Introduction

I have compiled a FAQ dealing with common & uncommon questions asked by users of the theme Ikarus. While this is information I have gathered for my own benefit I hope you find it useful. There is visual help with some of the items. I want to thank those who have answered questions from others or myself without which I would not have some of the following tips. As this FAQ is on going please feel free to submit your question or answers to be added.

With Wordpress I am learning that its easier to write down how I find a fix or change an item versus trying to start from scratch. Feel free to submit any tips or tricks. Remember clicking on website ads help out website owners, so spare that extra second.

The man behind this theme is Braydon, who as his hobby has produced a masterpiece. I wonder if DaVinci considered his work a hobby? Please visit his site and check out his offerings.

Always remember to save the file(s) you are editing BEFORE making changes in case you wish to revert back to your original settings.

If you find this FAQ useful please submit it using the following buttons placed throughout the FAQ. Submission only takes a few seconds and if you have never used Digg or the others you are missing out on a lot of good items.


 

How do I change the amount of featured content items in the header?

The solution is found in your
/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/content-gallery/gallery.php file.

In the code below you see the “featured1″. Just copy the whole code as seen below, paste it under the last header in the gallery.php, then change the number to the one you want. You will see that “featured1″ thru “featured5″ come with the Ikarus template. You can also delete the code below for each header, remember it’s best to start deletions from the highest numbered header. You will be able to use your Featured Content Gallery plugin in your Wordpress dashboard as usual.

<div class="imageElement">
<h3><?php echo get_option('featured1-title'); ?></h3>
<p><?php echo get_option('featured1-desc'); ?></p>
<a href="<?php echo get_option('featured1-link'); ?>"
title="Read More" class="open"></a>
<img src="<?php echo get_option('featured1-image'); ?>"
class="full" />
<img src="<?php echo get_option('featured1-image'); ?>"
class="thumbnail" />
</div>


 

How do I change the top logo to my own?

To replace the logo you will need to create your own graphic, and upload it into the images folder in the Ikarus theme folder on your server overwriting the old logo.png file. The graphic needs to be named the same if you don’t want to mess with changing it in the code. This is by far the easiest method.

The graphic is named logo.png, if you don’t want to adjust the CSS settings you will want to create your logo exactly the same dimensions as the Ikarus logo.


 

How do I implement the custom YouTube video field in the sidebar?

Open/write your post and navigate to bottom of the write panel. There you will find the custom field area as shown.

Enter the value video-code in the field marked Key and copy and paste your YouTube embed code into the Value box. Click on the Add Custom Field > box and your video will be put in place.

Be sure to change the width and height of your video in both locations in the embed code to Height: 250, Width: 370. You may also choose to experiment with other Heights & Widths


 

How do I add spacing or frames to my Flickr images?

For the Flickr images to pad properly, go into your dashboard, choose settings, then flickrrss and add li and /li tags in the HTML wrapper area as shown in this image.

Frames around Flickr images. Some may like frames around there images, others may not, below is an example of each type. To make frames, colored or otherwise just go into style.css (Design then choose Theme Editor) and play around with the padding values and color values.

Always remember to save your style.css BEFORE making changes in case you wish to revert back to your original settings.

Framed with subtle gray frames

Framed with subtle gray frames that highlight nicely when rolled over with mouse.

Standard display with no frames but with spacing.

Colored frames that highlight a different color when rolled over.



 

How do I remove or add tab(s) to the Videos/Tags/Latest block?

The Videos/Tags/Latest tabs in the sidebar module may be fine for your needs but should you wish to add, edit or remove tags this information is for you.

Go into your Dashboard and choose Design then Theme Editor and click on domtab.php. Once open you will see div’s with moduletable classes aka your Tabs. You can add, edit or remove modules the example below is just me adding a coat of arms image to a tab. Edit the code for what you wish widgets, images, text & more.

<div class="moduletable">
<h3>Coat Of Arms</h3>
<div align="center"><img src="http://www.
wheresmydrink.com/img/coatoarms.jpg" alt="" width="223"
height="290" /></div>
</div>

To remove a tab just delete the whole div tag around the desired moduletable section.


