Product Pages – can we use sidebar widgets

[frankjenex]

We currently use Neighborhood theme and are considering switching to Atelier. Currently we use sidebar widgets, which are necessary to help explain our products: https://thikit.com/product/painted-edge-business-cards/

Can we utilize sidebars with Atelier and, if so, do we have multiple sidebars to create through wp-admin/widgets?

Thank you.

Frank

[Kyle – SUPPORT]

Hi

Yes it is possible to use sidebars the same way you can on Neighborhood 🙂

– Kyle

[frankjenex]

Thanks very much Kyle –

-Frank

[Kyle – SUPPORT]

No problem

[frankjenex]

Kyle – just a follow up question on Atelier. We currently use a 3 column layout for our product pages (widget right sidebar with helpful info for customers). We like the ‘extended product’ page in Atelier – and are wondering if the widget area extends down the full page -or- if there would be any way to have the widget sidebar stop at the bottom of our order form (Add to Cart button) so we can utilize the full width for the Description, Features and “Complete the Look” sections. Hope this makes sense, let us know if anything like this is possible.
Thank you.
-Frank

[Kyle – SUPPORT]

Hi

Unfortunately pages with sidebar will be split in 2 all the way down, it’s quite complex to achieve what you’re asking. While we’d love to be able to support every customisation request, we simply don’t have the time. We recommend that you seek a freelance developer if you need that functionality, potentially from one of the below resources:

https://codeable.io

Home

http://www.microlancer.com

Hope that helps.

– Kyle

[frankjenex]

Kyle – thanks for the info and links to freelance developers (you answered this post a while back).
I have a followup question. Hope this is not too much trouble.
We currently use Neighborhood, with quite a bit of custom css – and through trial and error our wp-admin is a bit of a mess (we taught ourselves woocommerce/wordpress by building this site out). What we would like to do is set up a new version of the site on a different host – using Atelier and rebuild the product pages from scratch in a more clean/organized way. Once it is set up the way we like it, we would then transfer the database to our new hosting package (wp-engine).
My question: is this a bad idea? Some people are telling us that we should just change the theme and make adjustments – but we fear that with all the custom css – it will be too complicated.

Now that we have a better handle on how to work on your page builder – we feel it would benefit us moving forward to start anew.
If you can foresee any signficant issues with this – please let us know.

Thanks so much –
Frank Kiernan

[Kyle – SUPPORT]

Hi

I’d say start from scratch with a fresh install, if you just change the theme to Atelier on your current site, things from Neighborhood may remain which are not needed

– Kyle

[frankjenex]

I have two follow up questions on this thread. We are ready to rework our site using Atelier (currently use Neighborhood). We have migrated to WPEngine and are planning on using the Staging site to build out the new theme. I realize this may be out of your scope of support, but hoping to get some advice.
1. Kyle suggested we start from scratch with a fresh install, which is what we prefer, but wondering how it will affect our google ranking and organic search results. I don’t have much experience with redirects. Should we start completely from scratch and keep track of our more popular page urls so we can set up redirects?

2. The Staging site (http://thikit.staging.wpengine.com/) is set up as a duplicate of our live site (http://thikit.com). WP Engine support suggests we simply remove the wp-content through FTP – but wondering if you can advise on how to wipe the entire staging clean – so we can freshly install Atelier without any residual stuff from Neighborhood site. We don’t mind reuploading all images and recreating all pages – we really do actually prefer it.

Would greatly appreciate any insight you can offer on how to start fresh and clean with Atelier – given the details outlined above.
Thanks so much for the great themes.
Frank

[Kyle – SUPPORT]

Hi

1) I’m afraid I can’t advise you much on this as I am not an SEO expert.

2) Unfortunately you can’t start completely from scratch on WP Engine’s staging server as it’s a copy of your live site, unless you ask them they might wipe it for you so it’s completely fresh. Removing the wp-content folder will only remove the files, all the data stored in the database will remain

– Kyle

[frankjenex]

Thanks Kyle – sorry to ask, but do you have any advice on what is the best way to do what we are looking to do.
Should we just duplicate the site, wipe out all existing Custom CSS, install new theme and work through it page by page – sounds like a nightmare in waiting.

Or – do you think it is possible for us to start a new site, on a new install through our wpengine account (i.e. thikitnew.com) and when we are ready we can just export/import the customer info from our database (assuming we would get a professional developers involved to help with the import/export).

Very sorry to bother you – but just hoping for some professional advice seeing as we want to start anew with Atelier – and don’t mind double work – just want to make sure it is a clean new start with Atelier.

Thanks very much – any advice would be great!
Frank

[Kyle – SUPPORT]

To get a completely fresh install you will need to start from a new wordpress installation, but I’m not sure what you need from your current site so not sure if that’s the best option

– Kyle

[frankjenex]

Last follow up question on this (i realize this is out of scope of your support).

The only items necessary for us to retain are order history (reports) and customer data/user info (passwords, emails etc. so they can still login to our new site) – if we completely lose all the posts, order pages, plugins, etc, that is completely fine -just not sure if we can pull only customer order details without causing problems. Not sure if you have any experience with something like this.

Not sure how other companies change themes – i assume this is somewhat common scenario-

The rebuild will take some time – so once ready we will really need current set of customer data, but not the other stuff.
Thank you Kyle –
-Frank Kiernan

[Rui Guerreiro – SUPPORT]

Hi,

I think you should try to move everything, and after that you can easily bulk delete the posts/pages/products that you don’t need.

Check this plugin, not sure if you already know it

Duplicator – WordPress Migration Plugin

-Rui

[frankjenex]

Thanks for your help and info on all this. I appreciate it very much.
Will set this topic as resolved and if we have any further questions – we will contact you again.
Have a great weekend.