Hi, new user, .htaccess etc

[Erik Heyninck]

Hi all,

My name is of course Erik and I have a fair knowledge of html and css, enough to build a site like I want it to be. Except for the interactivity, which brought me via WordPress and a few bad investments in WP themes to Genesis, Genesis Palette Pro and the Metro Pro child theme because this is supported by the Palette.

Installing etc was easy, and everything seemed to work fine untill I tried the background image property, and nothing showed up. I tried again, tried desactivating my plugins, nothing.

To make a long story short, I am installing the blog as a subdomain on my server space at LunarPages as I do not want it to take over my own coded main site. My own coded site is the passive part, and Genesis must take care of the inter-active part.

WP installed as blog.castalianvisions.org, which is different from the main site name. And after a few hours of searching, I downloaded and opened the .htaccess file and noticed there were two flags, one being F of forbidden. And as the name of the 'blog' is different from the root domain site name, images are not allowed to be displayed. I deleted that F, replaced the htaccess file with my own version and I now seem to have access to images.

To be straightforward : this is not for people who have never taken a look at code before.

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Must also say that the general info given by Studiopress leaves to be desired. I mean: one only getsthe specific settings of a child theme after having paid for it. There was in my specific case no possiblity to know the background image cannot be tiled.
I guess I'll be able to override that, but that way I'll be on the way of creating my own child theme, and that is not yet the intention.

[Tom]

Hi Erik, and welcome to Genesis!

To be straightforward : this is not for people who have never taken a look at code before.

I think that's fair to say about any WordPress or CMS installation, especially if you're going to be using a subdomain and hook it into an existing, primary installation. Those flags in your htaccess file are not standard WP details AFAIK and Genesis does not touch htaccess.

I've examined almost 400 Genesis child themes and find that it's pretty rare for a theme author to describe their theme in minute detail down to, say, the tiling of background images. This is probably true for all theme authors - Genesis or not. I know that StudioPress and most authors are happy to answer pre-sales questions in some detail. The Genesis community (these forums, #GenesisWP on Twitter and Google+ and countless blogs) will all jump in just for the asking. Hopefully this is one of the things that attracted you to Genesis - if not it's sure to be a valuable surprise bonus! 🙂

To setup your tiled background image in Metro Pro requires only a couple of changes to your functions.php file. Have a look through this brief tutorial to get this capability for your site.

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[Erik Heyninck]

Hi Tom,

Thanks for replying.

Of course that htaccess file was there before I installed WP, and that 'forbidden' flag served a purpose. I only wanted to say that I can well imagine that many, if not most users would fall over this. Because the exact solution was not mentioned on any page, and I had to find it myself. Luckily I did.

Meanwhile I am following another road, meaning: straight through the mountains. I have activated the sample theme - this protects the original Genesis code- and am happily tweaking its css file. At this time I am not yet entering the php files as I have never played with them, but as it is my intention to use it (for the moment) as a blog, the rest can be added later on.
There is no risk because if something should go wrong, I replace the css file with the original, or my incrementally saved version.

Genesis is really good. It gives me the framework/skeleton on which I can sculpt.

So I did the repeat in the old fashioned way, by not specifying anything in the css.
Etc...

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Thanks again for your reply, and I will certainly have a look at that functions.php file. I do would like an in depth tutorial on what is happening beneath the hood of that file, simply because knowing what is possible enlargens the possibilities.
You happen to know one?

[Tom]

would like an in depth tutorial on what is happening beneath the hood of that file, simply because knowing what is possible enlargens the possibilities. You happen to know one?

There is no single tutorial that explains everything that can happen in functions.php. The potential is endless and different for every theme and implementation. Knowing what is possible with Genesis requires only a look through (or search through):

• thousands of posts on these forums
• hundreds of child themes that are available - see the links in my message footer
• The Genesis Guide for Beginners from StudioPress
• sites that are showcased by the theme authors
• hundreds/thousands of tutorials that are available online
• references: read Gary Jones' ebooks about Genesis http://gamajo.com/changes
• following #GenesisWP on Twitter and GooglePlus

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Choose your next site design from over 350 Genesis themes.
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