Auberge WordPress Theme User Manual

Thank you and congratulations for using Auberge theme by WebMan Design!

This user manual will teach you how to set up and use the theme. In case you have any questions that are beyond the scope of this documentation, please join WebMan Design support forum.

Enjoy your Auberge WordPress theme!

WordPress

WordPress is free open source CMS software for creating websites. It can scale with your needs when you're ready to grow and is easy to learn with many free and low-cost tutorials. You can learn more about WordPress at wordpress.org.

What is a theme?

A WordPress theme changes the way your site looks and affects the style of the content displayed on it. WordPress themes are built so you can change your site's design without losing content. As you are reading a user manual for a WordPress theme and it requires WordPress to run, let's install it first.

Installing WordPress

You can run WordPress locally on your computer, or install and use it on your web hosting account (what kind of web hosting should you use?).

Securing WordPress

You can improve your WordPress installation security taking these steps:

  • Set the security keys in wp-config.php file.
  • Do not use admin as user name and set strong passwords!
  • After installation is done, remove wp-admin/install.php file.
  • Keep backups of the database and WordPress files.
  • Keep your WordPress installation, plugins and themes up to date!
  • Strengthen security further with additional specialized plugins.

Tutorials

Beginner tutorials, resources for first steps with WordPress:

Websites & Articles:

Videos:

Theme Installation

Important: Theme requirements

Auberge requires at least WordPress 4.8 and PHP 5.6 to work properly. Please make sure to meet the requirements.

Appearance → Themes → Add New → Upload Theme → Install Now → Activate
  1. Download the theme ZIP file from the marketplace.
  2. Log into your WordPress admin.
  3. In WordPress dashboard navigate to Appearance → Themes and click the Add New button next to "Themes" page title.
  4. On "Add Themes" screen click the Upload Theme button next to page title.
  5. On the next screen choose the theme ZIP file you've downloaded in step 1 above and click the Install Now button.
  6. When the theme is installed, activate it by clicking the "Activate" link.
  7. Now you can go to Appearance → Welcome page for information on how to set up your website and the theme.
    Also, please pay special attention to your website image sizes setup.

Tip: Welcome page

Don't forget to check the theme welcome page at Appearance → Welcome. It contains everything you need to start.

Tip: Get info about updates

Get fast information about new theme updates by subscribing to WebMan Design on Facebook and X (Twitter).

Theme Updates

You will be notified in the WordPress admin each time a new updated theme version is available. Install the update following instructions below.

Tip: Info on social networks

If there is a specific procedure required during update, this will be shared on the Facebook and X (Twitter) pages.

Important: Back up your website

To keep things safe please consider backing up your website and database before doing any updates to your website.

Manual Theme Update

Download the theme ZIP package from where you've obtained it originally. Then follow the steps below:

Updating via WordPress dashboard

A simple way of doing a manual theme update is deleting and reinstalling the theme directly via WordPress dashboard. You can read an article or watch a video on how to do this.

Updating via FTP

This is more advanced manual update procedure and you will need an FTP client (such as FileZilla) to connect to your server:

  1. Download the newest theme ZIP file from where you've obtained it and unpack the ZIP file on your computer.
  2. Now you will need an FTP client to connect to your server.
  3. On your server navigate to WORDPRESS_FOLDER/wp-content/themes/ folder.
  4. Delete the existing auberge folder (or create a backup just in case - you can do this simply by renaming the folder name by appending .backup to its name so it becomes auberge.backup, for example).
  5. Copy the unpacked theme auberge folder from your computer (from step 1 above) into WORDPRESS_FOLDER/wp-content/themes/ folder on your server.
  6. Log into your WordPress admin area and check the version of the theme in Appearance → Themes. Your theme should be updated now. (And you can delete the auberge.backup folder from step 4 above.)

Content: Demo

The theme allows you to import a demo content, which matches theme demo website. Then you can simply change the imported demo content to your needs and build your website faster that way.

Before you import the theme demo content, please check these important notes:

Tip: Delete leftovers

Theme demo contains a lot of pages. You will certainly end up not using most of them. In that case it is strongly recommended to delete the leftover demo content you no longer need from your website. It improves your website performance and relevance.

