcome Price Compare theme! Price Compare is for those looking to showcase products from different sources on the web. To make the theme accessible and easy to use data feed entry was greatly simplified, but more on that later.

View Live Demo or Test Drive and Purchase this theme

Price Compare theme offers built in support for two data feeds; Amazon and CJ (Commission Junction). This means that you can showcase thousands of products on your site without lifting a finger! To enable the feed from those two sources all you must do is populate the necessary information in back-end and everything is ready to go. You can even set the frequency in which new data will be pulled from the actual source. Other data feeds are uploaded using a .csv file.

One of the things we’re proud about is the design. Homepage is fairly simple while still offering everything you would need from a price comparison site. When it comes to the homepage everything from the header to the footer is customizable with widgets. Because of its unique functionality Price Compare comes with a number of custom widgets; Search Price widget for instance. That widget allows visitors to quickly find specific products based on their price input. Home Page – Content widget area offers some cool functionality specific to Price Compare theme. Every “Latest Products” or “Popular Products” widget you add in that widget area isn’t added below the other widgets as you might expect but as a new tab! This will make handling all those products much easier.

Instead of offering a couple of skins we included a Style & Color options panel which allows you to customize your site quickly without touching a single line of code! Background color/image, fonts, link color – it’s all editable from the theme options panel. For editing elements not included in the back-end you can always use custom.css feature. To get a glimpse of Style & Color settings area watch the Video Overview below.

Just like in most our recent themes there is a custom post type for products making them completely separate from regular WordPress posts. In other words, anything you create under Posts -> Add New will automatically display as a blog post. Once you set up the data feeds all fetched products will display in the Products section in your WordPress admin panel enabling you to easily find and tweak them. Creating a navigation bar is also super easy since you can add product categories and even individual products to your custom menus.

Video Overview

We realize that a lot of time has passed since the announcement, are you happy with how the theme turned out?

Posted by templatic in May 22, 2012 | 39

Upcoming theme updates

Along with releasing new themes we like to be busy and surprise our existing members with upgrades for their favorite themes. In the past few months we released upgrades for DailyDeal, Hotel Booking, Real Estate and all our eCommerce themes. Also let’s not forget the big launch of GeoPlaces v4 back in February.

Today we are announcing updates for a number of themes, four to be precise. The themes are:

Upgrades for these themes will roll out in the same order as they are listed above with Job Board being first and Automobile last. To leave suggestions and feature requests please click on each of the themes in the list. You’ll be taken to a forum thread where you can leave your suggestion.

All of these upgrades will be completely free for all existing theme users!

Some of the features you’ll see in these themes are already included in our recently released themes. These are features like custom fields, custom user profile fields and price packages. To learn more about this functionality watch the overview video for our Realtr theme.

Which one out of these 4 themes are you looking forward to the most?

Posted by templatic in May 15, 2012 | 28

How to manage and handle theme updates?

[hidepost]Updating is relatively easy and straightforward if you haven’t customized your theme, but what if you have? When the theme is customized you have to plan ahead and prepare your site for each update. This can be rather annoying and time-consuming but in the end still better than always running the outdated version of the theme.

To make your updates easier we recommend the following:

  • Use custom.css for all design (css) customizations. With custom.css you can customize your css files much much easier. Instead of connecting to your server and updating each file separately you have this one file (accessible from Appearance -> Editor) which you can edit to customize your site. To learn more about custom.css please click here. Our advice is to use custom.css whenever you can. Things like hiding elements can be done both with css and in actual php files. It’s much easier to backup one file (custom.css) compared to several php files.
  • Unfortunately not everything can be customized with custom.css, sooner or later you’ll find yourself customizing a php file. We recommend creating a folder on your hard drive and keeping track of each file you customize. That way when it comes time to update you already have all your customized files backed up and ready to go. This folder will also come in handy if (knock on wood) something happens to your site and you lose all your theme files. Stock theme can always be downloaded from the member area, but if you don’t back them up – your customized files could be lost forever.

It’s time to update, what to do now?

  • First step before every update is to backup everything! If you haven’t been backing up your customized files (as mentioned earlier) do it now. Also, just to be sure, connect to phpMyAdmin and backup your database. Or course, various backup plugins will come in handy as well. Don’t forget to backup your custom.css file (located in theme root).
  • Download the latest version of your theme from member area to your hard drive and extract it.
  • Connect to your server and navigate to the /wp-content/themes folder. For help regarding this step please read/watch the following tutorial.
  • Now simply overwrite all your theme files with the new (updated) theme. You can also delete the old folder and place the new one. Folder names are (in most cases) the same so it shouldn’t matter which approach you take.
  • After everything successfully uploads open the change_log.txt file included inside the theme root folder. That file will contain files that were updated in the latest version. Compare those files with your customized files. Files that aren’t mentioned in the change_log can be uploaded back to the server (replace them with the new/updated files). If however you see that one of the files you customized has been updated do one of these three things:
    1. Upload the file back to the server without doing anything (not recommended)
    2. Redo the customization in the new file
    3. Compare the two files using services like this and see what are the differences. You can then either redo the customization inside the new file or apply the updated code in your customized file.
  • Once you upload all your customized files back to the server you are officially done with the update! Congrats!

Troubleshooting a problem?

If you’re experiencing issues with your theme and a staff member tells you to update it please do the following:
  • Download and upload/overwrite your newly downloaded theme with the one on your server
  • Check if the problem you reported went away
    1. If it did apply your customized files.
    2. If the problem didn’t go away please do not apply the customized files until you and the staff member clear the issue. It’s much easier for us to troubleshoot a problem if the theme isn’t customized
  • Check again for the problem. If the problem reappears then you know that one of your customizations is causing it
[/hidepost]
Posted by templatic in May 5, 2012 |
Going Up?