Note: Because of size limitation, this post is spread over two posts, makes sure to read both
Having recently gone through the process of converting a couple of weaver II sites to Xtreme using Weaver New convertion plugin, I thought I would share what I think is a good approach to the process.
I think it will help you to read the whole document first, as well as visit the Xtreme demo site(http://demo.weavertheme.com/ ) to get some global visibility and ideas before starting the process.
1) Preparation
a- Database backup
First Download a full backup of your site including the database. There is really no risk in the conversion process, but some of it involves making permanent changes in the database so you are always better safe than sorry.
b- Settings file
Within the Admin of your Weaver II site, go to save restore, and click on Download ALL settings (w2b file). You will need this file for the conversion, and it will also be a good backup to keep in case you did need to restore the weaver II site.
c- Widgets
One thing WordPress messes up when switching theme are widgets. You should go in Appearance > Widgets, open each widget area and take a note of what widgets are in each of them.
d- Shortcode content
Until Weavers Shorctode conversion plugin is done, gather content from things like Social icons, Link Buttons, Shortcoder…
e- Theme and Plugins
- In Appearance > Theme > Add new, Search for Weaver Xtreme, and Install the theme. Do Not Activate yet.
- In Plugins > Add New, Search For Weaver X Theme Support, and install the Weaver X Theme support plugin. Do Not Activate yet.
- If you bought the “Plus” Plugin, in Plugins > Add New , Download and install the “Plus” Plugin Zip file you downloaded for the site you bought it from. Do Not Activate yet.
- In Plugin, Search for “weaver-ii-to-weaver-xtreme”, Download, install AND activate it
- You should also download and install the plugin “Search and Replace” although you may not need it depending on the final features of the converter.
2) Converting Settings
A- First read through the Plugin Help page in Tools > Weaver Converter > Help (from the main WordPress left menu bar)
B- Then in the Main Plugin page Tools > Weaver Converter > Conversion option section, you can browse to the w2b setting file you just downloaded, and click "Upload convert theme/backup" to convert the setting file.
After the conversion is done, you get a detailed list of the conversion result. That lists will also be available after you have transitioned to Xtreme.
Note 1: The Setting conversion does not do anything to your site, it just creates a New Xtreme Setting file that you can then download and use once you will have activated Xtreme.
C- Next click "Download" to actually download the Xtreme setting file.
Note 2: The next section of the converter is the “Convert Per Page and Per Post Settings “. This section will actually modify your pages options to match Xtreme. Once you do that your site may no longer be displaying correctly with the Weaver II theme.
So If you cannot disturb your site long enough to complete all the process in one go, my advice is to delay that step until you will have finalized all the settings for Xtreme.
While you finalize the settings for Xtreme, you will be able to go back to Weaver II at any time and have your site undisturbed. When you switch back to Weaver II (pro) it automatically loads the Weaver II settings and everything looks the way it used to.
This allows you to take your time with the settings conversion, by activating Xtreme, working on the settings, then going back to Weaver II so the site can still be viewed normally until you have time to work on the conversion some more.
3) Configuring Xtreme Settings
IMPORTANT: At any point during this process, you can go back and activate Weaver II (Pro) to check how things where under the old theme, them come back and activate Xtreme to implement a change.
a- Loading converted settings
• In Appearance > Theme, Activate the Xtreme Theme. As you do that, realize your site will no longer look correct, so do that at an appropriate time.
Note: If your site should not be disturbed, you should clone your site in a sub folder or sub domain, and execute this whole process on the cloned site first. This would allow you to finalize all the settings for the Xtreme theme without disturbing your live site, and only apply these to the live site when you have worked out all the details. If you need help with cloning your site, read the article on the subject in the FAQ http://weavertheme.com/migrate-your-site-to-new-domain-name-or-new-server/
• Then in Plugins, activate the following plugins:
o Weaver X Theme Support
o “Plus” if you have it. If you do, after activating the plugin, also activate the “Plus” License in Appearance > + Xtreme plus > Activate
• In Appearance > Theme Options > Main Options > Save/Restore > Upload settings from file saved on your computer, Browse to the converted Xtreme setting file you downloaded previously after conversion, and click “Upload Theme backup”
This will load all the converted settings.
