ComicPress 2.9.2* series was released, here are some of the changes.
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Quick Summary of setting up multiple comics with ComicPress 2.9.2
- Setup Storylines, the Comic Category will of course be the root. The storylines you will use will be the comics names. So create children off the root comic category as the individual comics.
- Disable the comic off the front page.
- Add latest thumbnail widgets and set those widgets to the appropriate category. (yes you can do this now) So that the thumbnail for the latest comic thumbnail is for that individual comic.
- Drag the Comic Navigation widget into under-comic. Disable *all* the checkmarks except first in category, next in category previous in category and last in category. Those particular navigation buttons will let you navigate PER category, the first will go to the first comic in the category, next IN category, and LAST comic in the category, etc..
- Post the comic into the appropriate storyline category, remember 1 category per comic post, that being the comic you want to post it in.
And that’s it. There’s still the 1 comic post per day, but you knew that. If you look on https://frumph.net you will see that I have a Rascal Comic and a Pinups comic both with their own navigation.
If you plan on wanting each comic to have their own site, realistically you should, then WordPress 3.0’s Multi-Site feature is what you are really looking for and it’s very easy to setup.
Have fun!
– Phil
I will be attending InterventionCon, sept. 10th through the 12th http://interventioncon.com/. I will be doing Workshops on CSS/Site Design/WordPress/ComicPress/Tricks.
As a bonus to all workshop attendee’s, I will be providing information on how to receive the automated Cast addon to ComicPress child themes as a free download. The casts addon allows you to display your cast members in a totally new to ComicPress way, showing when they first appeared in the comic, how often they have been in the comic, all of the comics they were in with links and other statistics as well as individual biographical information! (I might even have time to include the relationship tree with that too 😉 )
If you cannot attend the workshop I will be providing this child theme addon for ComicPress for around $29 (after) the con is over. The addon will be offered as a one time purchase with unlimited upgrades or free for attending any workshops.
– Phil
Updated information on the status of CP 3.0
- The comics directories need to be located in the wp-content/uploads directory now. This is because it was a request to lock down wordpress sites and only have the uploads directory available as such on some systems that don’t have proper permission setups. This also made it easier to code and reduced processing by like 10% just from that change alone. (this is for non-multisite, multisite uses the directories based on the multisite info)
- ComicPress Manager is no longer needed, you can ditch it with CP 3.0 – Everything’s in the theme.
- The multisite (wpmu) mu-plugin is no longer needed.
- CP 3.0 is completely plug & play. You activate the theme, you add a new comic, no configuring. Although you can adjust the configuring after installing, it’s not necessary to get up and going to configure anything.
- There is no comicpress-config.php anymore. No need to worry about losing your options/config on updates.
- Comics are “attached’ to the post. And there are several advanced options available including comics in different languages available.
- There are no more ‘category’ separation from comic and blog as you know it now. The comic’s are in their own post type. Completely separate from the regular blog posts so not only will there never be a conflict again they really just are not seen the same way again.
- Backwards compatibility: Although we are leaving the ability to have backwards compatibility where the posts in the comic post type will look at the comics directory via filename date if there isn’t a comic attached to it, it will search your comics folder for a file with the old date method on it; we don’t want people to keep utilizing this method in the future, need to train comic users to just upload their comic with whatever filename they want with the upload controls.
- There is an upgrade script that will convert all your current comics from the old post style to the new post type. Just select your primary comics directory (in the script) and go. Although it will remove all your categories and tags since those are no longer used and are replaced with Chapters and other comic related functions.
- All ComicPress versions of the theme will remain free.
- ^ However, your wondering where are those cool NEW features we were adding went? Lemme tell ya, instead of including them in the theme we’ll be having Child Themes available with those features in them. Yes, for pay. Don’t even bother griping about it, that one is a done deal. The theme itself will always remain free and if you want to buy a child theme with extra features you can. Those child themes will be available from their individual developer separately from ComicPress. If you are interested in creating child themes for sale we’ll have an area on the website to link to the various child themes people develop.
- Soon as the initial release is done while in beta mode we’ll have a continual stream of child themes available with so many different options for the site look it’s going to be silly. I have quite a few of them already done and waiting to be put up.
- Your current child themes will be compatible up to a point. The CSS and images are Absolutely Compatible, things like the custom child functions, widgets and code will need to be updated.
- This is *(not)* the ComicPress Premium package we were making previously. Almost though. We stripped out pretty much all the new stuff and are making 3.0 the new post type with the new system. What we DID leave in is the memory management, core options and new comic method.
- We’re waiting on Tyler’s decision to decide to make this as a normal ComicPress upgrade or call it a new ComicPress name. (note: he decided that this IS going to be ComicPress 3.0 and not an offshoot, he loved it that much)
- Stop editing the original theme already and learn how to do a child theme: https://frumph.net/wordpress/comicpress/convert-your-comicpress-2-9-site-to-use-a-child-theme/
[members]
Still on the TODO LIST before release.
