Your Steppin Stone

Gantry for WordPress Discussion Forum

yoursteppinstone — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 14:15:55 +0000

This is a discussion and sharing forum about learning the ins and outs of Gantry for WordPress. It is not meant to be a technical or development forum – those are available on the Rockettheme website. You can ask basic usage questions here about Gantry WordPress themes.

Gantry WordPress Themes – Key Features

yoursteppinstone — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 09:37:24 +0000

Tachyon

Integration with social plug-in BuddyPress
Animated LavaLamp splicemenu
Soft corporate style with background texturizer
Gradient widget styling options
Best for: Community, Corporate

Mercado

eCommerce plugin integration and add-ons
Attractive side panel layout
Animated LavaLamp menu option
Best for: Stores, Corporate, Technology

Maelstrom

Animated auto-moving header background graphics.
Unique scrolling image rotator strip.
Best for: Travel, Corporate, Technology

Syndicate

Integrates multiple menus.
Color Chooser by area.
Best for: News, Blogs, Corporate

Paradox

Friendly, warm graphics and backgrounds.
Scrolling widget content rotators in four areas.
Best for: Small Businesses, Food Services, Non-Profits

Hybrid

Stylistic versatility through 4 independent configurable page color zone areas.
User-controlled op-out widget section.
Configurable styled transparent RokStories image and content rotator widget.
Best for: Corporate, Creative

Omnicron

3D product feature and price RokFeature Table.
Integrated product image top section.
Best for: Retail, Services, Technology

Zephyr

Transparent design base with multiple background selections.
Configurable RokStories image and content showcase widget.
Best for: Technology, Games

Panacea

Easy-to-use Color Chooser.
Large sub-header image and content rotator.
Logo on menu bar.
Best for: Corporate, Portfolio

Somaxiom

Unique easy-to-apply double circle image frame.
Bold techie look.
Upper and lower case letter options.
Speedy loading and navigation.
Best for: Technology, Corporate

Juxta

Strong graphic styling provides a range of creative designs and textured backgrounds.
The integrated and easily configurable RokNewsPager Widget can be used to dynamically generate related sidebar content by category. For example, in this tourism website, supplementary information about places automatically appears in the sidebar.
Best for: Creative, Art, Portfolios

Gantry Framework for WordPress – Pros and Cons

yoursteppinstone — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 20:31:58 +0000

The Gantry framework for WordPress makes it easy to produce websites with great looks and functionality. The stunning results are worthwhile under most circumstances. But due to known bugs, website management cannot be turned over to clients without thorough knowledge of Gantry.

Pros

Graphic quality
Layout control
Design control
Fusion menu
Wide range of themes
Versatility
Friendly admin interface
Support forums
iPhone support

Cons

Learning curve
Bugs
Complicates the simple WordPress CMS
Doesn’t work with all WordPress plugins
No built-in Android support

Known Bugs

Layout and Content control saving issues, requires patience to work

WordPress Plugins That Don’t Work With Gantry

yoursteppinstone — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 09:22:07 +0000

Broken Link Checker

Simple Facebook Connect

WordPress Plugins for 2011

yoursteppinstone — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 11:12:12 +0000

Dashboard

ozh-admin-drop-down-menu

wordpress.com stats

SEO

all-in-one-seo-pack

google-sitemap-generator

google-analytics-for-wordpress

Basic Functions

wp-db-backup
by filosofo

Social Media

by shareaholic

facebook-social-plugins

tweetmeme button

wickett-twitter-widget

wp-to-twitter

category-specific-rss-feed-menu

Forms

si-contact-form

cforms-plugin (cannot be selected through the WP Dashboard)

Content

featured-content-gallery

Blogging

Scott Reilly

subscribe to comments

infogurke

Monetization

Getting Started with Gantry for WordPress

yoursteppinstone — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 05:29:39 +0000

This is an introductory explanation on how to use RocketTheme WordPress themes based on Gantry. It’s meant to supplement the RocketTheme Gantry tutorials for people who are already familiar with WordPress.

Demo Installation
This is one installation option. You end up with the complete demo. If you want to build your site using the demo, you’ll need to erase and edit all the existing material. I recommend installing the demo on a sub-domain and keeping it as a reference, you can copy and paste text such as widgets from there into a blank theme.
Instructions for installing rocketlauncher as a manual install of WordPress, using a host with cpanel.

Using the Database Wizard, create an SQL database, write down the database name, user name and password.
FTP the zipped Rocketlauncher into the main domain folder.
Go to File Manager, select the zipped file, and select Extract.
Open and Edit the wp-config-sample file, add the database info. You need your host name along with the database info.
Change the file name to wp-config, without the word ‘sample’.
Go the domain to finish the installation.

Your host can help you with this, you’ll need to explain why you need to do a manual install.
Once you have the demo installed, you can access the backend to see how everything is configured in Gantry.

WordPress Theme Installation
This is the simplest way to use a Gantry theme. You install it the same way you would install any zipped theme: Download the theme to your computer, then in Appearance / Themes / Install Themes – select the Upload option, select the downloaded theme from your computer, upload and install. The theme comes completely blank.

Overrides
In the Theme Gantry settings, you’ll start with the Default setting, and then create one initial override, for the Home Page. Change all the Default settings to what you want on all pages, such as Header, Logo, Navigation, and Footer. The menu won’t show up until you create some posts and pages and create a WordPress menu, which Gantry will use. For the Home page, go to Widgets to add special content. Use plus to add an override, pencil to edit the name, and Save anytime you make changes. You need to hit Enter to save a new name.

Then in the Home Page Override, go to Assignments and select the home page from menu, and Save the Override change. Make sure you’re in the correct Override when you’re selecting Styles and Content. You don’t need to save when you’re in Widgets, but you need to be in the correct Override. There is a bug with Widgets, new changes don’t always show up right away until you add multiple extra widgets. You can create additional Overrides for individual pages or page types.

Menu
After you create a few pages and posts, use the WordPress menu to create a menu. It doesn’t matter that it tells you that your theme doesn’t support the menu, you need to start with a WordPress menu. You can edit it afterwards normally.
In Widgets, drag the Gantry menu widget into the Navigation widget, and set your menu title.

Logo
There is a Gantry logo widget which can go into Header or Top, or anywhere. Background image is controlled in the Override Style.
You can replace images using FTP, make sure you’re in the correct theme option. For example, Juxta has six main layout options.

Home Page
Use the Demo backend to see how the home page widget sections are configured.
At the bottom of widgets, you have styling options which match the Demo Features Widget Variations.

Plugins
You can use RokNewsPager to have posts from specific categories show up with related posts.