Modifying the Mimbo theme: Parent theme modifications
by Kunal Jain on Apr.15, 2009, under design
Having finally decided to go with the Mimbo Wordpress theme for Recipe Mobile, it was time for me to start customizing it. The themes author, Darren Hoyt, recommends that style customizations should be made using child themes so that changes can be retained across future upgrades. I have heard mention of child themes several times before but have never delved into it before.
Luckily, Darren provides a child theme called Vintage Green on the same download page to help get started. Installing a child theme is similar to installing a regular Wordpress theme. You unzip and upload the theme folder to your ‘wp-content/themes’ folder and activate it from Appearance-Themes on your Wordpress dashboard. Make sure the parent theme folder is also present in the themes folder. (Note: The child theme folder does not go into the parent theme folder but within the Themes folder itself.) The child theme contains references to its parent theme already so every thing should happen smoothly
I have been customizing Mimbo using a child theme for only a few hours now and have already seen the benefits of using a child theme. The only code changes that I have had to make in the parent themes files were to:
Increase the number of ‘Recent Posts’ from 4 to 10
This was done easily by modifying the index.php file (in the parent theme) and changing the maximum post count from 4 to 10. This is the modified code that you would use:
elseif( $postcount > 0 && $postcount <= 10 )
Prevent duplication of content between ‘Featured Categories’ and ‘Recent Posts’
This can be partly achieved by modifying the index.php file to exclude posts from the featured categories from displaying in the Recent Posts timeline (which is really the main timeline that shows up in most blogs). The code for this is:
if (in_category('33') && is_home() ) continue;
Add the above code above the <div class=”clearfloat recent-excerpts”> line. Make sure it is contained within php tags. This works well if your posts are usually categorized only in one category. However, since many of the recipes belong to several categories, this method is not a 100% effective for me. I am still trying to find a better solution to the problem.
Removing certain categories from the category navigation bar under the page title
The category navigation bar is one of the most prominent parts of the Mimbo theme. I edited the wp_list_categories code in the header.php file to exclude the categories that were already in the featured categories section. The code is now wp_list_categories(’exclude=1,26,33,31,30&title_li=’);
You can replace the numbers between ‘exclude’ and ‘&’ with the category ids you want to exclude.
Removing the date display from the lead/sticky post
Considering the post that is featured at the top of all the others in the Mimbo theme is not necessarily the latest, I did not see the point of having its date visible. This was easily achieved by removing the code displaying the date from the index.php template file. Removing the the_time(’n/d/y’); tag before the the_excerpt(); in the lead sticky post section will achieve this result.
Conclusion
And that’s it. All other changes were made using the child theme. I probably will also add a carousel as well as footer widgets to the website and will publish details about those changes to this post when I do. Please subscribe to my posts by RSS or email to get the latest updates.
Continuing the series, read about the changes I made to the Mimbo theme using a child theme.
Please let me know if any of the instructions above are not clear. I would love to know the results you are able to achieve.
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14 Comments for this entry
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April 20th, 2009 on 1:14 pm
Hi,
I need show 25 post but when I make the changes just show 9 post. Can you help me? Thanks in advance!
April 21st, 2009 on 5:34 am
Damian – You probably mean 9 posts + the 1 lead post = 10. This issues has nothing to do with the Mimbo theme. You probably have the Wordpress CMS only restricting your blog to 10 posts per page (this is the default when you install Wordpress). To fix this, goto your Wordpress dashboard -> Settings -> Reading. Change the number in the text box saying ‘Blog pages show at most’ from 10 to whatever number you want on your index page. Let me know if it helps.
April 21st, 2009 on 10:47 am
Thank you for your response! has been solved the issue. Thank you again!
Damián
April 22nd, 2009 on 12:59 am
Sure Damian, let me know if you need any other help.
April 27th, 2009 on 7:17 pm
Hello,
I noticed in your RecipeMobile site that it also does not the option below the comment box where the commenter can choose whether he wants to be informed of any reply to his comment by email. It’s something the same as what you have here below which says “Notify me of follow-up comments via e-mail”.
Is this possible to have on Mimbo 3.0? Can you please post here how to do that?
EdZee’s last blog post..GNU/Linux Operating System for Cafés
April 29th, 2009 on 12:04 pm
EdZee, I use the Subscribe to Comments plugin by Mark Jacquith for Sidekick Blog. You can get it here. I haven’t bothered to install it on Recipe Mobile yet as that website does not get many comments yet (sadly) and each additional unnecessary plugin does contribute to increased load time and complexity. However, considering that Recipe Mobile’s traffic has been increasing steadily, I guess it is time I installed it over there also. The plugin is very easy to use and I don’t foresee any issues regarding compatibility with the Mimbo theme. Do let me know if you use it.
April 29th, 2009 on 12:28 pm
EdZee, I have implemented the Subscribe to Comments plugin on Recipe Mobile and it looks fine (although I have not tested it in action yet). Thanks for pointing this out. Let me know if it works for you.
May 7th, 2009 on 1:24 am
Id like to know how to change the site heading from the current site title to use a logo, prefereably something that goes across the screen and gets rid of the search box. Any suggestions?
May 7th, 2009 on 12:16 pm
Joe, I have not done that myself yet, but I had researched it initially and it had seemed like an easy step. Ive been busy with a new project but Ill try to look it up and get back to you. Thanks for visiting.
June 13th, 2009 on 5:59 pm
In the single page, the “more in category” section not shown.
June 26th, 2009 on 2:29 pm
Thanks for letting me know Sonia. Ill look into this.
October 7th, 2009 on 12:10 am
Very helpful. Thanks
Paras Jain´s last blog ..Creating Acegi Users in a script
October 7th, 2009 on 12:27 am
Hi Kunal,
Even if I have image in my post, it is not showing up in the home page. Do I have to do some settings for that.
Regards,
Paras
Paras Jain´s last blog ..Creating Acegi Users in a script
October 19th, 2009 on 1:11 pm
Thanks for visiting Paras.