For the Table of Contents:

Use the Auto Table of Contents template, which will bring up the category descriptions on the side if you’ve enabled that in the Theme Settings:

To add page numbers, make sure you have the Bulk Description Update plugin installed & activated, then just open that up under the Posts Menu and type in the page numbers.

What else?

We would like to offer the option to display category descriptions either on the front page or on the category archives, where you might want to link to ebook chapters or other default content.

We do not have this option setup as a choice in the current theme, but may work on this in the future or invite others to contribute customizations in this area.

• An image of my book: (do you have the image file?)
• A list of links (to the author’s profiles, related content, etc.)
• Recent or featured posts in the header
• A short block of text (for publication information, etc.)

Creating a dynamic table of contents using hierarchical categories is the most important step for the setup. You will need 3 things to do this quickly:

1. Get an accurate electronic copy of the Table of Contents (Word, preferably, or a PDF if necessary) from the author or publisher.
2. Download our handout to learn how to use find & replace and tables to convert it to the format needed for step 3: Table of Contents – Import Instructions (note – this is a very detailed document, but it shows how you can use Microsoft Office to convert a long, complicated PDF TOC to the format needed for the plugin)
3. Install and/or Activate the “Category Import” plugin – paste converted TOC into the menu there and you’re done!

Common options:

• Header Image
• Turning on custom Widgets
• Some themes allow you to customize the layout, colors, and fonts too

Our Supplement child theme includes one layout template and two coded templates:

1. Full-Width, no sidebar
2. Archives
3. Auto Table of Contents

The full-width template is included from the “Toolbox” framework theme and only removes the sidebar. It does not automatically load any content unless you add it to the page.

The coded templates appear blank unless they are viewed in preview mode or published to the site.

Archives:

This template links to code from two plugins and will not work properly unless those plugins are installed and turned on:

• Feedburner Feedsmith Extend
• wp-ajax-tree

It displays all of the categories in a simple list that can be expanded when you have a complicated hierarchy tree entered. It also includes links to the feeds for each section, and, if you create Feedburner links to each one and add the e-mail subscription, it can show that link as well.

Auto Table of Contents:

This template shows the categories fully as an indented list and can also show page numbers if you’ve entered them in the category description field.

You can easily edit the category descriptions to include page numbers by using our custom plugin:

• Bulk Description Update
• (Note: this plugin is available on Classcaster or by contacting ebarney@kentlaw.iit.edu – not listed in WordPress directory at this time)

Plugins are installed, then activated. There is a separate menu in WordPress to manage plugins, but it may be hidden for some users depending on permissions. Many plugins create new menus to let you input information or adjust settings. These menus

What skills are required?

• Installing plugins from the Dashboard requires administrative access to your WordPress site (Elmer handles all plugin installations in Classcaster)
• Creating plugins requires familiarity with php and wordpress core functions, especially if you are adding new features. The WordPress Codex offers good information about the basic functions.

Creating your own theme (or a “child theme” based on another template) allows you to completely control the design and layout of your site, from basics like colors and fonts to extras like settings and templates.

What skills are required?

• A child theme can be as simple as one css stylesheet in a folder in your WordPress site.
• You can use the wordpress codex to learn about the basic php functions and create new page templates.
• If you’re very comfortable with php, you can also add all kinds of extra functions and setup options.

Our Custom Theme:

Supplement Child Theme

This is a “child” theme for the “Toolbox” framework created by automattic. It is not available in the themes directory, but you can select it from the Classcaster appearance menu or contact ebarney@kentlaw.iit.edu if you want to get the files directly.

Chicago-Kent Library Technology Group

This is where the bulk of our time and energy has gone in creating this project – but our work makes the process much easier for you, especially if you use Classcaster, where our files are already installed and ready for you to turn on.  

• Design: Install, Edit, or create your own Themes
• Plugins: automate tasks, add new features
• Templates: adding page templates within a theme can build on basic features
• Functions: We built our own theme settings

(Quick link: Skip to Setup)

Here are the same links that I listed in the RSS Subscriptions page, with the e-mail subscription option added to the link:

• Subscribe to Casebooks Unbound by Email
• Subscribe to Casebooks Unbound » Questions by Email
• Subscribe to Casebooks Unbound » Background by Email

In the setup portion of this site, I’m including a handout for the Feedburner setup process and notes about using the Feedburner Feedsmith Extend plugin to replace the RSS links on your site.

If you want to edit your own code, you can even automatically including the e-mail links (this may require more code editing if you don’t use our theme)

…a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format.[2] An RSS document (which is called a “feed”, “web feed”,[3] or “channel”) includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship.

Because WordPress was created as a blog platform, RSS feeds are built in, not only for the whole site but also for your different features and through your organization. For instance, for this site, here are some of the built-in feeds:

• http://emilybarney.classcaster.net/feed/
• http://emilybarney.classcaster.net/questions/feed/
• http://emilybarney.classcaster.net/category/background/feed/

Besides reading these updates, RSS can also be used to integrate updates across other sites – you could show this in a widget in the sidebar on another WordPress site, add them to a LibGuide, post to a Facebook Page’s notes, etc.

I recommend using Google’s Feedburner service to “clean up” and extend these basic feeds, especially for the next step, which allows users to sign up for e-mail updates.  Here is what the links above look like after being optimized in feedburner:

• http://feeds.feedburner.com/CALI-casebooks
• http://feeds.feedburner.com/CALI-casebooks/questions
• http://feeds.feedburner.com/CALI-casebooks/background