Getting Started

Before you begin, you will already need to have your site hosted somewhere and installed with WordPress. If you don’t have a web hosting account already, please see our list of preferred hosting vendors and get one setup before continuing.

If you’re a newbie to WordPress and looking for a fast and efficient way to get training, I highly recommend WordPress Wizard. The step-by-step video tutorials show you exactly how to setup a WordPress blog in minutes. It’s the perfect companion to ClassiPress and something you should definitely consider if you’ve never installed WordPress before.

Video tutorial on how to upload and install ClassiPress. This video illustrates the ten steps below.

1. First you will need to unzip/extract your downloaded .zip ClassiPress file by either using the default Windows extraction tool (right click on the file and see if “Extract” or “Unzip” is listed), or download something like WinZip or 7-Zip.
2. After you unzip the file, you will have a new folder called “classipress-3.0″ (or whatever the current version number is) containing sub-folders and a classipress.zip file. That contains the actual theme which you will upload in the next step.
3. Login to your WordPress site (http://www.yoursite.com/wp-login.php) and then under the “Appearance” sidebar menu, click on “Add New Themes”.
4. On the top of that page, click on the “Upload” link.
5. Now you should see a message that says “Install a theme in .zip format”.
6. Click on the “browse” button and navigate to the “classipress-3.0″ folder you extracted earlier. Inside that folder find the “classipress.zip” file and select it.
7. Click “Open” or “Ok” and then click “Install Now”.
8. After the theme is uploaded and installed, you will see a message that says “Theme Installed successfully”. Below it, click on the link “Activate” and ClassiPress will be turned on. If you get an error message during this process, you will have to manually upload the file via FTP. See the “FTP Manual Upload Instructions” section near the bottom of this page otherwise continue reading.
9. Next you have to change your WordPress permalinks away from the default value (i.e. http://localhost/blog/?p=123). Under the “Settings” sidebar menu, click on “Permalinks”
10. Select the “Custom Structure” radio button and then enter the following custom structure /%postname%/ as the value. If you already have a permalink structure in place, any change might break existing links on pointing to your site. If this is a brand new site then you don’t have anything to worry about. Regardless, please be careful and read more about permalinks before moving forward. If you get an error message while trying to save then just follow the instructions on the screen. This is a WordPress error message and not related to ClassiPress.

Configuration

Video tutorial on how to setup your ClassiPress categories and pricing structure. This video illustrates the three steps below.

1. ClassiPress uses the core WordPress category system and we will be setting them up now. Think about the hierarchy structure of categories you want and then start creating them. Click on “Posts” => “Categories” and setup your top-level categories first. For example, create a top-level category called “Autos”. Then create a new category called “Cars” and assign it the parent category of “Autos”. It takes some time to setup all your categories and you can always add more later but if you plan on selling ads priced per category, it’s best to knock this out now.
2. Now it’s time to configure ClassiPress. A new menu called “ClassiPress” will be visible in the top left column under the “Dashboard” menu. First go through the “Settings” and “Pricing” sections and make sure to select your options and SAVE. This step is important since saving will activate these options. Some people get too excited with their new purchase and overlook setting up these options. Don’t be that person!
3. View your site and you should now see ClassiPress running. If this is a brand new install you will only see the default “Hello World” post. You will then need to start submitting ads on your site via the “Post an Ad” button. Hold off on that for now though.

Setting Up Your Sidebars and Footer

Video tutorial on how to setup your ClassiPress sidebar and footer widgets. This video illustrates the four steps below.

Now you need to go and add widgets to your five different sidebars and footer. There are several widgets to choose from and you can decide what the order should be.

1. Go to “Appearance” => “Widgets”. Here you will see all your available widgets and on the far right, you will see your sidebars.
2. Start with the “Main Sidebar” which is your home page sidebar. To look like the demo site, drag over the “Ad Search Box” and the “Recent Blog Posts” widgets.
3. Continue going through the rest of the sidebars until you are happy with all the widgets.
4. The footer also uses the sidebar widget capability and has room for four widgets. Drag over the ones you want and then take a look at your site.

Setting Up Your Blog

Video tutorial on how to setup your ClassiPress blog. This video illustrates the five steps below.

1. The latest version of ClassiPress now includes a blog option so you don’t need to install multiple WordPress instances to have both. By default, it is turned on but if you do not wish to use the blog feature, you can easily disable it under the ClassiPress “Settings” page.
2. Writing blog posts is easy. Just create a new post (“Posts” => “Add New”) and write whatever you like. What is important though is making sure it’s assigned to the category “Blog” otherwise it will appear on your site as a classified ad.
3. You can create as many categories for your blog as needed. Just make sure they are sub-categories under the “Blog” category otherwise it will not work properly.
4. ClassiPress has also enabled the “Post Thumbnail” feature which you can use on your blog posts. This is different than just inserting a picture into your blog post. This feature allows you to add a nice little thumbnail image which will appear at the top of your post and also in the blog sidebar widget. To add a thumbnail image, click on the “Set thumbnail” link in the “Post Thumbnail” module box located in the right sidebar of your blog post edit window. Then select your image and upload it. After it is done uploading you need to make sure and click on the “Use as thumbnail” link at the bottom of the popup window (in between “Insert into Post” and “Delete” links). If that link doesn’t appear it means you haven’t entered any content or title for your blog post. Save the draft and then try setting the thumbnail again.
5. Save and publish your post to see how it works. That’s it!

