A blog template in Showit uses unique settings and canvases in order to connect with WordPress to be used as a theme for your blog.
Update 10/22/24: You can now preview your live blog content in your Showit design.
What is a Blog Template?
In Showit, under the left side Site Tab you will see the list of blog templates in the second section. These pages differ in function from the other site pages because they can pull in your blog content that you have created in WordPress. Every site design template from the Showit Library comes with a Blog (Post List) and a Single Post blog template page. Some examples of Blog Template Pages are:
Blog (Post List) - a page that displays a list of your blog posts
Single Post - a template page that will act as the design for your individual blog posts
WordPress Homepage - a homepage for your site that can display blog posts
Category Page - a template page that lists all posts from a select category
Custom Category Page - a template page with a unique layout for a specific category
WordPress 404 - the 404 page for Showit users with a blog
Page Template - a template that can load a page you have created in WordPress
Custom Page - like a normal Showit page, but for loading in blog post content
In this article you'll find details on the following types of settings that make up blog templates in Showit:
How to Assign a Template Type
The WordPress Template drop-down allows you to choose one of the standard WordPress layouts that allow you to choose what you want WordPress to use this page for. When you click on one of your Blog Templates, then choose the Template Info tab in the Properties Panel.
The basic options are in the drop-down along with the option for a custom template that can use the WordPress Template Hierarchy.
Note: The Blog page should be set with the Post List (Default) setting so that it will display a list of your blog posts.
There must be a Post List (Default) blog template that is published to your site in order for your site to publish without error.
Text and Featured Image Placeholders
Blog pages need placeholders in the design in order for the blog to know where to place continually changing content in your layout.
Text placeholders can be set for many different types of content including: Post Title, Post Date, Post Excerpt, Post Content, etc. You can read about all the different kinds of placeholders in this article here:
Add a New Text Placeholder
1) Add a text box to your layout in the position and style format you want it to appear on the blog.
Tip: We suggest including placeholder text inside of the box to see how a post title with a few lines or a post excerpt with a paragraph of text might appear.
2) Assign a placeholder from the Text Properties > WordPress Placeholder setting.
3) Adjust Overflow. For most placeholders, the text inside of the box will get replaced by the blog content when it's live on your blog. If the content is longer than your placeholder the text will wrap based upon the width of the text box. In some cases, you may decide to adjust the Text Overflow settings to Crop the text or set to display a Single Line.
Add a Featured Image Placeholder
Most photographers want a featured image shown for each blog post. To display that image from the post you can add any image to your design and then assign it as a featured image.
Add an image to your layout.
Make sure the image is placed in a canvas set with the WordPress Canvas Type: In Post Loop.
Select your image and under the settings check the box WordPress Featured Image.
Types of WordPress Canvases
WordPress template pages include an additional canvas setting that helps define the type of post content that your placeholders within a canvas will can populate with. There are four different types of WordPress Canvases:
Static Content
In Post Loop
Next Post Start
Posts View Lookup
You can find more information about these WordPress canvas types and what they do in this article here:
Canvas Settings for Growing Content
Since your design is created to hold post content that will dynamically change depending on the post it is displaying, your design must also be set up to flex based upon the information that gets placed into your design.
Grow With Content Canvas Type
This canvas setting will allow the canvas to automatically expand its height to accommodate the content that is being loaded into placeholders. This is especially useful for canvases containing placeholders like Post Title, Post Excerpt, Post Content, Comments, Comment Form, Next/Previous Post.
Tip: This setting is independent for Mobile and Desktop layouts so be sure to check the setting on both.
If a canvas is growing with content you may also make use of Vertical Locking if an object needs to remain at the bottom of a canvas.