Creating a Child Theme in WordPress

I wanted to update the theme of this website and then make some small tweaks afterwards. To make these changes, I created a “child theme.” Making a “child theme” allows me:

Make changes to the look/feel/functionality of this website without changing the core code of the theme.
Track and document those changes.
Allow me to upgrade without problems in the future.
Learn more about wordpress theme and file structure

Information: http://codex.wordpress.org/Child_Themes

Essentially, I created a new folder in my /themes folder with two files.

style.css

/*-----------------------------------------------------------

    Theme Name: Adapt Child
    Theme URI: http://www.wpexplorer.com/
    Description: Free responsive portfolio/blog theme
    Author: WPExplorer
    Author URI: http://themeforest.net/user/WPExplorer?ref=wpexplorer
    Template: wpex-adapt 
    Version: 2.11
    License: GNU General Public License version 3.0
    License URI: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.html

---------------------------------------------------------------
/* CSS has been minified to speed things up
/* If you need to make edits use a child theme - as you should!
--------------------------------------------------------------*/

/* =Theme customization starts here
-------------------------------------------------------------- */

functions.php

<?php

add_action( 'wp_enqueue_scripts', 'enqueue_parent_theme_style' );
function enqueue_parent_theme_style() {
    wp_enqueue_style( 'parent-style', get_template_directory_uri().'/style.css' );
}

These files are linked to the main theme and are read afterward. I can make any stylistic changes to the new style.css file and they will be implemented after the main stylesheet. All in all, this was a pretty smooth process and am happy to be moving forward on a better path!

2014-09-122016-03-18

Getting Serious about Omeka Web Development

I’ve been fooling around with Omeka for two years now – and it’s time to get serious. I’ve decided to try and set up a whole test environment on my local machine so that I can try to do more customizations.

Download XAMPP (https://www.apachefriends.org/index.html) and follow the standard installation process for XAMPP.
Download Omeka (http://omeka.org/download/)
Install Omeka (http://omeka.org/codex/Installation)
1. Create a MySQL database and user.
  1. I went to http://localhost/phpmyadmin
  2. Clicked “Databases” tab and created a new database.
  3. Clicked on that database, then the “Privileges” tab, then created a new user.
  4. Important stuff from this step: database name, user name, user password.
2. Extract the Omeka Download into the XAMPP htdocs folder (in my case, C:\xampp\htdocs). I renamed this “north” to relate to a project I’m working on now.
3. Update the db.ini file here (C:\xampp\htdocs\north) with the information from the steps above.
4. Open a browser and head to http://localhost/north
5. Complete the installation prompts.

I ran into two problems that I wanted to fix. First, on the main install screen I got the following warning:

To Fix this problem, navigate to C:\xampp\php and edit the php.ini file. Uncomment the following line

extension=php_fileinfo.dll

by removing the “;” from the start of the line. Then restart the Apache server through the XAMPP interface. Problem resolved!

The second problem was getting the image magick extension installed. This proved to be a major problem and one that is still unresolved. However, because I had an active installation, I found a solution by simply copying the SQL database from my live webhost to my local host and then copying files from that server to my local machine. This allows me to do local changes without having that extension installed. Ideal? No! But functional.

2013-12-172014-11-16

Tweaking my Omeka Theme

It’s Winter Break at North Park – this means my evenings are more free for side projects. A long-standing side project has been working on installing and stylizing a few Omeka sites. I’ve written some about this project already – but haven’t been as productive as I wish. But, ever the optimist, I thought I would press on with a brief update as well as some goals.

Here is a link to my Omeka project – http://www.meyerwebsite.com/omeka/

Creating a New Omeka Theme

First, that header is entirely untrue; I’m not creating a new Omeka theme – I’ve just borrowed and tweaked an existing theme! The theme I’m using is Deco and I’m tweaking it, pulling it apart, and otherwise changing it. It was a relatively easy process: first, copy the entire theme folder (from public_html/omeka/themes/deco) to a new folder ( to public_html/omeka/themes/coffee) and, second, change the theme.ini file with my own data. This was actually pretty easy.

Customizing the Main Page

Next, I wanted to customize the main page of my Omeka site. Essentially, I wanted to remove the second column and just have the contents span the entire width. I accomplished this by editing the index.php page. I could have done a better job keeping track of those changes – but I did backup that file beforehand – but it really wasn’t more difficult that just removing the two <div> markers.

Changing the Deco_Get_About function

I wanted to removed the awkward <h3> header from this function – I did this by deleting a bit of code from the custom.php file responsible for this. It was pretty easy and looks great!

Future Projects

A list of future projects/ideas for this theme:

Create a cool logo to replace the text.
Add a secondary set of page navigation tools to each item page.
Change our collections are displayed.
Change the item browse display.

