Staff List Questions & Suggestion

Thanks for being so detailed.

1. Yes, an actual featured image has to be added in order to show on the archive page. Twenty Twelve theme allows you to do this. It may be hidden. Try this: on the “Add New Staff” page, click ‘Screen Options‘ on the top right corner. Make sure that ‘Featured Image‘ has a checkmark next to it. If that doesn’t reveal your ‘Set Featured Image’ area, please tell me what theme you’re using so I can look into it.

2. I agree. But this plugin simply adds the staff content and social links into your theme’s own template files. So the code is found in your own theme’s single.php and archive.php (or in content.php, if you are using Twenty Twelve). You’d have to comment it out there.

The reason it’s done this way is that this plugin is actually a backup for people who have used my premium app-themes, and decided to stop using them. My app-themes create the staff custom post type, and have custom template pages for the staff page and staff archive page. They don’t show the regular post info on those pages. This plugin allows them to switch to a regular WP theme while keeping their staff and other custom post types. But the display is up to the theme.

Every theme is different, so this plugin can’t cover all scenarios, but I will cover at least Twenty Twelve theme. I’ll release an update within the next day or so, which will take care of this issue for those using Twenty Twelve theme.

For now, until the update is released, you can do this:

If you’re using Twenty Twelve theme, you can hide the post date info on the Staff single and Staff archive by adding this to your CSS:

body.single-smartest_staff article.smartest_staff footer.entry-meta, body.post-type-archive-smartest_staff article.smartest_staff footer.entry-meta {display:none;}

As far as I know, Twenty Twelve theme doesn’t show “Comments (on/off)” on pages that have no comments, so look inside you’re theme’s single.php and archive.php to find that.

If you’re using a different theme, if you give me a link to your staff page, I’ll take a look and give you a custom solution to hide it in your theme.

Another option, which will completely give you what you want:

For the single staff page, create a template file named single-smartest_staff.php. Copy the code from your single.php and edit as desired.

For the staff archive, create a template file named archive-smartest_staff.php. Copy the code from your archive.php and edit as desired.

3. Excellent idea; thanks. I’ll add a spot for Linkedin in the update within the next day or so.

First, thank you for this plugin. I’m loving it so far.

I do have some questions regarding the Staff page.

Site: https://ckk.pixelwilly.com/staff/
Wordpress Version: 3.5.2
Theme: iFeature Pro 5 v.5.1.0.7 (I am using a child theme)

1) Is there a way to remove the large ‘Archive’ heading on the page?

2) Is there a way to limit the amount of text it shows?
Example: 150 characters then a ‘read more’ link to their actual page.

3) Is there a way to ‘sort’ the Staff entries? The way it is currently working for me, they are shown in order of how we add them.

While initially I could add them in the order I want them to display, it would be an issue when we add someone new since it would throw them up at the top. A sort order would help tremendously. ??

4) Is there a way to add a ‘blurb’ to the page above the Staff list?
Basically, I would like to be able to add an intro type paragraph.

5) Is there a shortcode that could be used instead so it could be set up the way the About Us and Contact Us pages are?

Thank you in advance for your help!

Thank you.

1. I looked at your staff page, and it appears as though the Archive heading is gone. I don’t see it.

2. Yes, when you’re adding the text on the “Staff –> Add New” page, place your cursor where you want the excerpt to end, then click on the “Insert More Tag” icon. That icon should be in the row of icons above the text editor — it’s usually to the left of the “Spellchecker” icon.

3. I went ahead and added the ability to sort staff members. It will be available in the next update, which I’ll try to release by tonight. It will add a box for you to enter an “Order Number” for each staff member.

4. The Staff list is actually just an archive the “staff” post type. If your theme has some action call (look for “add_action”) inside the archive.php file, then it would be easy to insert your intro by hooking onto it. But if it does not, then this is how you can insert stuff above the Staff list:

Drop this into your archive.php file, after the page title, but before the loop:

// show blurb only on staff archive

if( is_post_type_archive('smartest_staff') ){ ?>

    // YOUR BLURB HTML CAN GO HERE
    <div id="staff-blurb">
	<h2>Welcome. This is a blurb.</h2>
    </div>

<? }

// end blurb

Of course, you must edit the 3 lines after “YOUR BLURB HTML CAN GO HERE”.

5. At the moment, there is no shortcode for the Staff, or Services, or News, because they’re simply archive pages. I could add something like that in the future, but I don’t have the time at the moment. Will consider this for future updates. For now, to have a completely custom Staff page, you could create a copy of your archive.php file, and name it archive-smartest_staff.php. Edit as desired to make it look how you like, and this template file would automatically be used to show your staff list.

isabel104,

I found where to remove the ‘Archive’ title code in my theme’s archive.php after I posted. It was one of those ‘duh’ moments. ??

Thank you so much for the quick response and answers to all my questions.
You’re the best!