Combining Stuff From Two Themes

[sharlo davis]

I’m planning to use Bottega as my main theme for a website I’m rebuilding but would like to incorporate some features from the Authentic theme as well. Specifically, I’d like to use the podcasting layout/widget that is already set up in this theme and the really cool staff directory layout (thanks for that by the way).

What’s the easiest way to go about doing this? I’ve been playing with the idea of downloading both of the .psd files & meshing them together the way that I like or just going in & creating a custom page template for these pages using the layout from the corresponding theme page but I’m not sure if I totally understand how to do that. Any guidance and nice little shortcuts would be much appreciated 🙂

Thanks!

[Bill Robbins]

Great question. It can be done if you don’t mind experimenting a bit. A couple of quick things before you start. We just added a staff section to the Bottega theme. You can see it in our unfinished new demo at http://www.organizedthemes.com/demo/bottega/our-staff/.

We’re also almost finished with an update to the Authentic theme that uses the same theme options and meta boxes (the small accessory boxes we use for staff titles and twitter URL’s and menu item prices). I haven’t finished making it responsive, but outside of that, it’s complete. You can download the beta here.

Files to move over from Authentic:

includes/post-types/podcast.php
includes/widget-podcast.php
archive-podcast.php
taxonomy-series.php
taxonomy-speaker.php
podcast-feed-page.php
page-podcast-archive.php
images/podcast.png
images/download-arrow.png
images/play-arrow.png
images/notes.png

Those files make up the bulk of the podcast section. You’ll need to add this to the bottom of your functions.php file, just above the ending ?>

// include podcasting files
include(TEMPLATEPATH."/includes/post-types/podcast.php");
include(TEMPLATEPATH."/includes/widget-podcast.php");

// add podcasting image sizes
add_image_size('podcast', 300, 250, true);
add_image_size('podcast-single', 400, 300, true);
add_image_size('podcast-small', 50, 50, true);

You’ll also need to edit a file called “bottega-meta-boxes.php.” Right above this line:

return $meta_boxes;

you’ll need to paste this:

	$meta_boxes[] = array(
		'id' => 'podcast_metabox',
		'title' => 'Podcast Files',
		'pages' => array('podcast'), // post type
		'context' => 'normal',
		'priority' => 'high',
		'show_names' => true, // Show field names on the left
		'fields' => array(
			array(
				'name' => __( 'Message Audio File', 'organizedthemes' ),
				'desc' => __( 'Upload a file or enter an URL.', 'organizedthemes' ),
				'id' => 'message_audio',
				'type' => 'file'
			),
			
			array(
				'name' => __( 'Message Notes', 'organizedthemes' ),
				'desc' => __( 'Upload a file or enter an URL.', 'organizedthemes' ),
				'id' => 'message_notes',
				'type' => 'file'
			),
			array(
				'name' => __( 'Duration', 'organizedthemes' ),
				'desc' => __( 'Duration (hours:minutes:seconds)', 'organizedthemes' ),
				'id'   => 'duration',
				'type' => 'text',
			),
		)
	);

Then save your changes. If all has gone well, then you should have at least the components to work with. You’ll need to replace some of the page structure that’s from Authentic with the corresponding parts in Bottega as well as add in some styling.

I’d strongly suggest doing this on a local WordPress installation rather than on a remote server.

I hope that helps get you started in the right direction. Enjoy your weekend,
Bill

[sharlo davis]

Thanks for the clear directions for the Podcasting. Fixing the styling shouldn’t be too big of a deal. I was able to follow your directions up until the last step. I can’t find the bottega-meta-boxes.php file. Is it called something else perhaps?

Also, the staff page on the new Bottega demo site looks great. Can you send me a link to download the new Bottega zip file that includes this addition?

Thanks again for your guidance.
Sharlo

[Bill Robbins]

Glad that got you started on the right track. You can actually download the new version of the theme from the download section. That should give you the staff section and also the elusive bottega-meta-boxes.php file. That file will be inside the includes folder inside another folder called custom-meta-boxes.

If you run into any trouble, let me know,
Bill

[sharlo davis]

I’ve redownloaded the Bottega theme a couple of times & as far as I can tell it does not contain the staff pages or the bottega-meta-boxes.php file. I’m sure I’m just doing something wrong. I’m downloading the theme from the “Themes & Downloads” section, is there something I’m missing?

Lots of thanks & sorry to be a pain.
Sharlo

[Bill Robbins]

My apologies, it looks like I hadn’t uploaded the new version after all. It should be available now. If you have any trouble, let me know.

[sharlo davis]

Me again…
I managed to get all of the files from the Authentic theme transferred over so that I could set up podcasting on my bottega theme and have run into an issue. I realized right away that I “custom feed” page for podcasting was not in the list of files for me to move over so I went ahead & did that. I’ve added a podcast & went in & set up a custom feed page but it is not listing the podcast that I’ve added. Did I miss something?

I haven’t made any changes to styling or anything like that yet, I figure I’ll deal with that once I get the mechanics of the podcasts working.

By the way, I’m not sure how often you hear this but kudos to you for having such a great, user friendly support forum & design layouts. You’re doing a great job & I’ll be sure to recommend you to friends.

Here’s a link to the site I’m working on in case that helps

http://hillsboropresbyterian.org/new/

[Bill Robbins]

Sharlo,

Did you by chance also move over the podcast section from the options.php file? The feed page draws options from that section to populate the necessary parts of the feed?

I appreciate the kind words. Helping people has always been a passion of mine. By helping people with their WordPress sites, hopefully we can help out even more people.

Let me know if adding that section from options.php helps.

Bill

[sharlo davis]

Have I mentioned my dislike for podcasts yet? They always seem to throw me for a loop, there just seem to be way too many things going on in the back-end for me to wrap my head around what I need to do in order to get everything to work so I always end up missing a step (or 2 or 3). On that note….

I’ve moved over the options.php file & filled it out on the podcast options page & still seem to be missing some important key to the puzzle. If I go directly to the link for each individual podcast it works fine. Here’s an example – http://hillsboropresbyterian.org/new/podcast/the-place-of-prayer/

I’m missing something that pulls all of the podcasts onto the custom feed page. Any ideas?

[Bill Robbins]

There are a lot of items since the podcasting is so much a part of Authentic and Epic so missing some is to be expected.

What you could do since all you’re lacking is the feed page is use a podcasting plugin like Blubrry PowerPress to create the feed for you. That way you can still use the custom layout and such, but combine it with their excellent podcasting set up. Most likely that would be the easiest solution.

Just a thought.

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