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jmrallenMember
I've hit a bit of a wall and would love some help, if anyone has ideas. In the two homepage "subsections" called Entertainment and World News on the SmartMag demo theme, they've got one primary feature on the left-hand side of the section and then four additional posts in that category with a smaller thumbnail.
Is there a way to re-create that using column classes and the Genesis Sandbox Featured Content plugin? Is it better to create two separate widgetized areas and somehow make them appear next to one another rather than underneath one another? What do you think is going to be the fastest-loading solution?
I'm struggling to get the column class idea to work right (they just end up underneath one another using that widget), so maybe I'm just doing it all wrong anyway. But if there's a more glamorous solution, I'm all ears.
jmrallenMemberI'm trying to figure out the best way in Genesis to mimic that top featured area on the homepage. Would it be three widgets (one for the main slider, one for the larger top image on the right, and one for the two smaller images on the right)? Is there some way to add columns to a single widget area and do it that way (say, two-thirds for the slider and one-third for the right side)? Or is it possible to do all that using CSS based on the width of each element?
I'm also struggling to approximate the style of their "Entertainment" section. I'm pretty sure I can get the general layout using widgets, but I haven't found a tab plugin that can accomplish the "All, Fashion, Vogue" functionality they have there. Any guidance or experience doing a similar thing would be much appreciated.
jmrallenMemberHey, if you want to create a SmartMag-identical child theme for Genesis, consider me your first child theme purchaser. In the meantime, I'll delve into CSS, functions and plugins to see what I can do on my own. I'm sure it won't be nearly as glamorous....
jmrallenMemberHearing a coding guru like you (Brad) say "it would take a considerable amount of work" is intimidating for sure. I'll cobble together what I can on my own and share with you all, if you care about the fumblings of a total novice. 🙂 Just give me some time; it sounds like I've got a long, arduous road ahead.
jmrallenMemberI looked at Foxy News, actually. I quite liked it, to be honest. There are three things I'd want to achieve with that theme that I'd need to custom code, which (again) frightens me. One would be registering a wide widget between the nav and main content area to accommodate a large display ad. The second would be a top-aligned navigation header once people scrolled beyond a certain point. The third would be the way ZigZag has treated author bylines and dates in the Tequila theme.
I wish CSS and I were on speaking terms. 🙂
jmrallenMemberAha! That's the problem. In my current installation I was using the Genesis Featured Widget Amplified, which caused some problems with that. I just uninstalled that on my test server and was able to achieve what you mentioned above. Thanks! Now it'll be a CSS exercise to get it to all look like I'd like it to. I cringe at the number of hours that's going to take me, since I'm such a CSS idiot. 🙂
jmrallenMemberI actually already use a self-customized version of the Magazine Pro theme at my site, Daily Game. The thing is, I want to polish things up as I expand the blog to cover more than just video games. Those designs are much sexier than the home-brew job I cobbled together last year. I'm sure much of the extra work would involve CSS magic, which isn't exactly my ball of wax. If I could find something "off the shelf," like those themes, then I'd have just gone with that and called it good.
Any ideas how to give multiple categories their own "widget / space" on the homepage, at least? That would accomplish some of what I'm trying to do, I think.
jmrallenMemberThat's exactly what I did on my site, Daily Game. I'm running a modified version of Magazine Pro there, and so far the logo in the primary nav is working great. Here's the tutorial I used to achieve the effect.
jmrallenMemberIs there any sort of consensus as to whether disabling minor auto-updates is a good thing? I would hate to think a website was cruising along just fine until an auto-update bricked a plugin or something without the development community having time to anticipate and code for it. Would folks recommend implementing this little bit of code in the functions.php file just to be safe?
jmrallenMemberYep, after further testing and CSS work, it appears that the code above is the best solution. The widths obviously will change based on any other CSS customization you do, but those code combos work. I've put them just above the @media section of style.css and I've created some for the home-top and home-bottom areas as well, just to further customize each area.
