How To Upgrade The PressRow Theme To WordPress 2.8 Compatible

The PressRow Theme is the first WordPress Theme by Chris Pearson, the guy behind the Thesis Theme. It was released for public download around 2006 and from the PressRow Theme, Chris Pearson graduated to much bigger things. Though it is redundant now and the demo page is long gone, The theme can still be downloaded here.

A couple of years ago, I too had a fling with the Pressrow Theme in this blog. At that time, WordPress was just being widgetized by default. Before that, we had to depend on the widgets plugin if we wanted a widgetized sidebar. I was just starting my journey into WordPress Theme Modification and was groping my way around like a bat. The Pressrow Theme was one of the Themes that I had wanted to widgetized and failed.

I have come a long way since, and today, not only will I show you how to widgetize the PressRow Theme, I will also show you how to make it compatible with all the features that WordPress 2.8 has to offer like Threaded comments and such. If you have an interest to dabble in your own WordPress Theme modifications but have zero knowledge in CSS or html, this tutorial for you. There will be no technical hoo haas which will confuse the heck out of you and al you have to do is to follow the cut, copy and paste instructions.

It would be best if you have xampp installed so you can do the modifications offline, but if you do not, then doing it online will also be the same, though your readers might be seeing funny things if they drop by while you are modding the theme.

Step One: Cleaning up the Pressrow Themes from redundant and unused files.

The Pressrow Theme was not built from scratch. It is totally based on the default Kubrick Theme that comes with WordPress. In creating the Theme, Chris Pearson somehow did not see the need to clear off lots of codes that was not related to the theme. You can skip tis step if you want to, as the codes and files does no harm to the Theme, but personally, I like to remove all unused files to make the Theme lighter.

Before uploading your Theme, get rid of this php file – header-img.php It is located in the images folder. Open the Pressrow theme files and you will see a folder called “images.” Within that folder, you will see a single php file called “header-img”. Just simply delete it. I won’t be explaining what this file does, but it is irrelevant to the PressRow Theme.

After deleting that file, you can now upload the Theme to xampp or your server and do the rest at the front end so you can see the immediate results.

Step Two: Widgetizing The Press Row Theme

This was the step that got me a few years back. Now it seems so easy. Activate the PressRow Theme. Go to Appeareance – Editor – Themes Functions. That is the functions php file.

Inside you will see a bunch of codes, all related to the default Kubrik Theme. Copy the codes below:

if (function_exists('register_sidebar'))
register_sidebar();

In the functions php, right-click- Select All – Paste.  All the codes above should now be pasted into the functions php.  Update file.

Next, open the Sidebar.php

Immediately after this line of codes which is the first line in the file,

<div id="sidebar">

Paste in these codes:

<div class="sidebar_section">
<ul>
< ?php
if (!function_exists('dynamic_sidebar') || !dynamic_sidebar()) : ?>
</ul>
</div>

Next, scroll down until you are at the end of the file. After the second last closing “div” tag add in this line of code.

<?php endif; ?>
Leave all the original codes intact so if no widgets are utilized, then the default sidebar items will appear.

Step 3: Threaded or Nested Comments for The PressRow Theme.

This part is a little tricky and and you might screw up everything. So I suggest you save whatever you have done up to this stage. Just download a copy of the Theme at this stage to your Desktop from your server.

We will not be doing anything complex but just grab all the codes from the Default Theme which is already coded for Threaded comments.

First, open your header file. Immediately BEFORE this line of codes:

< ?php wp_head(); ?>

Paste in:

< ?php if ( is_singular() ) wp_enqueue_script( 'comment-reply' ); ?>

Now go to top of your Editor and select WordPress Default from the drop down menu to open all the files in the Default Theme. Open comments.php – Right Click – Select All – Copy

Go up to the menu selector again and select back the Pressrow Theme. Open comments php – Right Click – Select All – Paste

At this stage, you should see the Threaded Comments working. It only appear a bit weird because you have not put in the styling yet. There are three portion that you would want to grab from the default Theme for styling purposes. It would be a little bit difficult for me to pinpoint it to you, so I have grabbed all the 3 portions so you can just copy it here.

.commentlist li, #commentform input, #commentform textarea {
font: 0.9em 'Lucida Grande', Verdana, Arial, Sans-Serif;
}
.commentlist li ul li {
font-size: 1em;
}

.commentmetadata {
margin: 0;
display: block;
}

In your stylesheet, look for this comment.

/*—:[ comment styles ]:—*/

From there, select everything until you come to this comment.

/*—:[ search form styles ]:—*/

Delete everything within these two comments.

Copy and paste the codes above in that empty area. (Or anywhere else, it actually does not matter)

Now you have a perfectly align comment section. Only problem now, the fonts are a little tiny.

Go back to the codes that you pasted in your stylesheet. Look for the first line:

.commentlist li, #commentform input, #commentform textarea {
font: 1.3em 'Lucida Grande', Verdana, Arial, Sans-Serif;
}


Change the size of the font to 1.3em like what you see here. If you want to make the fonts look the same as the default fonts replace the “Lucida Grande’, Verdana, Arial, Sans-Serif; with the default, “Times New Roman”, Times, serif; But then, you will have to increase the font size a bit more because these fonts are smaller in size.

Aftyer these modifications, you have a 90% WordPress 2.8 compatible PressRow Theme. Next I shall proceed with the image alignment problems and other minor adjustments.