Widgets
Widgets and widget areas play a big role in the foundation of Wordpress themes using the Jaybich framework in order to make them as dynamic as possible. The idea is to get away from thinking of a widget area as simply a single "dynamic sidebar." Generally, themes using the Jaybich framework will have multiple widget areas. An example of this may include having widget areas for the homepage, footer, a blog sidebar, and a page sidebar.
There is also a running list of widgets that come by default with all themes using the Jaybich framework. These widgets are designed to work well with these various Wordpress CMS themes. You'll notice that some widgets are essentially the same as some of Wordpress's default widgets, but they include slight modifications to enhance their compatibility with the framework's themes. To avoid confusion while in the Widgets section of your Wordpress amdin panel, you will see "Jaybich" at the front of each widget's title.
Jaybich News Scroller
This widget shows the most recent blog posts from a category that you specify in a fancy jQuery news scroller.
Jaybich Recent Posts
This widget will show a list of recent posts from a blog category that you specify.
Jaybich Text
This widget will display any block of text or HTML. The reason this widget is included is because it includes the Full Width option, which allows it to span the full width of an entire Horizontal widget area that is intended to hold multiple widgets.
Jaybich Ads
There are actually several Jaybich Ad widgets that allow you to show advertisements in different sizes. Most are configured in the same manner. You can input multiple ads and then one will be selected at random to show.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
There are many complex "search engine optimization" Wordpress plugins out there that do many different things. Themes using the Jaybich framework come pre-built with basic on-site search engine optimization. Aside from clean, light-weight HTML markup, there are a couple of other things that help to optimize your Wordpress site for the search engines. First of all, a lot of thought was put into <title> tags throughout different pages of the Jaybich framework's themes. Basic principles following the setup of Jaybich <title> tags can be attributed to ThemeShaper.
With a typical theme made with the Jaybich Wordpress CMS Framework, you'll find a place to enter your meta keywords and meta description for your homepage on the Theme Options page. Also, you'll be given an option to have places to enter your meta keywords and meta description for individual pages and blog posts on their specific Edit pages.
The best part is that these basic SEO meta description and meta keyword features are completely optional. If you don't want to use them or you decide to go with another SEO plugin, you can completely disable these features.
Dynamic Page Templates
Currently dynamic page templates consist of a News Page, Portfolio Page, and Blog Page. The Jaybich Wordpress CMS Framework sets up these templates in a way that is little different from the traditional way that most themes do. With Jaybich themes, you select whichever categories you want to use in that specific dynamic page template while you're editing that specific page.
For example, when you select the Portfolio Page template, a box slides down onto the screen that asks you which categories you'd like to include in that specific portfolio page. This allows you to create as many portfolio pages as you like, with selecting whatever categories you want on each page. You can then nest those portfolio pages however you want.
This truly gives you ultimate freedom when setting up your News, Blog, and Portfolio pages.
Writing Posts
Writing a post in a theme from the Jaybich Wordpress CMS Framework is a different experience all together. Every effort to simplify things for you has been taken. No more confusing custom fields. That's all done for you with the use of dynamic meta boxes that only show when you need them.
Blog Post Information
The first thing you need to do when writing a post is fill in the Blog Post Information. For the blog type you need to select either Standard Blog Post or Portfolio Item. If you select for the post to be a portfolio item, a box will slide down for you to input your Portfolio images. Also, in this area you can select whether or not this post is featured on the homepage. If you select Yes a box will slide down for you to put in your homepage slideshow options.
Portfolio Image
Here you can enter in your Portfolio Image. The image will automatically be scaled and cropped for you to fit into the theme. The Post Thumbnail option is not required. If you do not declare a thumbnail, one will automatically be generated from the Portfolio Image
Homepage Slideshow Options
If you choose a post to be featured on the homepage, you can designate which image will get displayed in your homepage slideshow and how it will be displayed. This image is also cropped and scaled for you automatically to fit the theme. If you have a Portfolio Image specified, and you want that image to show on the homepage, you can leave the Display Image URL blank and it will default to your Portfolio Image.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
If you have SEO turned on in your Theme Options page, you will see this meta box, which will allow you to put in your meta description and meta keywords for a specific post.
Post Image
Post Images are used on pages using the Blog Page template, and of course, these images are scaled and cropped automatically to fit the theme.
Troubleshooting Meta Boxes
All of these options boxes are referred to, in Wordpress terms, as meta boxes. You can tell by now that themes utilizing the Jaybich framework have a lot of meta boxes that are getting dynamically shown and hidden. If you ever want to show a meta box that is hidden or you think a meta box is supposed to be showing that's not, there's an easy fix. If you're editing a page or post, and a meta box is not showing that you'd like to show, simply click the Screen Options button in the top right corner of the screen. You can then ensure that all of the meta boxes are showing properly.
Editing a Page
All of the meta boxes used by the Jaybich framework when editing a page have been highlighted for you.
Editing a Post
All of the meta boxes used by the Jaybich framework when editing a post have been highlighted for you.
Built-in Documentation
To get the most out of using themes built with the Jaybich Wordpress CMS Framework, you will find built-in documentation throughout the areas of the Wordpress admin panel that have been customized. Whenever you see the link, "What is this?" you can click the link to find out more information about that specific option. Then, you can hide the informational panel when you're done reading.
Current Wordpress Themes
This is just the beginning. More themes are on the way!
