Genesis Starter Theme

A search engine optimized, mobile-first, flexbox-based starter theme for the Genesis Framework with development automation tools. Demo - https://demo.seothemes.com/genesis-starter

Features

Automation

• BrowserSync to inject CSS and reload browser when file changes
• Automatically compile Sass, output minified and non-minifed stylesheets
• Combines CSS rules, selectors and media queries for the smallest minification possible
• Automatically optimizes PNG and JPG images
• Automatically translates theme into POT file
• Automatically minify JavaScript into min directory
• Task for packaging theme into a distribution ZIP file
• Helpful Sass/SCSS partials, variables, mixins and functions included
• Contains POT file for internationalization (i18n)

Scripts & Styles

• 100% mobile-first, flexbox-based CSS
• Pure CSS menu-toggle and sub-menu toggle buttons
• Includes the Genesis Responsive menu script
• Menu's combine into one on smaller screens
• Superfish menu for keyboard navigation and other accessibility enhancements
• Enqueues basic Google Font

Plugins

• Includes TGM Plugin Activation script for recommended plugins
• Full support for WooCommerce
• Only recommends Genesis Connect if WooCommerce is active
• Only loads WooCommerce styles on WooCommerce pages
• Uses Genesis Widget Column Classes for flexible layouts
• Built in support for Simple Social Icons and Gravity Forms plugins
• Removes Gravity Forms and Simple Social Icons default stylesheets
• Adds mobile-first, flexbox Gravity Forms and Simple Social Icons SCSS
• Includes workaround to allow for different styling on multiple Simple Social Icons widgets

Customizer

• Custom Logo instead of Custom Header for better SEO
• Custom Header for uploading a page header background image or YouTube video
• Custom Colors with RGBA/transparency option
• Custom Layout included to easily extend the Genesis page layouts
• Includes CSS minification function to compress all inline CSS output by Customizer

Optimization

• Removes secondary sidebar widget area
• Removes the unnecessary (and discouraged) blog and archive templates
• Removes blog metabox from Genesis theme settings
• Removes all three-column page layouts
• Corrects the site title and logo schema microdata
• Corrects the Front Page 1 widget title schema microdata

Modification

• Reposition child theme stylesheet to a later priority to override plugins
• Reposition primary navigation menu to the header right area
• Reposition the secondary navigation menu after the header
• Reposition footer widgets inside site footer for better semantics
• Reposition page title inside a custom 'page header' section

Templates

• Includes a widgetized, full-width front-page template
• Includes a full-width Page Builder template for use with plugins
• Includes a blank landing page template
• Includes a 404 page template to correct page title (until next Genesis update)

Advanced

• Follows WordPress coding standards and StudioPress best practices
• Accessible skip links and read more links with descriptive screen-reader text
• Additional hooks added before and after Genesis structural wraps
• Includes a function to prevent automatic updates

Recommendations

• PHP > 7.0
• WordPress > 4.8
• Genesis Framework > 2.4
• Node.js > 6.9
• Gulp.js > 3.9

Installation

1. Upload and install Genesis
2. Upload, install and activate Genesis Starter
3. Install and activate recommended plugins
4. Important Delete unwanted existing posts, pages, comments & widgets
5. Import sample.xml from Tools > Import
6. Import widgets.wie from Tools > Widget Importer & Exporter

Renaming

The following instructions require the use of a text editor with search and replace functionality. You will need to perform a search and replace on all files in the theme folder. If using NPM, the theme should be renamed before running npm install. You do not want to edit any files in the node_modules directory.

1. Search and replace genesis-starter with your theme text domain.
2. Search and replace genesis_starter_ with your theme function prefix.
3. Search and replace Genesis Starter with your theme name.

You can also use the Gulp rename task included with the theme.

Customization

1. Go to Appearance > Customize > Site Identity to upload a logo
2. Go to Appearamce > Customize > Header Media to upload hero image or video
3. Go to Appearance > Customize > Menus to create menus
4. Go to Appearance > Customize > Static Front Page and configure to your liking
5. Go to Appearance > Customize > Site Layout and configure to your liking
6. Go to Genesis > Theme Settings to enable Breadcrumbs on pages

Widget Areas

• Header right
• Primary sidebar
• Before footer
• Front page (default 5)
• Footer (default 3)

Structure

theme/  
├── assets/
│   ├── fonts/
│   ├── images/
│   ├── scripts/
│   └── styles/
├── includes/
│   ├── customize.php
│   ├── defaults.php
│   ├── helpers.php
│   └── plugins.php
├── languages/
│   └── genesis-starter.pot
├── templates/
│   ├── page-landing.php
│   └── page-builder.php
├── .editorconfig
├── .gitignore
├── 404.php
├── CHANGELOG.md
├── front-page.php
├── functions.php
├── gulpfile.js
├── languages.pot
├── LICENSE.md
├── package.json
├── README.md
├── screenshot.png
└── style.css

Development

Genesis Starter uses Gulp as a build tool and npm to manage front-end packages.

Install dependencies

From the command line on your host machine, navigate to the theme directory then run npm install:

# @ themes/your-theme-name/
$ npm install

You now have all the necessary dependencies to run the build process.

Build commands

• gulp styles — Compile, autoprefix and minify Sass files.
• gulp scripts — Minify javascript files.
• gulp images — Compress and optimize images.
• gulp watch — Compile assets when file changes are made, start Browsersync
• gulp — (Default task) runs all of the above tasks.

Additional commands

• gulp i18n — Scan the theme and create languages.pot POT file.
• gulp zip — Package theme into zip file for distribution, ignoring node_modules.
• gulp bump - Bumps version number in all files. See options in example below.
  • --major version when you make incompatible API changes
  • --minor version when you add functionality in a backwards-compatible manner
  • --patch version when you make backwards-compatible bug fixes
  • --to allows you to define a custom version number, e.g. gulp bump --to 0.1.0
• gulp rename - Rename theme Title, Text Domain and Function Prefix.
  • --to name for your theme e.g: gulp rename --to your-theme-name

Using Browsersync

To use Browsersync you need to update the proxy URL in gulpfile.js to reflect your local development hostname.

If your local development URL is my-site.dev, update the file to read:

...
  proxy: 'my-site.dev',
...

By default, BrowserSync is configured to use an SSL certificate for local development. If using a Non-HTTPS local site, remove the HTTPS BrowserSync configuration and uncomment the HTTP settings.

Support

Please visit https://seothemes.com/support/ for theme support.

Authors

• Lee Anthony - SEO Themes

See also the list of contributors who participated in this project.

License

This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License - see the LICENSE.md file for details.

Acknowledgments

A shout out to anyone who's code was used:

• Gary Jones
• Tim Jensen
• Craig Watson
• Bill Erickson
• Sridhar Katakam
• Chinmoy Paul
• Nathan Rice
• Calvin Koepke
• Jen Baumann
• Brian Gardner
• Robin Cornett