ComicPress 2.9 Installation Instructions

[Frumph]

Important Notes

ComicPress 2.9 is a 'parent' theme now. Which means that there are specifics to installing the theme with wordpress now. Read about what this is, here. http://frumph.net/wordpress/comicpress- ... ationship/

Unlike previous versions of the theme ComicPress 2.9 requires that the theme be installed into the wp-content/themes/comicpress directory. That means the themes index.php file would be here: /wp-content/themes/comicpress/index.php

Also, previous versions of ComicPress that have the same name in the style.css THEME NAME: ComicPress will cause a conflict. Make sure that whatever old versions you are using are removed from your themes directory.


Requirements

1. Wordpress
2. MySQL database connection
3. PHP 5
4. Proper access for wordpress to write read/write files to your installation.

Installation Instructions

1. Install WordPress from http://wordpress.org/ follow their tutorials.
2. Install ComicPress 2.9 into a directory called "comicpress" in lowercase in your theme directory. Do not install it in a directory UNDER comicpress, install it INTO that directory. Copy the files from the zip file with your ftp program into /wp-content/themes/comicpress
3. Install ComicPress Manager into the /wp-content/plugins/ or use the plugins -> add new option in the dashboard.
4. Install Theme Companion into /wp-content/plugins/ or use the plugins -> add new option in the dashboard.
5. In your wordpress dashboard administration area, /wp-admin/ go to Appearance -> Themes and select the ComicPress 2.9 theme or associated child theme that you installed.
6. In your wordpress dashboard administration go to Post -> Categories and add 2 categories, add "Comic" and "Blog", so you will have 3 categories, Comic, Blog and Uncategorized categories.
7. Go to Plugins -> Installed, you should see a list of your plug-ins including ComicPress Manager and Theme Companion, activate them then click on the Dashboard link on the left.
8. Go to ComicPress Manager plugin area called "ComicPress" on your dashboard. Dashboard -> ComicPress (not to be confused with comicpress options in the appearance area) and click on the "Manager Config" link, so Dashboard -> ComicPress -> Manager Config. Inside the Manager config click the first run -> "Make Directories" link that comes up. This will create your comic comic-rss and comic-archive folders.
9. Go to Dashboard -> ComicPress -> ComicPress Config and set your blog category, comic category and make sure the directories are set correctly for your comics. Manager config probably sent you here already.
10. Go to Dashboard -> Appearance -> ComicPress Options and select the theme style you want to use and click save. Go through all the different tabs and get overwhelmed by all the options.
11. Go to Dashboard -> ComicPress -> Upload, upload your first comic. Remember the file names need to be in this format YYYY-MM-DD-title-of-comic.ext ext = jpg png gif swf example: 2009-08-26-I-have-been-assimilated.jpg is perfectly valid for a file name, do NOT use any non alpha characters like $#!+@%^&*(){}[] just letters, numbers and dashes. Also if your setting a title, do NOT use a number as the title. 2009-08-26-1.jpg <-- Will cause problems, do not use numbers only.
12. Go to to your site, see the results. Rinse - repeat step 11 as often as necessary.


WPMU Installation

1. Same as above except add the following:
2. Inside the theme is a "wpmu" DIRECTORY inside that directory is the file comicpress_manager_wpmu.php copy that file to the /wp-content/mu-plugins/ directory.


Additional Note

The 'core' theme ComicPress 2.9 is as we said a 'parent' theme. That means when you install ComicPress 2.9 you receive the basic minimal css version of ComicPress. Silver theme from ComicPress 2.8 is now a child theme available as a separate download.

ComicPress 2.9 also has available in the download are the ComicPress Silver and ComicPress Boxed child themes. Both of these basic child themes are installed like regular themes into your wp-content/themes directories on your wordpress installs.

When making changes to ComicPress for your look and feel that you want we HIGHLY recommend that you do it with theme companion or a child theme - using the boxed or silver themes as a reference on how to achieve this and NOT editing the original wp-content/themes/comicpress code. This way you can update comicpress without losing your custom look of your site.

[tixrus]

I am aware there are some issues with wpmu and wp 3.0 but anyway, inside the absolutely latest version of comicpress theme I did not find a wpmu directory as this states I should. A directorywide search for wpmu did not turn up anything. Ideas?

[Frumph]

http://frumph.net

snag comicpress 2.9.2, it's in there

[Frumph]

^ this has been the case for all wordpress/comicpress themes since the beginning btw

[ignis]

2. Install ComicPress 2.9 into a directory called "comicpress" in lowercase in your theme directory. Do not install it in a directory UNDER comicpress, install it INTO that directory. Copy the files from the zip file with your ftp program into /wp-content/themes/comicpress

EDIT: scratch all that, I figured out my first issues, but now I have new ones, namely with this part:

Copy the files from the zip file with your ftp program into /wp-content/themes/comicpress

I tried that, but I can only transfer the zipped files to the directory using FTP. How is one supposed to use FTP to unzip the files?



If anyone could help--I am so far in the dark here it's embarrassing!--I'd be eternally grateful.

[Frumph]

you unzip the zip file first? then ftp the contents over.


or just go to the appearance -> themes -> install -> search for comicpress and have it do it automatically for you

[ignis]

Thanks! Ok, now an update:

I've made it to step 8, but now I'm confused by this: Inside the Manager config click the first run -> "Make Directories" link that comes up.

There's nothing inside Manager config that says "first run" or "Make Directories." Could someone explain, please?

[Wiggee]

Check at the very bottom. You should see something like

Re-run the "First Run" action?
This will attempt to create the default comic folders on your site.
[Yes, try and make my comic directories]

[ignis]

Ok, got it! Now on step 9 it says to make sure the directories are set correctly. . how do I know if they are or not? (Comic category is set on "comic," Blog category is set on "blog," etc. . is that what that means? If so, then they seem to have been set that way automatically.)


EDIT: I'm pretty much finished here, all that confuses me now is the last step--the uploading comics step, namely this part that says I have to name the comics like this: YYYY-MM-DD-title-of-comic.ext ext = jpg png gif

So, would I need to go into the folder where I keep my comics and change all their filenames to include the date when I upload them or something? That sounds awfully laborious.

[Kloyd Niel]

Hi Guys,

Theme Companion is a convenient way to style your ComicPress site. Rather than edit the theme's stylesheet directly, you can append any CSS styling to your site from Theme Companion. This will allow you to upgrade to newer versions of ComicPress without losing your custom styling.

Thanks a lot.



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[vinita]

thank you

[santapau]

Hello everybody. I'd like to update comicpress but I have comicpress 2.1 now! Will it keep the old permalinks intact? (some of my comics bring visitors constantly from stumbleupon and reddit links and I don't want to lose that.) For instance, I understand there's a filename change from YYYY-MM-DD.jpg to YYYY-MM-DD-title-of-comic.ext Is this something I should worry about?

Many thanks.

[Frumph]

Uni, do you have any backups, or your hosting have any backups?

[mattchee]

So I get to step 8 ok.

ON step 8, under ComicPress on my dashboard, I don't see "Manager Config" OR "ComicPress Config" (ref'd in the next step). I only see just plain "Config" - So I have no idea how to create my directories.

AM I totally missing something blatantly obvious?

OR is there a way to manually create the directories using FTP?

Starting to pull my hair out here! Any help is appreciated.

Thanks!

[mattchee]

Nevermind. I just deleted 2.9 and downgraded to 2.8 and had the site up and running in minutes.