The 2.6 Branford Magazine theme
Jan 4th, 2009 | By Ais | Category: News
In the strongest possible terms, I advise NOT installing Branford Magazine 2.6+ IF you’re using any previous version of that theme.
I tried the new Branford Magazine theme on one of my lesser-used websites, and the results were awful.
The good news is, you can revert to the earlier, fun versions of Branford Magazine. I provide them here as free downloads.
If you don’t like that solution… Well, Michael Oeser (the man who assembled Branford Magazine theme) has a free tutorial online and — as of early 2009 — he has a forum where he answers questions, free of charge.
In addition, here are my suggestions if you want to keep Branford Magazine 2.6 or a newer edition:
HOMEPAGE IMAGES
When you “upgraded” to Branford Magazine 2.6, did your homepage images vanish?
Here’s how to get them back, if you’re not willing or able to revert to an earlier version of Branford Magazine.
In your WordPress dashboard, go to Posts > Edit. Select the post that’s missing its homepage image.
Scroll down to your Custom Fields section. If you followed my tutorial instructions, your image URL looks like this:
2008/12/yourimage.jpg
You’ll need to replace it with the full URL, including the http:// part of the URL. So, it’ll look like this:
http://yourdomainname.com/2008/12/yourimage.jpg
OR
http://www.yourdomainname.com/yourWPfolder/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/yourimage.jpg
You’ll need to do that for every post that appears on your homepage, including your lead article, your right column articles, and your featured articles.
(In addition, some database changes may be necessary. If you’re not confident about that, and MySQL is confusing, ask your hosting service for help.)
In addition, if you decide to move an older post to your homepage, you’ll need to fix its image code as well.
If you feature certain articles over and over again, seasonally, it may be easier to go back to your earlier version of Branford Magazine. That’s what I’m doing on most of my websites.
THE BIGGER LEAD ARTICLE AREA
When I switched to the new version of Branford Magazine, I suddenly had a huge area for my lead article text… but the same text excerpt as before. It looked weird.
Unfortunately, I still haven’t figured out how to increase the amount of text to fill the new, empty space, or reduce the size of the text area.
THE EXTRA TAB
Mr. Oeser has added a fourth tab near the top of the homepage. This fourth tab is called “Important!”
Frankly, I threw in the towel on this Branford Magazine update before I tried changing that tab.
However, you should be able to delete that extra tab (and its text) in ui.tabs.php, the same as you removed (or changed) the “About this theme” tab. (Those instructions are in my Sites that Soar! book.)
THE SIDEBAR AD SPACE
I didn’t want a big ad area in my sidebar. I manually add a few discreet ads, and — on some of my websites — I use the AdSense plugin for my sidebar.
I don’t like huge, “buy this!” ads on my homepage.
So, I also deleted the advertisement part of the code from sidebar.php.
As far as I’m concerned, that’s a lot of work for minimal improvements. However, you may think it’s worthwhile. And, to be fair, Mr. Oeser may add better features with Branford Magazine 4.0+.
I intend to keep using the earlier editions. I like them. They still work fine (I’m using WordPress 2.8+ as I’m writing this.)
IF IT’S YOUR FIRST TIME…
Have you decided to use the new version of Branford Magazine, anyway? If this is your first installation of Branford Magazine, go for it. My book will talk you through most of the installation and customizing.
Ask Michael Oeser for help with anything that’s not covered by the book. He’s at DER-PRiNZ.com and has his own forum. I’m sure he’ll answer all of your questions.
However…
IF you’ve been using an earlier version and want to try the new Branford Magazine, here’s what I recommend:
Download Branford Magazine 2.6 from the DER-PRiNZ.com site.
Then, after unzipping it, rename it to anything that doesn’t end in “_latest”. (That way, it won’t overwrite your existing version of Branford Magazine, when you upload it to your wp_contents > themes folder.)
Install it as if it’s a brand new theme. In your Appearance (or Design) tab in WordPress, select Themes and then select the new Branford Magazine theme.
See what happens. If you don’t like it, click to resume using your previous version of Branford Magazine. Everything will be fine again.
IF YOU NEED AN EARLIER VERSION OF BRANFORD MAGAZINE
If you already overwrote the previous Branford Magazine theme… I can’t find any at Mr. Oeser’s website. (That was in mid-2009. Since then, I think he’s restored the earlier editions to his website.)
