Converting a WordPress Theme to work with BANS – Introduction

As mentioned in my earlier post, I have decided to make the series of Converting a WordPress theme to work BANS, part of a blog post series. Today’s post is an introduction to the series, as well as a full walk through of the conversion of the ProSense theme by Dosh.

The reason I chose this first post to do a complete conversion is because there are some advanced readers of this blog that are eager to jump right in and get started. They are familiar with wordpress already and understand the template system.

To work through today’s video, you should:

  • Already have your WordPress blog installed.
  • Already have the ProSense theme installed.
  • Already have BANS installed in a folder of your site.
  • Already have your BANS store main category defined, so your menu works.

In addition to those basics, it is this point in your venture to decide if you plan on doing this or not for the long haul. Editing html, php, or any other web-specific language can be done in notepad, but honestly you need an html editor. Not having one is like a plumber, without a pipe-wrench…

  1. Download CoffeeCup HTML Editor CoffeeCup Full html editor ($49, Quite robust, they also have a free version)
  2. Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 – Full - If you want the best editor.

Todays Video:
Length: 22 minutes
I wish I could make it shorter, but when you get into a technical process, some things must be explained.

Quick technical difficulty being resolved… video link will be live momentarily.

WordPress theme for BANS

In addition to the video, you will need the basic files, included in this zip archive.

All files are released under Creative Commons. You are:

  1. Free to Share
  2. Free to Remix

Under the following conditions:

  1. Attribution. You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).
  2. Noncommercial. You may not use this work for commercial purposes.

As always, I try to provide information freely as much as possible… if you decide to develop themes for BANS and sell them to your visitors, I truly have no problems at all… just send a little link love back my way, and let me see the work so I can join your affiliate program! :-)

Mark

Previously Published Articles You May Like to Read:

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About the Author, Mark Hansen

Mark Hansen has written 468 article(s) at the Niche Store Builder site.

I have been doing my part to "Build the Internet" since 1994, when I built my first website! Since then, I have built hundreds of niche websites for myself and many others, focused on design, applications, ecommerce, search optimization and internet marketing. 

Latest Readers Who Commented on This Article

19 Comments »

  • Lee said:

    This video cuts off at 4:24. please remove this post.
    Thank you, Mark!

    Reply – Quote
    # 4 August 2008 at 4:00 pm
  • mike2258 said:

    Hey this is a great video, and I will be watching the series as it is done.

    I have a question, if Ive already deep linked to sub pages, is there anyway to preserve the permalink structure when moving to a Bans blog integration?

    Or do you basically have to abandon any linking already done to deep pages?

    Thanks

    Mike

    Reply – Quote
    # 5 August 2008 at 12:03 am
  • Alice said:

    I’ve watched this about 4-5 times now, and think I get the first part. But when you get to the mock page, you totally lose me!

    First of all, I don’t understand what the purpose is, and second it goes so fast I can barely see what you’re doing in those files, or take notes of the instructions. Is there a way to slow down the video?? Stopping the video makes the whole thing go dark so I can’t see to write down what’s happening.

    I think this is an exercise in futility. :(

    Reply – Quote
    # 12 August 2008 at 9:23 pm
  • Mark (author) said:

    @ Alice -

    It is a challenge for sure… I have a post I have been working on for several days that is a 1-2-3-4-5, step by step walkthrough for each bit you will need to get done in this series.

    It is currently 16 steps long, so you can understand what it is not live yet. :-)

    This first post was most helpful for people who may have a bit of understanding with regard to html programming already, as I mentioned at the beginning of the video… but I think it is a GREAT resource for everyone to watch before they ever decide if they want to try and do this or not.

    It will all come together…

    Mark

    Reply – Quote
    # 12 August 2008 at 9:47 pm
  • Alice said:

    I agree – anyone who wants to do this really really needs to watch this RUN-thru of all the steps. Then it’s easier to fill in the gaps with the later modules when they come out, and/or the written steps when they’re published.

    If you’re not techy, like I’m not, it’s really hard to figure out what to do. And I don’t really WANT to do it, but it I want to have nice-looking and unique sites I’m going to have to do it. But I really don’t want to turn it into a huge learning experience – I just want to know enough to get the job done and move on to making money. Just the cookbook approach to WP/BANS, that’s all I want…

    But I’m really interested in what someone posted, about why bother with BANS at all if there are all these ready-made cool themes and lots of plugins to customize it, plus widgets from ePN, Pepperjam, and others to put products in, why mess with BANS??

    Reply – Quote
    # 12 August 2008 at 11:31 pm
  • Dave said:

    Hey Mark
    First of all many thanks for the great video and files to do it our selfs.