2013-08-072014-11-16

Bulk Importing Special Characters

I’ve been working on the North Park Archon project for the past few weeks and noticed a troubling trend. When I tried to upload the box/folder lists for our finding aids through the CSV import process, the system would reject all the special characters. Not outright reject them – just truncate the field before the character and move on to the next metadata sub-field.

Obviously, this was annoying and unfortunate – especially because I didn’t catch it until I had imported all the data.

It turns out that the problem was in the encoding language of the CSV document. For some reason, my default was set as ANSI; switching it to UTF made the difference and Archon’s scripts were able to import the special characters in the collection content field.

2013-03-142017-02-11

Managing multiple Zotero libraries

I love Zotero. I use it all the time and have been for just over 4 years now. I organize all of my research there and just love using it. I’ve become a bit of a Zotero evangelist too – also happy to tell others about the joys and wonders of Zotero!

In fact, I’m relying on Zotero to help me compile my research for my Master’s thesis project on the history and theology of Covenant Publications. “Covenant” refers to the Evangelical Covenant Church – my denominational home and the parent institution of North Park University and Seminary. However, for the sake of this project, I wanted to keep my personal Zotero library separate from the new library I was creating with Zotero. How do I manage multiple Zotero libraries?

Firefox Profiles

After a quick google search, I found this old thread on the Zotero forums. After that, it was smooth sailing and has allowed me to do things I didn’t even think to dream of! The official Firefox support page is (as always) very helpful and I won’t bother clarifying or adding to it. Here is the link!

Now, when I open Firefox, I just have to select what profile I want to work with. And it’s awesome. My library work profile is separate from my seminary research profile and my personal library is separate from my thesis related research.

Zotero Evangelism

[This has less to do with multiple accounts and more to do with my love of Zotero]

One think I’ve loved as I’ve poured lots and time and energy into my thesis is Zotero’s syncing ability and the fact that all my information is stored in the cloud. It has meant that I’m always working with the most current text – not having to deal with multiple drafts, etc. – and that my information is accessible from anywhere with an internet connection.

2013-01-102014-11-16

Tweaking how Omeka displays Item Metadata

It’s been a while, but I’ve been busy doing some scanning as well as working on other projects. Forgive me for neglecting this blog!

Just read a cool thing on the Omeka development blog. I know it’s a baby accomplishment, but it’s my own way of getting into the more technical conversations about websites and I’m proud of myself nonetheless. Here’s how I changed the heading “Dublin Core” to “Description” for the items. (And here is the source I used: https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/omeka-dev/raQ5FEok3rc)

Find the “item-metadata.php” file. Hint: it’s in application/view/scripts/items.
[Write a description of what this file does…]
Copy that file to a new location – theme-name/items/
As noted, moving this file to a new location helps preserve this change through future upgrades to Omeka. I’m sure if I changed the file in it’s original location, it would have worked – however, the change would have been lost in a future upgrade to Omeka itself.

Here is the beginning of that php file:

<div class="element-set">
<h2><?php echo html_escape(__($setName)); ?></h2>

 <?php foreach ($elementsInSet as $info): 
 $elementName = $info['elementName'];
 $elementRecord = $info['element'];
 if ($info['isShowable']): ?>
...

This line is what adds the heading to the item:

<h2><?php echo html_escape(__($setName)); ?></h2>'

I’ve removed the variable $setName and used the literal value “Description” instead.

That’s that! I’m quite happy with this minor change and glad that I managed to even read that helpful comment by one of the developers. Things I’ve learned:

Apparently themes trump the built in displays. Somehow omeka must look at the files in theme ‘first’ and then revert to the standards provided in the application itself. Very interesting.
Learned where to look to change somethings. Very intriguing.

I’ve got a very long list of things yet to learn, but so far so good!

2013-01-102014-11-16

Tweaking the Omeka Geolocation Plugin

Changing the default map type for the Omeka Geolocation plugin.

Install the Geolocation plugin.
Navigate to the map javascript file – example/omeka/plugins/Geolocation/views/shared/javascripts – and open it.
Look down to about line 45 – find the line that starts like this: mapTypeId: google.maps.MapTypeId.HYBRID (or just search for “mapTypeId”)
Now you’ve got choices to make! By changing just the last word in that line of code, you can change the default form of the map. From the google map javascript site:
1. HYBRID – displays a transparent layer of major streets on satellite images.
2. ROADMAP – displays a normal street map.
3. SATELLITE – displays satellite images.
4. TERRAIN – displays maps with physical features such as terrain and vegetation.
Save the file you just edited and refresh your site to see the changes. This worked quite well for me and I’m very pleased with the change.

Geolocation went from a view that was not helpful to my collection

before

to a beautiful satellite image of my family’s farm!

after

Very pleased with the results!

As I said, I know nothing about how the internet works – I’m claiming this works because it worked for me. If it’s not the right way, please let me know so I can correct it! Thanks!