Need help in adding Testimonial Page to WordPress website

[jamesray50]

My website was done in WordPress. There are several menu tabs across the top. I would like to add a Testimonial tab across the top. In my Dashboard there is an item called Testimonials where I can add new testimonials. But I don't know how to get them to show on my website. I have also looked under the menu and I can only add pages to the menu and the testimonial is not listed as a page. The testimonial item has a picture of a pin next to it, which I don't know what that means.

I hope all of this make sense and someone can instruct me on what I can do.

Thanks

[vangogh]

If you look under Appearance > Menus you can add the new page there. You should see your current links on the right side. At the top of that section it will tell you what your menu is named in the system. At the top of the left side of the page there's a drop down to let you select that menu. A little below that should be some checkboxes to choose different pages, which you can then add to that menu.

All of that assumes your theme is using code to allow the above to happen. It may not be. If what I'm describing above doesn't work or it doesn't look like it's showing your current menu then it means your navigation has been hard coded into the theme and you'd need to edit one of your theme files, probably header.php. How you'd edit it would depend on the specifics of how the menu was added.

Let me know if the first option above doesn't work. The second way isn't hard, but it does require some experience working with theme files.

[jamesray50]

If you look under Appearance > Menus you can add the new page there. You should see your current links on the right side. At the top of that section it will tell you what your menu is named in the system. At the top of the left side of the page there's a drop down to let you select that menu. A little below that should be some checkboxes to choose different pages, which you can then add to that menu.

This is what I have been trying to do, but the testimonial page does not show as an option to check. I even tried adding the url to the custom links, but all I get then is the edit pages of the testimonial and not the testimonials themselves. Also I want all the testimonial to show up on one page, I don't want to do a separate page for each testimonial, but I guess it will look like my blogs, where these is a title then a few lines, the the next blog titles and few lines and so forth. Am I right about this? That would be okay.

[vangogh]

I logged into your WordPress admin to take a closer look. I hope you don't mind. I think I understand what's going on now. Your testimonials are created as a custom post type. They aren't part of WordPress by default, but they were set up in your theme. However they weren't set up to connect to the navigation. That's why you don't see testimonials as an option. It was a simple fix. Changing something from false to true in the code, so I went ahead and changed it for you and now the testimonials show up as things you can add to the main menu.

Unfortunately each testimonial shows up as a separate "post" so you'd be adding each individually, which doesn't sound like what you want. What probably needs to happen is for a new page template to be created that's set up to show all your testimonials in one place. Then a new page would be created that uses the new template. I don't think it's anything that would be too difficult, but it would mean developing a new theme file for the page template.

[jamesray50]

I don't mind at all, but I still don't understand how to make it work. I marked all the testimonials and they show up on the right under the Menu on the navigation page. There is also a Testimonial that shows up there. But when I save it and look at my website nothing has changed. I was hoping to have a Testimonial tab and when clicked on the three testimonials on one page. Have I done something wrong to keep that from happening?

[vangogh]

I don't think you've done anything wrong. For some reason your theme isn't accepting the menu. I looked at the files and from what I can tell it should be, but for some reason it isn't working. It's something I'd need to spend an hour or two figuring out and fixing. If you want to send me an email we can talk about it. Unfortunately it doesn't look like something I can fix in a minute or two.

[Harold Mansfield]

If I remember correctly, Testimonials was a native function of that theme and probably just needed to have a page assigned to it in the settings.
Looks like you got it fixed though.

[jamesray50]

Hi Harold, glad to see you back. Actually I didn't get it fixed the way I want it. I thought it would work like the blog post page where I can add a new post or testimonial with a title and body. When I did that for the testimonials, (I had three), they did not all show up on the same page and they did not show up on my website. So I just created a new page called testimonials and added everything in the body of the page. But that is not what I was hoping for. Also, I don't like where it is positioned in the menu, but do not know how to change the order.

[Harold Mansfield]

I'd be more than happy to take a look at it for you. Maybe once I get into the dashboard, I'll start remembering how it was set up.
If worse comes to worse, we can just add a testimonials plug in pretty quickly and easily.

You'll have to drop me an email or PM with your log in information, and I'll look at it in the morning before Meet The Press.

[vangogh]

Harold when I looked at the code it didn't seem like the meaning system was being called. It's in there in the code, but the navigation is just pulling from the pages as they're set up by default. Right now Jo Ellen would either need to create pages for each testimonial or have a testimonial template created that loops through the testimonials and can be used as a template for a single page.

I adjusted things so that the testimonials are available in the Appearance > Menu and think someone just needs to figure out why that menu isn't being used.

[Harold Mansfield]

Harold when I looked at the code it didn't seem like the meaning system was being called. It's in there in the code, but the navigation is just pulling from the pages as they're set up by default. Right now Jo Ellen would either need to create pages for each testimonial or have a testimonial template created that loops through the testimonials and can be used as a template for a single page.

I adjusted things so that the testimonials are available in the Appearance > Menu and think someone just needs to figure out why that menu isn't being used.

I actually looked at it yesterday. I had to log in to remember what was going on when I installed it. It also helped that I still had the DOC's for the theme.

Testimonials (as it pertains to this theme) is not a page function, it's a widget function. By adding them in the post type, it populates them in a widget that fades them in and out in the sidebar.

You were correct in your line of thinking. A page template would have had to have been created in order to make a Testimonials page because it was not there.

Also, on the menu...I noticed that a menu wasn't assigned in the drop down. I just assigned it and now she can organize her main menu as normal.

[vangogh]

Testimonials (as it pertains to this theme) is not a page function, it's a widget function.

Makes sense and usually where you see testimonials. I figured I would see if they could be made to work the way Jo Ellen wanted them to work. I think they would if the wp_nav_menu coded in the header file was actually working and driving the menu. I was able to add the testimonial custom_post_type to that menu with a simple change of a false value to true. However for some reason the dynamic menu isn't the one controlling the main navigation. If we could figure out why and fix that then the testimonials could easily be added to the menu. They would make more sense if there was a default testimonial page, maybe one that linked to the individual testimonials. Then the testimonials could be added as children of that main default page.


Also, on the menu...I noticed that a menu wasn't assigned in the drop down. I just assigned it and now she can organize her main menu as normal.

Aha. I hadn't noticed that. Now the above should work. It shouldn't need a custom page template if the dynamic menu is controlling the main navigation. That menu can accept testimonials.

[Georgias Gifts]

You two guys lost me on all this. But I wanted to say I like the way the testimonials fade on Jo Ellen's site.

[vangogh]

You two guys lost me on all this.

That was our goal. :)