    I just wanted to make one comment on the adding code to the sidebar.php (in the beginning of the video) i saw you hardcode it in the WP sidebar file, i would like to point out that it is not necessary to hardcode the sidebar.php you can use a plug-in that will execute PHP that is added in a widget. like http://bluesome.net/post/2005/08/18/50/

    It really works a lot faster and is maybe a good tip for people (like me) that just dont like to code the sidebar with the new widget thing (some how i seem to seems that up)

    Anyway thank you again.
    Greets

    Dave

    Reply – Quote
    # 17 August 2008 at 6:35 am
  • Dave said:

    Sorry clicked submit to fast :)

    (some how i seem to seems that up) needs to be (some how i always seem to mess that up)

    Reply – Quote
    # 17 August 2008 at 6:36 am
  • Suzanne said:

    Mark, this is really an amazing tutorial, you’ve outdone yourself. Thank you so much for sharing!

    I am having trouble getting my listings to show up “styled”…where does the template call the bans specific css?

    Reply – Quote
    # 18 August 2008 at 3:28 am
  • Liz said:

    Hi Mark,

    Thanks for the excellent tutorial. Can you tell me which version of wordpress this tutorial is based on? I have version 2.6 and I managed to get up to the part of getting the store categories to show up on wordpress, but don’t see a “page template” option to create the page with the permalink for loading the template for bans.

    Reply – Quote
    # 28 August 2008 at 8:07 pm
  • Rudolf Fletcher said:

    Everything shows up on my store page but it’s in the wrong position.
    I’ve got no color in my header and footer.
    I’ve only got one column and the adsense ad and navigation shows up at the bottom of the page after the content.
    I can’t for the life of me figure out where I’ve gone wrong. I’ve gone through the whole lesson over and over and double checked everything.
    Taken me two days.
    Very frustrating

    Reply – Quote
    # 17 December 2008 at 5:06 am
  • Mark (author) said:

    @ Rudolf –

    In your BANS header.php file… you have the stylesheet reference to:

    /wp-content/themes/Prosense/style.css

    It should be:

    /wp-content/themes/ProSense/style.css

    The ONLY difference is the capitolized S in ProSense… but it may make the difference you are looking for!

    Mark

    Reply – Quote
    # 17 December 2008 at 9:40 am
  • Rudolf Fletcher said:

    Mark that’s amazing. What a difference one letter makes.
    Many thanks for your prompt reply. That’s solved the problem.
    It took you two minutes to do what it took me two days, and couldn’t.
    I feel better now.

    Regards
    Rudolf

    Reply – Quote
    # 17 December 2008 at 4:45 pm
  • Mark (author) said:

    @ Rudolf –

    Glad it worked out!! Dont feel alone… I have done the same thing for DAYS myself, only to find it was something like this.

    An extra set of eyes always helps…

    Mark

    Reply – Quote
    # 17 December 2008 at 4:47 pm
  • Fernando said:

    Thanks for the tutorial.

    My question is: I am using WP 2.7 and I do not see the “check permalink” as you showed after creating the SHOP page at the beginning of the video on this version consequently MY page SHOP does not link to that sub directory. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

    Fernando

    Reply – Quote
    # 25 December 2008 at 3:19 am
  • Tony said:

    Hi Mark,

    Thanks for the tutorial – it is really detailed. I am trying to implement this process and have (I believe) followed the process to the letter, using the same ProSense theme. However, when I switch from the Blog area to the shop, the template replicates three times, one after the other. The page area in the blog shows a 404 error and the various bits of the eBay feed are spread across the three pages.

    Any clues?? I have been through your summary video three times, checking carefully what I’m doing but it still comes up the same. I tried initially with the WP_Premium theme, and had the same problem. I thought it my have to do with the WP_Premium calling the left and right sidebars from within the main sidebar, but when I swapped over to ProSense the problem was the same.

    The site is iphonefrenzy.com.au Only a first try, so probably not much chop. Any assistance would be appreciated.

    Cheers mate.

    Tony

    Reply – Quote
    # 27 February 2009 at 3:19 am
  • Von said:

    I would recommend to everyone to put your bans site in a sub-domain and not just a folder, especially with HostGator. I had been fussing with problem after problem trying to make this work, not just with converting a template but with a purchased one as well. As soon as I made it a sub-domain it all miraculously worked! LOL

    Just thought I’d put in my 2 cents.

    Reply – Quote
    # 27 March 2009 at 11:49 pm
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    # 4 August 2008 at 3:52 pm
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