Thank you for purchasing the theme. If you have any questions that are beyond the scope of this document, please feel free to email themes@designspike.ca. Thanks so much!
In This Document
- Theme Features
- Theme Requirements
- JavaScript Libraries Used
- Theme Options Panel Screenshots
- Installation Screencast
- Installing the Real Estate Theme
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Technical Support
Theme Features
- Theme admin panel
- Three separate colour schemes
- PSD source files included
- Automatic thumbnails resizing using timthumb.php script
- Built-in contact form
- Home page feature slider (jQuery)
- Animated homepage tabs (jQuery)
- Share/social network buttons on posts and single page
- Threaded comments
- Separate tabs for comments and pingbacks
- Add status to posts like New, Reduced Price, Rented and Sold
- Add recent Twitter and Flickr posts to your homepage
- Tested in all major browsers including IE6 (png transparency fix included)
- Google analytics integration
Theme Requirements
You need to have the GD library for PHP installed in order for TimThumb to be able to work. Most web hosts already provide this or are able to install it if you request it.
If TimThumb isn’t working for you, you may need your hosting company to update mod_security settings and/or ‘whitelist’ this script (required for HostGator accounts).
JavaScript Libraries Used
- jQuery Library
- jQuery Tweet
- jFlow
- jQuery Tabs
- DD Belated PNG fix for IE6
Theme Options Panel Screenshots
Click an image for a larger view
Installation Screencast
- Initial set up
- Setting up welcome message
- How to set up feature slider
- How to create a post with image
- Setting up home left column
- Setting up home tabs
Installing the Real Estate Theme
It is highly suggested that you activate the theme on a clean Wordpress installation. Though you will not experience any trouble if you activate the theme on an existing Wordpress driven website, it will be much easier if you set everything up from scratch:
Checklist:
- Place your realestate folder into the wp-content/themes folder of your wordpress install.
- Under the realestate/scripts folder, chmod the cache folder to 777. (this is required for image resizing)
- Go to your Wordpress Admin and activate your theme. Once you activate your theme, you will see the new Theme Editor section on bottom left side of the control panel sidebar, this is where you going to configure the Real Estate Theme
Configuring the Real Estate Theme
After the theme activation, please create your categories, pages and posts first, before going to the Theme Editor panel. There's no need to post a lot of entries right away, you just need some content for the template to display correctly.
Here are the contents of the Theme editor panel
- General Options
- Welcome Message
- Home Text Block
- Feature Slider
- Left Column Homepage
- Home Widgets
- Google Analytics
- Home Tabs
General Options
Under the general options you will need to specify/select your contact us page on the dropdown list, as well as your blog category, and here you can select a desired colour scheme for your wordpress template. (dont forget to press save before going in to the next menu)
Welcome Message and Home Text Block
On our template at the upper left corner below the header logo, there are two text blocks one is the welcome message and another one is additional text block, the content and the links of the two block can be edited here.
Welcome message screenshot. | Header text block screenshot.
Feature Slider
We can edit the contents of the feature slider here, we just need to specify your feature category, the number of post to be shown and then the feature slider is all set.
Left Column Homepage
We need to select a category for the left column section of the home page, it will preview the partial content and the first image of the post entry.
Home Widgets
at the lower part of our template there are three sections here, the about us section, twitter and flickr section, in this home widgets panel you can edit the content and the link of the about us section and insert your username/ID for the flickr and twitter widget.
Google Analytics
For you guys who want to track the stats of the site, just paste the generated code here from google analytics and it is all set.
Google analytics panel screenshot
Home Tabs
On the homepage of the template the right column has a tab section that can preview 3 of your important or desired categories, you can select the categories in this panel and rename the tabs if you want.
Frequently Asked Questions
Please note, that tech support is for installation only. We must charge for customization.
- Can I use this theme on my client's website?
- Yes. Your license includes the rights to use the template on any one website at a time. If you'd like to use the template as part of a service, please consider purchasing an Extended License.
- Can I make modifications to this theme?
- Feel free to make any modifications you need to the theme. Also feel free to blog about it and show your friends, but please do not redistribute the theme with your changes.
- Where to I set the image thumbnail?
- You don't need to specify an image thumbnail. The theme automatically scans the post for images and resizes the first image for use as the thumbnail. If you'd like to use a different image for the thumbnail, you just make that the first image. Unfortunately, there's no overriding this behaviour.
- Does the theme support MLS/IDX listings?
- No. Unfortunately because of the way the current MLS system works, it's very difficult for websites to integrate MLS listings in a nice way. See this discussion for more information: http://www.realestatewebmasters.com/thread13976.html
- How are price, status, etc for listings stored?
- We've built a simple interface on top of custom fields. Here's a screenshot: http://themeforest.net/theme_previews/preview_frame/74277?index=7
- Does the theme work on WordPress Multi-User (WPMU)?
- Can't say, we haven't tested it. If you'd like to use it this way, please let us know and we'll help if we can. Be aware that depending on your intended use, you may need to purchase an Extended License.
- Do you have some sample content I could use while building my site?
- Yes, please send us an email at themes@designspike.ca
Technical Support
Troubleshooting
- Important notice for HostGater users
- You need to contact tech support at HostGator and have them whitelist the the timthumb.php script. THIS IS REQUIRED. Some users have had to contact support multiple times to get this done properly.
- Thumbnails and images in the "Featured" slider are broken
- Ensure the realestate/scripts/cache folder is chmod'ed to 777. You can do this with most ftp clients. If you've done this and you are getting WordPress 404 pages when trying to load the image, you may need your hosting company to update mod_security settings and/or 'whitelist' the TimThumb script (this is required for HostGator accounts).
- The easiest way to see if it's working properly is to follow these steps:
1) In Firefox, right click on one of the image in the left column on the home page and choose View Image.
2) If you see a WordPress 404 error page, they haven't whitelisted the script properly.
3) Send them the URL of the timthumb.php script as well as one of the image URLs from the homepage - I'm using the "gallery" feature built-in to WordPress for images. Why doesn't the theme create a thumbnail?
- Because WordPress uses "shortcodes" for galleries, the theme is unable to draw image from the post to display. The only fix is to post an image before your gallery.
- I'm seeing a small thumbnail and the full size image in the left column on the home page
- You need to create an intro using the "more tag". See: http://en.support.wordpress.com/splitting-content/more-tag/
- If you've done that, make sure you have enough text in your post. The "more tag" doesn't work properly if you don't have enough text.
- Every other slider image on the homepage is blank
- This is usually caused by an unclosed html tag. Double check your Welcome Message or Header Text Block for valid html code.
- I can't activate the theme because the stylesheet is missing
- Try re-installing the theme by uploading the zip file through WordPress. Go to Appearance -> Add New -> Upload (underneath the title)
- I get an error "Call to undefined function automatic_feed_links()"
- You'll get this if you're using the theme on an older version of WordPress. Please ensure you're running the latest version of WordPress.
- The Flickr widget isn't loading any images
- You need to use the "ugly" Flickr id. Enter your undername on http://idgettr.com/ to get your Flickr id.
- I'm getting JavaScript errors
- We've resolved a few of these since introducing the theme. Download the latest version of the theme from ThemeForest.
Other Problems
If you have any questions, want to report bugs, or are having trouble getting the theme working properly please send us an email at themes@designspike.ca For technical support requests, please include the following:
- A description of the problem (what's happening, what you expect to happen)
- The URL of your site
- An admin WordPress login to your site
- An ftp login to your site