I need a Jumpstart in understanding the pieces

[[email protected]]

OK- I AM A NEWBEE, NOT TO WEB DESIGN BUT TO WORDPRESS AND AGENTPRESS.

Are the widgets on the widgets tab applied universally- if I select to put the "Quick Search" widget in the "Secondary Sidebar" on the widgets page will it show up on every single page that has a "Secondary Sidebar" unless I specifically remove it with code?

Is there any method to apply widgets from the widget-tab page to a specific template or to a new template that can be saved?

For example- from the widgets page I would like to select and use these widgets on XYZ template only- "Quick Search" in the "Secondary Sidebar", "Genisis Slider" in the "Slider Area", "Genesis- Featured Properties" in the "Properties Area"

Furthermore- I don't see a function in the admin area that if was able to modify a template as above (in the widgets page or elsewhere) where I could save it with an new name and template ID. If I make a change without using a third party code editor - it saves to the same template file and overwrites edits I may have already made for another page structure. Or applies these changes to all templates.

For most users is Genesis / Agentpress intended for them to work within the confines of the 3 to 4 templates that have been provided and then use the standard menus, taxonomies and if they are capable- shortcode and hooks to build ther site and special pages?

I am use to designing sites with a primary, secondary and maybe tertiary heirarchy and then having specialty pages that would be the equivelent of featured properties, property search, listings in an area, single listings and posts.

Hopefully I can get some insights from some seasoned users.

Thanks- Kirk

[essaysnark]

Hey Kirk --

The first question is easy: Get the Widget Logic plugin: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/widget-logic/‎

When you're assigning widgets to the sidebar, you can specify which page(s) you want them to show on, using standard WordPress conditional logic. For example, if you want one widget to appear in a particular sidebar but only on the home page, you'd put `is_home()` in the Widget Logic field. It's really easy to use and quite awesome.

For loading new templates in your WordPress instance, you need to FTP the file to the directory on the server. That's a WordPress thing, not a Genesis thing. Once you've uploaded the template you can then edit it through the WordPress admin screen. There's no "save-as" type feature to get a new template created from an existing one, if that's what you're looking for.

I'm not entirely sure what you're asking in the next part, about how most people use Genesis - and I'm also not an AgentPress user anyway, but I'm sure there are others here that can help if you have something specific on that theme.

There's definitely a learning curve with this stuff - it's daunting to pick up BOTH the WordPress AND the Genesis stuff simultaneously (just went through that process). But it's worth it! Very powerful set of tools.

[[email protected]]

Thanks for the quick reply- a couple of things-

Can I use widget logic for the widgets in the body sections of the page also? (Agentpress and dsIDXpress have some widgets that apply to the body as well.)

I would guess there is a way to apply widget logic to a template (or shall I say - I hope there is a way.) If I could do that I could feed parameters to a page with shortcode and have it laid out to my liking by the templates - selected in the drop down in quick-edit. If not I gather I would need to use a third party code editor (I have Coda 2) to add widgets to a specific template.

Thanks again.

 

[Brad Dalton]

Genesis includes hooks which enable you to output content in any of the hooks positions.

The template system is included in the Genesis parent theme and shouldn't be modified.

All customization should be done in the child themes functions.php file using custom functions which consist of a genesis_hook and conditional tag if you want to control which pages the content displays.

Here's an example:

// Register newsletter widget area
genesis_register_sidebar( array(
	'id'		=> 'newsletter',
	'name'		=> __( 'Newsletter', 'custom-theme' ),
	'description'	=> __( 'This is the newsletter section.', 'custom-theme' ),
) );

// Add the newsletter widget after the post content
add_action( 'genesis_after_post_content', 'custom_add_newsletter_box' );
function custom_add_newsletter_box() {
	if ( is_singular( 'post' ) )
	genesis_widget_area( 'newsletter', array(
		'before' => '<div id="newsletter">',
	) );
}

Source: http://www.briangardner.com/email-newsletter-signup-box/

On top of this, you can filter existing functions using filters

StudioPress offer a range of resources including code snippets, tutorials and plugins which make customizing WordPress easier than any other theme.

---

Tutorials for StudioPress Themes.

[[email protected]]

Thanks Brad- I think I am getting the drift here- the templates in the drop down when you quick edit from the pages area-  are the genesis core templates that shouldn't be messed with.

The templates that are part of the Agentpress child theme show up on the right hand side of the "Appearance- Editor" screen. These could be edited  for specific purpose but the preferred method is to modify the functions.php (shown as the "Theme Functions") to add or remove hooks at hook positions with the use of conditions for pages or groups of pages. Instead of having a bunch of static templates that are applied to pages- we use the functions.php to create a dynamic template based on conditions- and css to add the style. By creating pages or groups of pages that fulfill the conditions they will be structured and styled as desired.

Let me know if I am on track. Also if you can provide additional information about filtering existing functions that would be great.

Thanks again.

 

[Brad Dalton]

Pretty much but there generally aren't many templates in child themes apart from the home.php which normally contains functions for widgets.

All other templates are located in the parent theme and can be modified in the child themes functions using hooks and filters.

Once you're familiar with the hooks and filters, you can customize pretty much anything.

If you look in the code snippets, you'll see a huge range of functions using hooks and filters. These contain both add_action, remove_action and add_filter and unregister functions.

No modification is needed to any of templates.

---

Tutorials for StudioPress Themes.

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