 

How do I move the Videos/Tags/Latest block above all the widgets?

To move the Videos/Tags/Latest block move above all the widgets just go to your Dashboard, then Design, Theme Editor & edit sidebar.php. Move the following code (located near the bottom) to the top of the page right below advertisement php tag.

<?php include (TEMPLATEPATH . '/domtab.php'); ?>


 

How do I have the RSS section display & show subscriber counts?

You will need to install the plugins Feedcount and Feedburner/FeedSmith. Follow the instructions for each and there should be no problems.

Feedcount Homepage
You can download V 1.2 here
Download FeedCount Version V 1.2

FeedBurner/FeedSmith Homepage
You can download V 2.3 here
Download FeedBurner/FeedSmith Version V 2.3


 

How do I activate the rotating gallery at the top of the page?

You have to install the content gallery plugin and setup the configuration page for that addon under Settings. Once you have uploaded the plugin you will be able configure it with your own images, text and links or use the static image header that came with Ikarus. This plugin has been updated to v 2.0 and renamed Smooth Gallery, you can download the newest version below.

You can download the original V 0.5 Content-Gallery plugin here
Download Featured Content Gallery Version V 0.5

May 11, 2009 If you have upgraded or plan to upgrade this plugin within Wordpress see my updated fix for issues.
You can find the fix here


 

How do I fix the fatal error when activating Popularity Contest plugin?

To fix the error(s) when activating Popularity Contest in Wordpress 2.6, one of which is

‘“Plugin could not be activated because it triggered a fatal error”

I turned to WordPress.org Forums which had an answer.

These are the steps listed in order that you should try to attempt a fix.

  1. To fix the Fatal Error you need to change line 59 of the popularity-contest.php file from this:
require('../../wp-blog-header.php');

to this:

require('../wp-blog-header.php');

This change should fix the fatal error problem for those who had the plugin installed prior to updating to WordPress 2.5.

  1. If after the above fix your error_log fills up with warning messages try changing the
“require(’../wp-blog-header.php’);”

for:

@require('../wp-blog-header.php');

If this is your first installation of the Popularity Contest plugin you might also be getting the error:

‘Table ‘database.wp_ak_popularity_options’ doesn’t exist on line: 124‘.

To fix this issue you can choose to create the database manually like Ken McGuire explains using the following solution.

  1. After making the changes in order to get the plugin to activate you may find the two tables needed in order to run are not created.These can be entered manually (via phpMyAdmin).

To create the tables, you’ll need to run the following SQL queries.

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `PREFIX_ak_popularity` (
`post_id` int(11) NOT NULL,
`total` int(11) NOT NULL,
`feed_views` int(11) NOT NULL,
`home_views` int(11) NOT NULL,
`archive_views` int(11) NOT NULL,
`category_views` int(11) NOT NULL,
`single_views` int(11) NOT NULL,
`comments` int(11) NOT NULL,
`pingbacks` int(11) NOT NULL,
`trackbacks` int(11) NOT NULL,
`last_modified` datetime,
KEY `post_id` (`post_id`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM;

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `PREFIX_ak_popularity_options` (
`option_name` varchar(50) NOT NULL,
`option_value` varchar(50) NOT NULL
) ENGINE=MyISAM;

Note that PREFIX refers to your Wordpress table prefix, in most common cases it is simply wp_ unless you’ve got multiple copies of Wordpress running in the same database.

  1. A more simple solution you may try can be accomplished by simply editing line 1528 in the popularity-contest.php file with the following code.
if (isset($_GET['activate']) && $_GET['activate'] == 'true') {

for this:

if (isset($_GET['action']) && $_GET['action'] == 'activate') {

Hopefully these fixes will correct your issues. If not continue trying and Google for other information on fixes that may have worked for others.I spent 2 hours going thru various modified versions of this plugin before getting lucky and getting it working. Here’s hoping you get it on the first try.

You can also download an already modified plugin here. It might enable you to skip the above steps. If it doesn’t just uninstall it.

Popularity Contest for WordPress 2.5
Download Modified Popularity Contest Full Plugin


 

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