How to Create Custom Forms and Fields

Video tutorial on how to create custom fields and form layouts with ClassiPress. This video illustrates the ten steps below.

New in version 3.0, ClassiPress allows you to create your own custom forms and fields. This is very useful if you want to collect different information on a category by category level. If you do not wish to use this feature there is nothing you need to do. The default form will be used instead. If you wish to change the default form then you will need to create a new form and apply all categories to it. Any category without a form will always fall back to using the default form.

Before you get started, it’s best to pick one category and figure out what fields you will want. Write them down on a piece of paper and put them in the order you wish them to be in. For example, say you have a category called “Cars” and in addition to the standard fields, you want to have three additional drop-downs. Year, Make, and Model. No problem. Let’s go create your custom fields.

1. Under the ClassiPress menu items, click on “Custom Fields” => “Add New”. Give your field a new name like “Year” and a description. Then select the field type “Drop-down” and enter your values (i.e. 2010, 2009, 2008, etc). Click the “Create New Field” button and the field will be created. Do the same steps for the Make and Model fields. Any field you create can be used across multiple forms so you don’t need to create duplicate fields in most instances.
2. Great, now we have some fields but how do we add them to the form? This is where the “Form Layouts” come into play. Think of a Form Layout as a container for fields. Fields alone do nothing.
3. Click on “Form Layouts” => “Add New”. Continuing with our “Cars” example, let’s name this new form “Cars Form” and give it a simple description.
4. Now check each category that you want this new form to apply to. Assuming you have a category called “Cars” we are going to just check this box. Click “Save New Form”.
5. Ok, now we have a new form and three custom fields but they aren’t associated to each other yet. On the “Form Layouts” page click on the “Cars Form” “edit form” icon so we can go add the fields to this form
6. On this page you will see two columns. The left side is what your form will look like. The right side contains the available fields you can add to your form. Go ahead and check the three fields we just created and click “Add Fields to Form Layout”. The page will reload and you will see that they moved to the left side.
7. At this point you will want to reorder, remove, and make certain fields mandatory or not. Once you are all done make sure to click the “Save Changes” button otherwise your form will not be created!
8. Now go to your web site and try to post a new ad. Make sure to select the “Cars” category. You should now see your new custom form layout! Congrats, you’ve just created your very own custom form all without touching any code.
9. Remember, you only created a custom form for the “Cars” category so every other category will still use the default form. If you want to change the default form, please continue reading.
10. In order to change the default form you need to build a new “Form Layout” and select all available categories. Save it and then go to the “edit form” page and remove/add any fields you want. Remember to click the “Save Changes” button or it will not work correctly.

Additional Instructions

Video tutorial on how to install and setup the new user email plugin which is recommended and bundled with ClassiPress.

Video tutorial on how to install and setup the remaining recommended ClassiPress plugins.

Here are some additional tips to get the most out of your ClassiPress theme. Some are tips for plugins you might be using.

• By default in WordPress, your comments will usually be turned on. This means anyone can post comments on your site. If you don’t want people to be able to post comments on your classified ads, then make sure to turn this option off within WordPress.
• The “New User Default Role” under “Settings” => “General” should be set to “Contributor”. The “Membership” option box should also be checked to activate this feature.
• ClassiPress recommends using the Sexy Bookmarks plugin instead of Sociable. If you still want to use Sociable that’s fine but please make the following change if you haven’t already. The latest version of the Sociable plugin needs an check box ticked before the icons will be positioned ok. Read this Sociable blog post on how to make that change.
• You can also customize the new user registration emails that get sent out. Go to “Settings” => “New User Email” and customize the fields however you like (The “New User Email Set Up” plugin bundled with ClassiPress must be activated in order for this to work).
• Check out our resources page for a list of other recommended plugins to really take your site to the next level. You will also find our translation packs there to download and install for free.

That’s pretty much it! If you need any theme support, please visit our community forum. I also recommend joining our affiliate program (free to join). For every sale you refer to us, you make 30% commission. We provide you with all different sizes of banners and ideas on how you can promote ClassiPress and earn some extra money each month!