Note: You site probably still looks like a mess, don’t worry and read on.
b- Fixing WordPress settings
When you switch theme you lose WordPress settings, so you need to redo these manually
- Reselect your header image if you had one previously selected
- Reset your overall background image if you had use WP to do that in Weaver II
- Move your widgets back in their proper location.
The biggest mess after switching theme, is that widgets sometimes end up all over the place. You need to go to Appearance > Widgets, and move your widgets back to where they were. Some will have been moved to a different area, some will be in the unused area. Use your notes to know which one goes where.
As sidebar and other widget areas are different in Xtreme, You may need to experiment with some new choices. The biggest change may be with sidebar widgets. Xtreme has only two Sidebar widget areas, primary and secondary, that are stacked up. If you used side by side widget areas layout in Weaver II, you may need to put widgets from two weaver II sidebar widget areas in the same one under Xtreme, then use the Sidebar widget layout options to make them side by side.
c- Finalizing settings changes manually
Note: By now things should start looking better but there are still a number of things to finalize manually
1- Sidebar layouts
As explained above, you will need to reselect global sidebar layouts in Main Options > Sidebar &Layout. Don’t worry about per page layout settings for now. Note the new mobile stacking choices and take advantage of them.2- Menus
Your custom menus will still be there, but they probably wont be allocated to primary, secondary. Go to Appearance > Menus >Manage Locations, and reselect the right menus. Note, there is now a mini menu you can allocate too.3- Fonts.
These are handled differently in Xtreme, so you need to go in each page under Main options, and select the proper font family for each area, as well as eventually adjust the size settings. If you used google fonts, you will have to set them up in Main options > Fonts & Custom.4- Colors
Because some areas are different in Xtreme, you may need to set some colors here and there5- Custom CSS
If you had a lot of extra customization, this will be the major part of the work.
Custom CSS Rules in Options CSS+ Boxes will most likely be fine.
Custom CSS rules in Main Options > Fonts & Custom > Custom CSS Rule box will have to all be examined one by one to see if they are still relevant and have the right syntax.
Hopefully you had commented your custom CSS rules so you will know what each one is for. If not you will need to do some inspection with your browser developer tool For each rule there will be 3 possibilities
- The rule still works and still does something that is needed: Just keep it
- The rule does not work because its syntax no longer matches Xtreme and what it did is missing :
You first need to inspect if there is now a new option in Xtreme that can do that for you. If so use the new option(s) and delete the rule.
If there is no option(s) do to the job, you need to figure out the new syntax / selectors to use (we can help with that).
- The rule does not work, and what it did is no longer an issue > Just delete the rule.What I found out, is that most of the tweaking rules I had in Weaver II ended up being unnecessary in Xtreme. A number of the valid rules I had did have a new option in Xtreme that I could use. All an all my Custom CSS went way down on Xtreme.
Note: This would be a good time to go to Main Options > Save Restore > Click Save Settings (to back up your Xtreme settings in the database)
6- Customized layouts using HTML Insertion areas and widget areas (header / footer).
If you had built very customized header/footer using HTML Insertion and widget areas, you may need to revisit how it was done in the light of the new tools and areas in Xtreme. Review the Insertion area page of the demo site http://demo.weavertheme.com/insertion-areas/ and the other ones to gather Xtreme layout ideas/solutions, and eventually reproduce your design using the new tools.
Other thread that may be useful:
http://forum.weavertheme.com/discussion/11124/full-width-designs
http://forum.weavertheme.com/discussion/10344/index-for-the-weaver-xtreme-tips-and-tutorials-threadsAt this point your site should mostly be there, exception for Per Page options and Shortcode related content.
As mentioned previously so far, you can switch back to Weaver II (Pro) and be back exactly where you were. The next steps will be final as they will implement changes in your pages / posts and content, that will no longer be compatible with Weaver II.
So if you are ready to finalize the switch go to the next step.
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