Important: Install on fresh WordPress

It is recommended to install demo content on empty, fresh WordPress site. (If you are testing the theme on a computer and not your live website, you can always reset WordPress to a fresh state.

Warning: Images and media quality

Please understand that demo images, audio and video files are of low quality. This is to prevent any copyright infringement. You should replace them with your own, properly licensed media that fit your website project.

Recommended: Classic widgets interface

WordPress 5.8 introduced a new block-based interface to widgets and sidebars management screen. Theme demo content was built using the classic widgets interface, so it is highly recommended to install and activate Classic Widgets plugin to retrieve the classic WordPress widgets interface again.

Warning: Page builder compatibility

If you want to use a page builder, please understand that if the theme demo content was not built with your page builder, you will not be able to edit the imported demo pages.

→ Read knowledge base article for more info.

And now, for detailed instructions about importing theme demo content please visit demo content repository at GitHub (where it is kept up to date).

Content: Pages

Setting Up Home and Blog Page

  1. Navigate to Appearance → Customize → Homepage Settings (or you can also do this at Settings → Reading).

  2. For "Your homepage displays" option set "A static page".

  3. Select your homepage and posts page from the dropdown lists. Posts page becomes your blog page.

Templates

Auberge theme supports WordPress page/post templates functionality and contains selection of predefined templates for you (see the list below).

Setting up template in editor
Setting up template in editor
Illustrative image. May not represent this actual theme.
"Fullwidth page"

By default, all the pages display with a sidebar. However, if you would like to display a page full width, with no sidebar, use this page template. It is useful template for page builder pages.

Do not forget to set up your custom H1 heading in this case.

"Food menu"

Use this page template to display a whole food menu of your restaurant, or just a specific section (with its subsections). Please note that you need to have Jetpack plugin installed and activated to use Food Menu functionality.

Also, please note that each food menu section title will get linked to the corresponding archive page. You can disable this linking in "Food Menu" section of the theme customizer.

Front page

If you set up a static front page, a specially styled condensed posts section and a food menu section will be displayed on the page.

You can set a position or disable these sections in "Layout" section of the theme customizer.

Content: Posts

Excerpt

Excerpt will be displayed in posts list. If no excerpt is set, a portion of post content will take its place.

Adding/editing excerpt field
Adding/editing excerpt field
Illustrative image. May not represent this actual theme.

Archive Page Title

By default WordPress displays a caption in the archive page title (such as "Category:" in front of a category name). Use Archive Title plugin to hide these labels.

Table of Contents on Parted Post

If you are setting up a multipage post (using a "Page break" button in visual editor, or <!–nextpage–> tag in "Text" tab of visual editor), the automatic table of contents will be generated for the post/page for you.

All you need to do is to set up a post parts titles at the top of each post part (so, immediately after <!–nextpage–> tag) with H2 heading.

Plus only Setting Up a Post Format

On the post edit screen you can choose a post format supported in the theme:

Standard post

This is basic standard blog post layout.

Audio post

Displays audio player to play your audio files. Could be used for Podcasting.

To set the audio, use an [audio] (or [playlist]) shortcode in the content. The first [audio] ([playlist]) shortcode will be used in post media area in posts list display, including the post featured image.

If no [audio] or [playlist] shortcode used, but oembed media URL found, this media will be displayed instead of the featured image in posts lists display.

Gallery post

Just add a [gallery] shortcode anywhere in the content. The first [gallery] shortcode images (3 of them) are used as a preview in posts list display.

Image post

On single post page it acts like standard post, in posts list it displays an image, post title and "Excerpt" field content which can be used as a brief image info.

Link post

Enhances any links in the post content. No post title is displayed.

Quote post

Displays the post content as blockquote (any blockquotes in the content will be removed and replaced with single wrapping blockquote).

Use <cite> to set the quote source, or set the quote_source custom field, or the post title will be used as quote source. No post title and featured image is displayed.

