For help with installing plugins please refer to our Plugin installation guide.
Once installed go to Plugins in the network admin dashboard and Network Activate the New Blog Template plugin.
Creating a Blog Template
How the New Blog Template works is you first create a new site and customize it with all features you want automatically added to new sites created with this template. For example, you configure all settings, add all post(s), page(s), set up the theme, upload the custom image header, activate plugins, add users, add widgets, add links to the blogroll and so on. You’ll find an example of a blog template here.
Please Note:
- The site you’ve customized to use as a template is designed solely to be used as a template and not to be used a functioning site.
- Any changes made to a template blog affect any sites created after you’ve made the new changes, it doesn’t affect sites already created.
- DON’T use your main site as a tempate blog!
Once you’ve customized your new site with prepackaged features you make it into a blog template as follows:
1. Go to Sites > All Sites in the network admin dashboard and hover your mouse over the site you wish to use as the template to find the Site ID.
- The Site ID will display in the link at the bottom of your browser.
2. Now go to Settings > Blog Templates in the network admin dashboard.
3. Give your template a name, add your Blog ID, add your template description, choose what features from the template site you want to copy to new site and then click Create Blog Template.
- Template name – Best to use a name that your users can relate to if you plan to use templates on your sign up page.
- Blog ID – This is Site ID you located in step 1. In this example the Site ID is 24.
- Template Description – This is the information your users will see on your sign up page if you select either of the options that include displaying the template description.
- What to Copy to New Blog? – These are all the features from the template blog that you want replicate on any site created using this template. For example, if you select Users it will add all existing users from the template blog to the new site.
4. You should now see your new template added to your blog template list.
5. Final step is click on your template name to open it up in edit mode so you can check the advanced option area.
6. Some plugins and themes store settings in their own distinct database tables, making it harder for other plugins to know how to access them. If you are using any plugins or themes that create their own database table you need to select any of their Additional tables you want included in your template and then click Save otherwise it won’t create the full tables needed for them to work properly when the new site is created.
Using Your New Blog Template
New blog template can be used as:
- The default template for all new sites created on your network.
- A template selection when people sign up for a new site on your network.
- A template selection when a super admin user creates a new site in Sites > Add New in the network admin dashboard.
Setting up a default template
Making a template the default template is as simple as:
1. Click on Make Default next to the template you want to use as your default template
2. Now every newly created site will be a replicate of the default template unless an alternative template is selected.
Enabling template selection on your sign up page
1. Go to Settings > Blog Templates in the network admin dashboard.
2. Scroll down to options and select ‘Show template selection on registration’.
3. Select with template option you want to use and click Save Options.
Here’s what each option looks like:
Simple Selection box
Radio-box selection with descriptions
Theme screenshot selection
Theme screenshot selection with titles and description
Customizing Blog Template Selection Options On The Sign-Up Page
The look and feel of the template selector can be customized for your sign up page by copying the files from wp-content/plugins/blogtemplates/blogtemplatesfiles/template to your theme folder and editing them.
The following 4 files need to be copied to your theme folder:
- blog_templates-registration-description.php
- blog_templates-registration-screenshot.php
- blog_templates-registration-screenshot_plus.php
- blog_templates-registration.php
Using template selection in Sites > Add New
1. Go to Sites > Add New in the network admin dashboard.
2. Add the site address, site title, admin email address and select the Template from the template dropdown menu then click Add Site.