So, here’s a zipped version of the previous (2.5.1) Branford Magazine: http://www.sitesthatsoar.com/PRiNZ_BranfordMagazine_2point51.zip
Frankly, I still like (and use) the 2.0 version with a few modifications, but even 2.5.1 is better than 2.6, if you’d set up your website before 2.6 came out.
WHAT’S NEXT… MAYBE
I’ve created a free, modified Branford Magazine theme, including the tweaks that I routinely make. I’m calling it Branford Magazine – the Aisling edition.
(Since Branford Magazine theme is open source and borrows heavily from the Mimbo and Revolution themes, I can create my own modifications easily and legally.)
My modified Branford Magazine theme will work with my ebook, Sites that Soar! However, you won’t need to make all the changes listed in that book. (You’ll see what I mean, as you follow the book’s directions.)
The early Branford Magazine themes are available, free of charge, at this website. Go to the homepage and click on the “Free Downloads” tab. You’ll see my favorite versions of Branford Magazine, and you can download them all.
Keep checking this website (or sign up for the RSS feeds, in the right column) for additional news.
As chief creative officer of many brands…coogi, fubu, drunknmunky, etc I have been involved in web development for over a dozen years BUT am first getting my feet wet with blogs as full blown sites. Really need a bit of advice re wordpress versions. 1. which is best .com or .org for a full site with ecommerce elements (would use some transparent e-commerce engine like e-junkie or am open to suggestions…not open…pleading). 2. What are your thoughts on e-commerce using wordpress vs traditional stand-alone site (my thought being that the wordpress/blog element has difinitive seo advantages due to RSS. what do you think???
please help. have many many projects that I want to launch and stuck in researchitis land.
PS…upside…always looking for experts to assist.
John,
You might want to try OSCommerce, it’s possibly the best used Open Source shopping carts around and has loads of support from the forums, and plugins. The attached link discusses integrating OSC with WordPress. I have used both apps but not combined them. See http://www.tmnsimulation.com for my WordPress, thank you Sites That Soar – and I’m still on 2.51
http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contributions,3886
Unless you need the blogging of WordPress, then you might find that OSC fills your needs.
Happy to advise further; you can reach me via my website.
Oh yes, .COM for business & .ORG for groups and not-for-profits. The only time I’d suggest using a shopping cart on a .ORG is to emphasise that the site is not making a profit (eg. association, club or charity)
Kenny
Any anticipated release date on your modified Branford Magazine theme?
I hope to have some early news at the start of the upcoming week. The modified themes may take a little longer, because I want to experiment with different sites and servers, hoping to avoid most “oops…” glitches.
Thanks for asking!
I installed the latest edition of Branford today, my first blog, and am starting to load content before I reveal it to the world. BUT – despite loading some content my Lead Article tab remains empty. I have looked very hard, but can’t see how to add content and have it appear in the lead article area.
What’s the secret?
Thanks,
Steve
A little off topic, but how do you assign articles to the right column of this theme?
That’s covered in the book. The far right column is the “sidebar” and the middle column on your homepage is the “right column.”
Check the book where I talk about how to change the content of each of those. Here’s the short version: For the right column, you’re using Categories. For the sidebar, you’re adding text to the sidebar.php.
Make sure your ui.tabs.php shows the correct Category number for the articles you want to show there. This is covered in my book.
Hi. I’m wondering if you could help me. I installed the latest version of branfordmagazine and WordPress 2.8. If you notice on my page (jeremypeck.com) there is “No Categories” that I can’t seem to get rid of. If you have any suggestions, I’d greatly appreciate it. Also I don’t know how I go about adding the “Featured Article” box and other boxes in the middle column. The only thing I’ve been able to do is adding my own banner image and a cform. Does you book address these issues? Thanks!
Jeremy
Hi
Tried sending this via your contact form, but it does npt process.
Thinking of purchasing your sites that soar package, but first of all a couple of questions.
1/ On the branford magazine site they are at version 3, does your information relate to and work with this version.
2/ Does your information relate to and work with the current version wordpress 2.8.
3/ I am not that technical, had a look at the branford site explanations of how you set up the tabs, and add ids, looks a bit awkward, do you break this down in an easy to follow step by step.
4/ Do you also break down in a step by step format regarding how you change the sites area colours as well as the font colours.
5/ If your sites that soar is not compatible at the moment with eveyones updates could you explain to me the best procedure I could follow to get a branford magazine site up and running.
Thanks for any help.