Status post

A short status update, similar to a X/Twitter status update. The whole post content is displayed without excerpt and post title. If no featured image set, the post author avatar is used.

Video post

Displays a video player to play your video files. Could be used for video blogging.

To set a video, use a [video] (or [playlist]) shortcode in the content. The first [video] ([playlist]) shortcode will be used in post media area in posts list display.

If no [video] or [playlist] shortcode used, but oembed media URL found, this media will be displayed instead of the featured image in posts list display.

Supports also [wpvideo] shortcode when using Jetpack plugin.

Content: Food Menu

This custom post type is provided via Jetpack plugin.

Food Menus custom posts are used to display food menu of your restaurant website.

If the food menu item contains any content, the link will direct visitors to view the food menu item page. If you don't set the post content for the food menu item, the link will display full size of the food menu item featured image.

Food menu will be displayed without featured images on your website front page and in full, with featured images, on a "Food menu" page template.

You can use nested food menu sections with this theme (such as create a main section of Drinks and then create a child sections of Cocktails, Beverages,...). However, on your website front page, the food menu will be generated from your main food menu sections. If you would like to display each main section with list of subsections, use a "Food menu" page template and specify the food menu section displayed on the page, or link the food menu section archive page(s) in your website navigation.

Content: Recipes

Plus only This functionality is available via WebMan Amplifier plugin and works only with Plus version of the theme.

This is an extension for the standard posts and Food Menu posts.

If you want to display a recipe on a post or Food Menu item page, just set the recipe setup boxes on post edit page in WordPress dashboard. The required field to set for the recipe to display is "Instrucions" - if this field is not set up, recipe won't display on the post page.

Each recipe setup field is self explanatory or contains a description to help you understand what it does and how it displays.

Ingredients are being stored as WordPress taxonomy (similar to tags), so, for example, you can even display them in a tag cloud on your website. When you start typing the ingredient name, the stored ingredient names will be suggested to you, otherwise, if the system doesn't recognize the new ingredient name, it will store it for future reference.

Customization: Menus & Navigation

Navigational menus for your website can be created at Appearance → Menus. They may contain links to pages, categories, custom links or other content. You can specify a custom menu item label, as well as other attributes.

Display menus on your website by assigning them to a predefined theme menu location. The theme defines these menu locations for you:

Primary Menu

The main navigation area in the header of the website, can be nested and hierarchically organized.

Social Links Menu

Please read the "Social Links" documentation section below for more info.

Create a Menu

Follow the instructions in WordPress documentation for how to create a menu.

Tip: Add a post type archive link

You can add any custom post type archive link into your menu:

Adding custom post type archive link to menu.
Adding custom post type archive link to menu.
Illustrative image. May not represent this actual theme.

Customization: Social Links

Social icons linked to your social network profiles can be displayed anywhere on the website. But beforehand you must create and set up a social links menu:

  1. Go to Appearance → Menus in the WordPress admin.
  2. Click create a new menu link.
  3. Give the menu a name, such as "Social Menu".
  4. Click Create Menu button.
  5. Click the Custom Links header on the left side of the page.
  6. Type a link (such as https://www.facebook.com/webmandesigneu/) in the URL field.
  7. Give the link a label by typing in the Link Text field. (This label text will be accessibly hidden.)
  8. Click Add to Menu.
  9. Repeat the above steps for additional social links.
  10. In the Menu Settings section at the bottom, check the "Social Links" box for Theme locations.
  11. Click Save Menu button.

Adding your social links as a custom menu allows you to sort your profiles and add as many as you want. Once you assign a social links menu this way, feel free to use a Navigation Menu widget to display it in sidebars of your website.

The theme displays icons as SVG images. For full list of supported icons please refer to assets/images/svg folder of your theme.

For links starting with mailto: an envelope icon is applied. For unrecognized links a link chain icon is used.

Social sharing buttons

If you want to add a social sharing buttons to your website to allow your visitors to share your content, please consider enabling the Sharing module of Jetpack plugin, or use different dedicated plugin.