FTP Manual Upload Instructions

1. An FTP client is needed for this process which allows you to upload/download files from your website. There are tons of clients out there but for free, I recommend FileZilla. Here is a nice tutorial on how to get things setup with FileZilla.
2. Now instead of having to upload the “classipress-3-0.zip” file, you have to first unzip it on your local computer. After extracting the .zip file, upload the “classipress” theme folder via FTP (transfer type should be “Auto” and not “ASCII” or “Binary”. This is the default for FileZilla.) to your /wp-content/themes/ directory. Make sure you just upload the folder as “classipress” and don’t rename it to something else. The final directory should look like this /wp-content/themes/classipress/
3. You may also upload any plugins you may have via FTP to your /wp-content/plugins/ directory. This step is not required, however.
4. CHMOD the directory “cache” on your server to 777 (not always required on all servers). This sets the folders permissions to be writable. (CHMOD help)
5. Log back into WordPress and go activate ClassiPress from “Appearance” => “Themes”.

Upgrade Instructions (from v2.9x to 3.0)

For those of you who are currently using version 2.9, you will have slightly more work to do. I’ll assume you already know the basics since you installed ClassiPress once already. What’s really important is backing up your existing ClassiPress theme so you can always roll back if there are any problems. This is especially important to anyone who has modified the ClassiPress code because we don’t want to risk losing all your hard work.

1. To make the upgrade a smooth transition for your site visitors and customers, I recommend installing and activating the “Maintenance Mode” plugin which you will find at the bottom of our WordPress Resources page. This will display a message letting everyone know that you are doing scheduled maintenance. You will be able to login and see your site just like normal though since you’re an admin.
2. Next you will want to deactivate your current ClassiPress theme and switch to Kubrick or something else which will be temporary.
3. FTP into your site and traverse to the /wp-content/themes directory where you will find your “classipress” folder. Rename that to “classipress_OLD” (use underscores and not dashes).
4. Next you’ll want to either upload the new classipress folder either via FTP (since you already have it open now) or follow the steps above in the “New Installation Guide” above.
5. Once you’ve uploaded the new folder you will need t0 disable some of your plugins before activating the theme. You will no longer need “Breadcrumb NavXT”, “WP-PageNavi”, and “Daily Top 10 Posts” since they are now built into ClassiPress. Not disabling these plugins before activating your new theme will cause errors.
6. Ok, now it’s time to go activate your new version of ClassiPress (“Appearance” => “Themes”).
7. Once it is activated you’ll want to open a new browser window and look at your site. Make sure everything looks ok. If not, don’t worry because we’ll fix it.
8. Go back into WordPress and then follow the “ClassiPress Configuration” and “Setting Up Your Blog” sections listed below. You’ll notice there are new menus and options which you should setup before using your new ClassiPress.
9. With 3.0 the edit-ad page has been renamed to edit-item so you might see the old page showing up in your new navigation. You can easily remove it by adding it to the “Exclude Pages” field on the ClassiPress “Settings” page.
10. Also with 3.0 customers must register in order to post ads. This gives you much more control over your site as well as building a customer base.
11. By this point you should have everything setup. Make sure to turn off your Maintenance Mode plugin so you can open your site back up to the world. I also recommend creating a few ads for yourself so you get a good understanding with how the new multi-step form works. Enjoy!

Upgrade Instructions (from v3.0.2 to 3.0.3)

Upgrading from 3.0.2 to 3.0.3 is fairly straight forward for most customers. The only issue that is important to note has to do with your widgets. It is very likely your widgets will be reset once you perform this upgrade.

So it is highly recommended to go in and take note of which widgets you have BEFORE performing the upgrade. This is especially important if you have custom widgets with code or text in them. Copy all that stuff into a text file and save it otherwise you risk losing all your hard work. Don’t say we didn’t warn you ahead of time!

Also if you have done any customization to your ClassiPress core files, you will need to manually transfer those changes over to 3.0.3. This includes your custom.css, functions.php, etc.

The bottom line is, backup all your stuff before you begin the upgrade process just to be safe. Ok, now that you’ve backed everything up it’s time to start the upgrade process!

1. Login to your account to download ClassiPress 3.0.3
2. Extract the .zip bundle to your desktop. Inside you will find the “classipress.zip” file.
3. Login to WordPress and put your site in “maintenance mode” (download plugin) to take it offline from the public (optional step).
4. FTP into your account to backup your current “classipress” theme folder by renaming it to “classipress_302″.
5. Upload the new “classipress.zip” theme folder to your site via the install themes feature (http://www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin/theme-install.php?tab=upload).
6. Activate the new theme that was just installed (make sure it’s 3.0.3 and not your old 3.0.2 one).
7. Go to the ClassiPress admin dashboard. There should be a notification next to the “Product Version” and a link for you to “finish upgrading” ClassiPress (See screen shots below).
8. Go to “Appearance” => “Widgets” and make sure your widgets are there. If not, you will need to add them again.
9. Visit your site and make sure everything looks ok.
10. Turn off  “maintenance mode” and you’ll be back in business!

New Upgrade Link

Upgrade Success Example