I didn't achieve what I'd originally wanted to -- excluding a category from the built-in Genesis Featured Posts functionality -- but I did find a way to make the Featured WIdget Amplified work with the new Magazine Pro layout. So, I'll mark this thread as solved. Marcy, thanks again for your help.
jmrallenMemberI appear to have solved it with some incredible help from a co-worker. Here's what seems to work:
.home-middle.widget-area .widget-wrap .post {
width: 369px;
float: left;
margin-right: 8px;
}.home-middle.widget-area .widget-wrap .post:last-child {
margin-right:0;
}jmrallenMemberGreat thinking, Marcy. And thank you for trying to tackle it. I tried implementing the changes you suggested in the style.css file, but it didn't work out. Here's the latest. I'll continue trying to figure things out on my own, but if you have any other ideas, I'm all ears.
If only there were a way to exclude categories like their is in featured widget amplified, all would be peachy.
jmrallenMemberThanks for the reply, Marcy. I would like to stick with it, but for some reason the new Magazine Pro theme doesn't play nicely with it in the sub-feature section. When I use the Genesis - Featured Posts tool those two thumbnail images stand side by side just fine. However, when I activate Genesis Featured Widget Amplified and try that, I can't get the images to go side-by-side. Is there some CSS paddingfor the Genesis Featured Widget Amplified plugin that I'm just missing somewhere? Here's my devsite, and here's what the sub-feature area is supposed to look like. I haven't adjusted any CSS yet, this is a straight out of the box Magazine Pro installation.
If I can't figure out how to align the images there like I want to, I'll find myself back in the "how do I exclude a category from Genesis - Featured Posts" camp again. Any and all help is appreciated, including identifying whether there's some odd CSS for the Featured Widget Amplified plugin that I've just missed.
jmrallenMemberI just found this forum thread and found it quite relevant to a conundrum I'm in right now. I have been and am still eagerly awaiting the updated Genesis 2.0 Magazine Pro theme. I think with some customization I can make it pretty solid, and I can't wait to try it out. But just today I noticed the Hot Topix theme at ThemeForest and my jaw literally dropped. Out of the box, this theme is gorgeous. If I weren't already using the Genesis Framework, I would've bought that within seconds of seeing it. Too bad it won't run on Genesis 2.0, to be honest.
I think this is a good discussion to have, because it gets right at the crux of where the Web seems to be struggling. Why does there seem to be a need to sacrifice sleek and gorgeous with responsive and well-coded? I've heard some occasionally sketchy things about ThemeForest security, which puts me on edge about the new Hot Topix theme, but I'm honestly torn because I love how that theme looks. If StudioPress could get visuals designs like that, but that also had the clean code, SEO and security we all know and love about Genesis 2.0, there's no reason StudioPress wouldn't take over the world.
jmrallenMemberThat did the trick! Thanks so much.
jmrallenMemberFor what it's worth, I have two separate instances of Genesis 2.0.1 installed, and I don't see Genesis - Featured Posts widget in either of them. I have the Featured Widget Amplified plugin installed in both instances, which is what makes me wonder whether that plugin 'overwrites' the Genesis - Featured Posts somehow. I don't know why it would, but I can't come up with any other reason why I'd be unable to see the Genesis - Featured Posts widget at all in two separate instances.
jmrallenMemberI just double-checked, and I'm updated to 2.0.1. I see the Genesis - Featured Page, but I don't see the Featured Post widget. Could it be that the Featured Widget Amplified overwrites it for some reason?
jmrallenMemberI believe a question just like yours was asked here. This seems like a good answer from Brad Dalton. I'd recommend going with the functions.php solution rather than registering a widget.
September 13, 2013 at 12:54 pm in reply to: Place AdSense Code after Specific Paragraph [Not Working] #62323jmrallenMemberJust closing the loop on this: it turned out that the code worked just fine as I pasted it above. Make sure the entire AdSense javascript bit is contained inside the single quotation mark. I tested it with several different AdSense codes, and it worked just fine with every one that was Active. If AdSense lists the ad slot as "New" it won't work -- it has to be shown as Active. Thanks for this great code, Brad!
September 5, 2013 at 1:08 pm in reply to: How to add images to posts on homepage? Minimum theme #60909jmrallenMemberYou should be able to do this using the Featured Widget Amplified plugin. Just make sure that each post has a featured image associated with it, and that you check the box for "show featured image." I don't know how to code it without a plugin, so if you learn how to achieve that in the functions.php page or something, I'd love to hear how.
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