Customization: Theme Options

Auberge seamlessly integrates its options into live preview customizer. You can set up your site's title, tagline and logo, home and blog page, manage menus and widgets, customize colors, layout, typography and others.

Customizer can be accessed at Appearance → Customize. All the changes you make in Customizer will be immediately displayed in the preview, but they will be made live only after you press the Publish button.

At Appearance → Customize → Theme Options panel you'll find theme-specific options. Check them out to get familiar with theme customization capabilities.

Tip: More options with Plus

Plus only With premium version of the theme you get more options to control the theme's appearance and functionality.

Localization

Every WordPress theme contains some texts that need to be translated into your language if you are building a non-English website. This theme if fully translation ready.

To enable your language in the WordPress website, please switch WordPress into the desired language localization.

Tip: Adding languages into WordPress

Check out tutorial on how to install WordPress in your language.

How to Translate a Theme

Method 1: Using Poedit software

  1. Make a copy of the original auberge/languages/auberge.pot file.

  2. Rename the copied file now: add hyphen followed with your language code locale, and change the file extension to "po". For example, the British English file would be named auberge-en_GB.po.

  3. Use Poedit to translate the file and export (save) translation in "mo" file format.

  4. Upload translated auberge-en_GB.mo and auberge-en_GB.po file into your WordPress languages directory, into themes folder (such as /wp-content/languages/themes/auberge-en_GB.mo (if the themes folder does not exist in your WordPress languages directory, create it).

Warning: Don't lose your files!

When you update the theme, all custom translation files will be deleted from /wp-content/themes/auberge/languages folder. Do not put your custom translation files into that folder! Basically, you should never modify the actual theme files and folders.

Methos 2: Translating in WordPress admin

If you would like to translate the theme directly in your WordPress dashboard you need to use a specialized plugin. Check out Loco Translate plugin and instructions on how to use it at beginner's guide and technical overview.

Translate Plugins Too!

Your website is built with WordPress system itself, a theme and some plugins.

There is a high chance that WordPress itself is already translated into your language. So, you don't have to translate it on your own. You have also learned how to translate the theme above. But what about plugins and their texts?

If you are lucky, your plugin contains your language translations already and you don't have to do anything. But if you need to translate a plugin, the best advice is to check the plugin's documentation for the best approach.

Alternatively you can also use Loco Translate plugin (again) to translate your plugins directly in your WordPress admin area.

Share Your Translation

If you would like to help out translating the theme, please contribute your translations at WebMan Design support forum by submitting a ZIP package of your .po and .mo translation files in a new support ticket attachment. Thank you!

Plugins

Recommended plugins | Useful plugins

Why do you need to use plugins when you expected the theme to have all the functionality in it? Well, according to WordPress guidelines and generally the best practice: themes are meant for presentational purpose only, while plugins provide website functionality.

The reason for this is that when you decide to update your website looks you simply change a theme without loosing your website content and additional functionality such as eCommerce or portfolio.

This theme follows this WordPress philosophy and you can rest assured your site is as future-proof as possible. No lock-in effect with WebMan Design themes!

Info: Compatibility

The theme does not need any plugin to work properly. It is coded responsibly and flexibly enough so it should be compatible with any decently coded 3rd party plugin.

However, please understand there are thousands of plugins available for WordPress and it is not humanly possible to test them all. Feel free to use your plugin and in case of an issue contact support for help.

Recommended Plugins

Theme provides code and/or design integration for certain plugins. You will find these plugins in recommendations list below. They provide additional functionality for your website or improve your and your visitor's experience.

Please note that these are only recommended, suggested plugins, they are not required for the theme to work. Always read the plugin description before installing a plugin and install only those plugins you will use on your website.

Appearance → Install Plugins
Plugins recommendation page example: Recommended, not required
Plugins recommendation page example: Recommended, not required
Illustrative image. May not represent this actual theme.

Warning: Demo content required plugins

List of plugins the theme recommends may differ from plugins that are required when installing demo content. Check the demo content information for more details.

