How to

Important installation note

Please note there is an important first step after installing the Backstage theme. You need to navigate to Settings > Permalinks and click on the “Save Changes” button, even if you haven’t made any changes. This is to register the custom post types used in the Backstage theme.

Navigate to Settings > Permalinks. Click on Save Changes to register the custom post types.

Setting up the Home Page

The screenshot below acts as a guideline in helping you set up and manage your Backstage home page. As can be seen it is both widgetized in certain areas, and managed by theme options in other areas. This will be explained below.

The Backstage home page overview

Home Page Featured Slider

The homepage slider can be used to showcase up to 10 images. The slider pulls images from the theme options and does not need to be post related. This means you can easily add the content you want.

The home page slider options

As the above example shows, you can set the height of the slideshow, set it to automatically start and easily add images. Using the dynamic image resizer, images can be automatically scaled down to size and added. NOTE: The image resizer can only scale images down in size and not up.

Should you not use the image resizer, please remember that all images should have a width of 950 pixels exactly.

About Module

The ‘About Module’ otherwise known as the “Band Bio” is easily managed in theme options under the ‘Home Page’ tab. You can add a short description about the band/artist and upload an image. Images must not be bigger than 160 pixels in width.

Adding the band bio and featured image for it
Adding the band bio and featured image for it

Setting up the home page widgetized regions

The Backstage home page is largely widget based, as can be seen in the screenshot up top. To set up the home page you must add widgets to the 3 widgetized regions. Before that you must actually add some content via the albums, shows, photos, videos and blog post types, as documented below.

Once you’ve done that moving content around the home page layout is as easy as drag and drop.

Add widgets to the 3 home page widgetized regions under Appearance > Widgets. Set these widgets up following the sections documented below.

Setting up the Albums

The music albums widget that can be placed in any of the widgetized regions is powered by the custom post type “Albums”.

Adding album items

  1. Add a new album item in WordPress (Album -> Add New)
  2. Add a title to the album item
  3. Add some text in the content to describe the album item
  4. Upload your audio files to the album post via the WordPress “Add Audio” button.
  5. Upload an album cover image and specify the size of it in the “Backstage Custom Settings”.
  6. Add the release date of the album also via the “Backstage Custom Settings”.
  7. Publish the album item and repeat for next album item
An example of adding an album post

Adding audio files to your post

As mentioned in the steps above, to add audio to an album, click on the Add Audio icon, next to the “Upload/Insert” buttons and above the WYSIWYG editor.

Adding a music file to an album

Then upload your mp3 files and click save changes without adding them to your post. They will then be saved in the gallery and automatically added when you view your post.

The audio files after they've been uploaded. Remember not to insert the gallery, they will automatically be pulled into the albums widget.

Setting up the Shows/Gigs

The shows widget that can be placed in any of the widgetized regions is powered by the custom post type “Shows”.

Adding Show/Gig items

  1. Add a new show item in WordPress (Show -> Add New)
  2. Add a title to the show item
  3. Add some text in the content to describe the show
  4. Upload an event flyer/image and specify the size of it in the “Backstage Custom Settings”.
  5. Add the date, times and location also via the “Backstage Custom Settings”.
  6. Publish the show item and repeat for next show item
Adding a show post

Setting up the Videos

The video widget that can be placed in any of the widgetized regions is powered by the custom post type “Videos”.

Adding video items

  1. Add a new video item in WordPress (Videos -> Add New)
  2. Add a title to the video item
  3. Add some text in the content to describe the show
  4. Enter the embed code of the video via the “Backstage Custom Settings”.
  5. Publish the video item and repeat for next video item
Adding a video post

Setting up the Photos

The photos widget that can be placed in any of the widgetized regions is powered by the custom post type “Photos”.

Adding photo items

  1. Add a new photo item in WordPress (Photos -> Add New)
  2. Add a title to the photo item
  3. Add some text in the content to describe the photo
  4. Add your photos via the “Add an image” WordPress image uploader, above the WYSIWYG editor. Note you do NOT need to actually place the images in the post via the “Insert Gallery” button. They will automatically display in the photo widget.
  5. Publish the photo item and repeat for next photo item
Adding a photo post

Theme Setup Options

With Backstage and it’s custom post types for photos, videos, albums and shows you need to specify the archive page urls to use for each under the “Theme Setup” theme options. These urls can be anything you like. See the below screenshot for the urls used in the Backstage demo.

Setting up the custom post type archive pages

You can then use these archive links to create navigation menu items, under the Appearance > Menus tab.

Creating menu items for Backstage

Page Templates

[insert name=”page-templates”]

Widgets

Custom Widgets

The theme includes 8 custom widgets that you can add to your widgetized home page or single page/post sidebar:

[insert name=”adding-widgets”]