- Revamp the navigation to properly work with the new custom post type and the variable chapters. (almost done, need rechecks)
- Adjust all widgets & templates to look at the post_type instead of the regular post. (almost done, need rechecks)
- Create a new uploader/flash uploader that is ajax inside of the post itself. (done, needs prettying up)
- Need to figure out a good method for easily recognizable UI. Right now this is *not* your old ComicPress, everything is pathed differently menu wise. Need to go through everything and make it as easily accessable as possible for those end users who need it.
We are still looking for another developer to take my place after the 3.0 release.
[/members]
A child theme is a theme that goes in your wp-content/themes directory that ONLY has your customizations inside of it. When upgrading ComicPress to newer versions you will not lose all of your customizations since they are centralized in a single location.
More information on what a child theme is here:
https://frumph.net/wordpress/comicpress-2-9-parent-child-theme-relationship/
Original Post is here:
https://frumph.net/wordpress/faq/creating-a-custom-child-theme-for-comicpress-2-9/
A child theme will contain your graphic sets for navigation, avatars, calendars, moods and site graphics; Your custom CSS, widgets and code overrides.
I have provided a blank comicpress child theme here:
https://frumph.net/downloads/comicpress-blank.zip
- Modify the directory name to one of your chosing, i.e. /comicpress-mysitename/
- Change the ‘Theme Name, Author and Author URI’ inside the child theme’s style.css to your custom names.
- Put your custom sets of navigation, avatars, calanders, moods in the images folder in this Child Theme, uses the same base structure as the main ComicPress theme, (if you have them, otherwise you can make them later).
- If you are using a custom-menubar.php, that too goes into this child theme.
- The widgets directory in the child theme is where you can place custom widgets if you make any.
- Design your site with Companion or putting the CSS into this child theme’s style.css
- Take a screen capture of your designed site and replace the screenshot.png file in this child theme.
1. Modify the directory name.
The comicpress-blank.zip file has a directory inside of it called comicpress-blank, you can either upload it via the dashboard -> themes -> add new [upload], or you can ftp the contents into the wp-content/themes directory of your wordpress installation.
When it is on your server, rename the directory to something more coherent then ‘blank’ so that you can recognize it as your own.
The end result will be something like this /wp-content/themes/comicpress-yoursitename/ and the style.css for the child theme is in the /wp-content/themes/comicpress-yoursitename/style.css
2. Change relevant information inside the style.css of your child theme.
/* Theme Name: ComicPress Blank Theme URI: http://comicpress.org Template: comicpress Description: Publish a comic with WordPress. <a href="http://comicpress.org">Visit the ComicPress Website.</a> Author: Your Name Here Author URI: http://Your personal site url here/ Version: 1.0 */
This is how the blank child theme originally looks. You will want to modify this to have the information you want in your child theme. Change the theme name to represent your webcomic or site. You’re the author, change that as well and your website too.
4. Put your custom stuff in the child theme.
Now that you have your own child theme you can centralize the location of all of your images & stuff that is used on your site. The child themes images directory is where you place your site design images that are relevant to the style.css inside the child theme directory. When using the child themes style.css and your images are in the child themes images directory you can use this path structure in example:
body {
background: #fff url('images/background.jpg') top center no-repeat;
}
Notice that the url(‘ portion is basically just looking into the images directory that is under the style.css that is calling for that image instead of using some huge http:// patch structure.
Your other graphic sets, like navigation, moods, etc behave the same way as if they were put into the main theme. If you have custom navigation graphics with it’s own navstyle.css that you created, instead of going into the /comicpress/images/nav// directory you would put them into the child theme instead, such as /comicpress-yoursitename/images/nav// and ComicPress will check there as well for the options area in the dashboard when configuring your site.
5. custom-menubar.php goes into the child theme
The custom-header.php is basically a file that can be injected into the menubar position wherever it is on your site, instead of the menubar showing it will instead load this file. This allows you to create your own look and feel for your menubar. This custom-header.php file when using a child theme needs to be in the child theme directory.
6 . The widgets directory in the child theme
You can create your own custom widgets or ones that are specific for your child theme. This directory gets auto loaded when the theme gets executed to be seen in the widgets area of the dashboard.
7. Put your CSS changes into the style.css of the child theme.
In order to continue with this whole “don’t edit your comicpress theme” method of thinking. Some of you use Companion to do this exact same thing. However I want to touch up on an important note to those modifying CSS. You do NOT put the entire style.css set of elements into the custom area or companion. You ONLY put changes. For example, in the main ComicPress theme’s style.css you see:
body {
margin: 0;
font-family: 'Arial' , sans-serif;
font-size: 14px;
color: #000;
}
And you want to add a background to the body area and change the color from black to white. You would want to ONLY put what is changed, like this inside of the style.css of the child theme OR companion:
body {
background: #fff url('images/background.jpg') top center no-repeat;
color: #000;
}
Notice that not *all* of the elements are there, ONLY what is changed. This allows you to recognize what specific thing is changed instead of trying to figure out a difference between your original and your changes.
Good luck! If any of you need any assistance in creating your own custom child theme, please do not hesitate to contact me!
– Phil (Frumph)