Here is a list of plugins that were successfully tested with the theme and the theme even provides additional integration layer for them:

Useful Plugins

With this theme you can use whatever plugins you like (check out compatibility info above). Here is a selection of some useful plugins:

Advanced Custom Fields (ACF)
Add custom fields, content types (custom post types) and taxonomies to your website. With paid version of the plugin you can also create custom blocks.
Archive Title
Removes archive page title labels.
Block Editor For WooCommerce
If using WooCommerce, this plugin allows you to create product description content with block editor.
Block Visibility
Allows controlling visibility of WordPress blocks.
Breadcrumbs NavXT
Create a perfect SEO friendly and flexible breadcrumbs navigation.
Custom Post Type Editor
Allows you to rename any post type.
Disable Comments
Disables comments site-wide per post type.
Icon Block
Allows you to add custom SVG icons and graphics to the WordPress block editor.
Imsanity
Automatically downsizes huge images during upload.
Intuitive Custom Post Order
For easier posts (and other post types) order management.
iThemes Security
Enhances your website security.
Meta Field Block
Display a meta field as a block on the front-end, supporting ACF fields.
Nested Pages
Provides drag and drop interface for managing pages and posts.
Ninja Forms
For creating forms.
Page Links To
Allows you to redirect a post or a page to a custom URL.
Polylang
Easy to use plugin for creating multilingual websites.
Post Type Archive Descriptions
Manages description (displayed on archive pages) for any post type.
Rename Taxonomies
Allows to rename taxonomies, such as "Tags" to "Topics", for example.
Social Sharing Block
Allows you to add social share icons to your website..
WPCode
Insert custom code snippets to your site.
WS Form
For creating mobile friendly, accessible forms.
NS Featured Posts
Marking your posts as featured ones creates a banner slideshow on your front page.
Restaurant Reservations
Accept restaurant reservations and table bookings online. Quickly confirm or reject bookings, send email notifications, set booking times and more.

FAQ & Tips

  1. Why are uploaded images blurry or small
  2. SEO - Search Engine Optimization
  3. How to speed up a website
  4. How to add custom CSS
  5. Breadcrumbs navigation
  6. Custom fields
  1. Why are uploaded images blurry or small

    Settings → Media → "Recommended image sizes" info

    The theme requires certain minimal image dimensions for optimal display. Info about recommended image size setup can be found at Settings → Media.

    Tip: Regenerate images

    Once you set correct image sizes, all your newly uploaded images will get processed with new settings. But for the images already uploaded to your website you need to use additional plugin to refresh their sizes. Regenerate Thumbnails plugin (or similar) will do the trick.

    Tip: File size optimization

    It is recommended to use an image optimization plugin to keep the file size of images uploaded to your server under control.

    ↑ Back to questions list

  2. SEO - Search Engine Optimization

    This theme is coded semantically, with the best SEO practices in mind.

    You can push your SEO performance even further with help of additional plugins such as Yoast SEO. You can also integrate support for microformats.

    ↑ Back to questions list

  3. How to speed up a website

    Having a performant website is a must. It makes your website more SEO friendly and most importantly pleasing for your visitors, more accessible. This theme was coded with performance in mind but we can always take things even further:

    Use a good host

    A good hosting for your website is very important choice you can make towards a speedy website. Depending on your location it is also advised to use a host that has servers in your country or at least on the same continent.

    Check out Siteground (a very good personal experience), or have a look at WordPress hosting recommendation page.

    Optimize your images, video and audio files

    You should always keep the file size of your website media as low as possible. Prepare images before you upload them to your website: compress them, reduce their dimensions, maybe even crop them. Use plugins to optimize further more.

    In case of video and audio files set the optimal compression and formats before uploading them to your site. Consider also using services such as Vimeo, YouTube or SoundCloud to host your files off your servers.

    Also consider using a CDN service.

    Enable caching

    A basic browser caching and GZIP compression is a must!

    But you will get better results using a dedicated solutions such as WP Rocket or WP Super Cache or SiteGround Optimizer. Or maybe your hosting provider applies some sort of caching already? Check with them.

    Warning: Minify & combine

    Your caching solution may provide CSS and JS files minification and combination. Be cautious though: these are complex processes which may cause errors on your website. Test thoroughly!