Look forward to your replies.
Regards
John
3/
Hi, Sorry about the contact form… I didn’t realize that the plugin upgrade added a CAPTCHA form.
My “Sites that Soar!” guide does work with WordPress 2.8.X. However, it doesn’t include Branford Magazine 3.0. For my explanation, see my article, Branford Magazine 3.0 and why I’m not using it.
I do cover font changes as well as website background color changes.
I also include screenshots showing exactly where (and how) to change the IDs to include the tabs and topics that you want on the homepage.
If you’re using an older version of Branford Magazine (which I include, free, at the Download tab at BranfordMagazine.com), my book will talk you through installing and customizing Branford Magazine.
If you’re using Branford Magazine 3.0 or above, you will find useful tips in my book. The concepts remain the same, and many customizations haven’t changed. The biggest difference is the Custom Fields for graphics on the homepage, and that’s a relatively small part of customizing your website.
I hope that helps!
Hi Jeremy,
The book addresses these issues. In a nutshell, you’ll need articles in the Featured category (whichever ID you choose for that) before any articles show up. And, the boxes in the middle column are also selected by ID numbers.
All of this is in my book.
Cheerfully, Ais
Hi Ais
Thanks for getting back to me. A few more questions please before I jump in and buy your book.
1/ You have listed three downloads at your unofficial branford magazine site. Can you tell me which version is each.
2/ Can you tell me which version would you recommend to run my site with and which of the three downloads is the one I would access to do that.
3/ Is the version you recommend the one that you are runnibg all your sites on.
4/ Is your fourth download, the one you have altered stable to use, and what is the difference in using that against the one you recommend and use for your sites.
5/ Do you know what version of the branford magazine theme the cbiclubhouse.com bookclub website use.
Regards
John
Hi John,
I can’t tell one version of Branford Magazine from another, just from how they look. The biggest differences are usually in how the Custom Fields are handled. You can only see that when you’re in the site’s Dashboard (admin area).
I have over 20 websites, and most of them use the one that I call the Aisling version, or I use the very earliest version and modify the CSS.
I tried 2.6 and wasn’t thrilled with the space around my Lead Article image (the headline article). But, I borrow some CSS from it in the Aisling edition: http://sitesthatsoar.com/wordpress/old-theme-new-stylesheet/
Here are more reasons why I didn’t like 2.6 – http://sitesthatsoar.com/wordpress/the-2-branford-magazine-theme/
You can download all Branford Magazine themes (free), install them all (it’s just an upload through WordPress or FTP), and then switch back and forth from one to the other (in Appearance > Themes) and see how you like the appearance of it. Select one and customize it to fit your needs, and you’re all set.
I hope that helps! Cheerfully, Ais
Thanks Ais for your help.
Regards
John
John, according to the CSS for the book club site you wanted to know about, it’s Version: 2.51 (released 2008-04-20).
Hi Ais,
I am having trouble with the “Featured” category — I have 3 posts in the featured category, but I still cant’ get rid of the “NO CATEGORIES” headline in the left column. Any advice is greatly appreciated!
http://www.dyingforpills.com
Johnnie
Hi! Ais, Just bought your ebook last week…it is great! Yuo saved me hours of frsutration. One issue I seem to be having a problem with, and maybe I am just being a little dense – how do I create a 3 columh page?
I created a page, selected 3-column-page as the template (I have no parent page) . I entered text into the Visual text area and saved/updated the page. The page is blank!
I am using :
WP 2.7.1
BranfordMagazine Theme: 2.6
AM I just being silly and overlooking the obvious?
-BB
Hi BB,
I’m baffled, but I’ve only experimented with the three-column page to get the general idea… and decided that I didn’t like the design. That was over a year ago, and I’ve completely forgotten how it worked. Sorry!
I wish I could be more helpful, but maybe you’ll find some tips at Michael Oeser’s forum (Der-Prinz.com, I think). Other than that, you’ll probably need trial-and-error.
Good luck, and if you find something sneaky that makes all the difference, I hope you’ll post the info here.
Ais
Hi Johnnie,
The URL landed this comment in my spam file… sorry! (It’s nothing personal. I was a little overzealous with my spam filter, thinking of phrases related to “buy pharmaceuticals without a prescription here!” ads.)
Anyway, it looks like you sorted out the problem.
Also, your website is tremendous! Very well done!
Cheerfully,
Ais
Wow Very Nice i am applying it on my news site