    Tip: Measure performance

    For measuring your website performance and tips on how to improve it use services such as GTmetrix, Pingdom Tools and WebPageTest.

    ↑ Back to questions list

  4. How to add custom CSS

    Appearance → Customize → Additional CSS

    Add your custom CSS code into Appearance → Customize → Additional CSS, or alternatively into your child theme's style.css file.

    ↑ Back to questions list

  5. The theme supports Breadcrumb NavXT plugin that allows very flexible set up and display of breadcrumbs navigation on your website. After you install and activate the plugin, the theme displays the breadcrumbs navigation above and below the page content.

    Here is some tip for setting up your breadcrumbs display:

    Settings → Breadcrumb NavXT → General → "Breadcrumbs Separator"
    Set to <span class="sep"> / </span>.
    Settings → Breadcrumb NavXT → General → "Home Template"
    Settings → Breadcrumb NavXT → General → "Home Template (Unlinked)"
    Prepend the existing text with <span class="breadcrumbs-title">You are here: </span>.

    ↑ Back to questions list

  6. Custom fields

    To allow more control over pages and posts appearance, the theme uses some predefined custom fields. Here is the list of the fields explained:

    food_menu_section

    Set this field on "Food menu" page template only to a value of a food menu section ID. Once set, the specific food menu section is displayed on the page instead of the whole menu.

    banner_text

    Set this on featured posts or on your front page (if you are using static banner instead of slideshow). This text will override the default text displayed in your website front page banner.

    Plus only quote_source

    Set this on Quote post formats only to customizer quote source.

    ↑ Back to questions list

Modifications

Warning: Limited support

This topic is meant for WordPress developers who would like to modify the theme and WordPress functionality.

Please understand that we do not provide support for custom code modifications, though.

Use a Child Theme/Plugin

If you need to make coding changes to the theme or WordPress itself, use child theming functionality, or even more flexible "child theme" plugin solution.

This way you can update the parent (original) Auberge theme without worrying about your custom code getting overwritten and lost. Your code is kept safe in your child theme/plugin.

Tip: Read more about child themes in WordPress documentation.

CSS code

Put your custom CSS code into style.css file.

PHP code

Modify functionality of the theme and/or WordPress via functions.php file. Use action and filter hooks.

"Child theme" plugin

For more flexible approach that works with any type of theme (classic or FSE block theme), or for cases when you can't use a child theme, we have created a free "Child Theme" Plugin for you.

Info: Is using a "child theme" plugin better?

Using "child theme" plugin is mostly beneficial when you use a block theme (full site editing theme) for some time already and then you decide you need to modify something with code.

If you plan to provide means for future code modifications right from the start use a child theme, even with a block parent theme.


More technical details

Full site editing block theme compatibility with WordPress child themes concept is limited. This is due to Site Editor user-modifications being stored in WordPress database. It causes issues when you decide to use a child theme afterwards, because all of these database records are bound to a specific (parent) theme name.

Copying modified Site Editor options and layouts so they work with a child theme is more complicated process. Though, this complication is solved elegantly using a "child theme" plugin.

The plugin works the same way as classic child theme would - you can use it anytime, even after you've already made custom changes in Site Editor, and it involves less code in comparison to a child theme.

A downside of the plugin may be overriding parent theme templates with code:

Sample child theme/plugin

Download a free child theme or plugin from WebMan Design GitHub repository. Don't forget to check the information in the repository for how to set them up.

Tip: Theme from Envato Market?

If you've obtained the theme from Envato Market, there is a high chance that a dedicated child theme is already included in the package you've downloaded from the marketplace.

Check out your files. Or download a sample child theme from the aforementioned repository.

Hooks: Actions and Filters

The theme provides multiple useful action and filter hooks, which can alter its functionality. Check the theme's source code for hook references: simply search for do_action and/or apply_filters. Or contact support for help.

Auberge theme uses Theme Hook Alliance (THA) hooks too. This is useful to rebuild theme structure or add your custom sections anywhere.