Building Your Shambhala Website

This page shows you how to use the following new features on your website.  Wordpress calls these features, widgets,  so we will use that term from now on. Also, should you feel completely overwhelmed and baffled after reading this page, please visit the FAQ page or have your say on our 2.0 New Website Support Forum.

Okay, let’s begin…

This page shows you how to use the following shambhala widgets:

  1. Featured Programs
  2. Recurring Programs
  3. Program Categories
  4. Program Misc.(calendar links)

 

 

Shambhala Widgets

We have built a few widgets to help your site connect to the SDB (Shambhala Database).  They are found in the Appearance-Widgets tab in the back end of your site.

 1. Featured Programs

This widget will allow you to showcase featured programs on various pages on your website.  All your programs are in the SDB and your new website will show all of these programs on your website’s programs page in a listing.  But you may want to show featured programs on other places on your site (like the sidebar or the home page) and with this little handy widget you can do just that!

First you will need to make sure that you have programs featured in your SDB.  In the SDB go to edit a program and make sure to scroll down and check this box.

Once you have ticked this feature box on a few programs in the SDB, then you will be able to use this widget on your website.  To use it, drag the widget into any sidebar (back on your new site) and then customize the widget to display the programs in the style that you like.

As you can see you can change the title, show as many programs as you like in a list sytle, and you can also make the programs into a fading slideshow.  Also try adding this widget into the homepage top and bottom areas to see it larger.

Smaller as a list:

 

Larger:

 

2.Recurring Programs

This widget will show a list of recurring programs on your website.  Recurring programs are also listed in the SDB and if you recall, these are programs that happen frequently and are treated differently than one time porograms.  Examples of recurring programs are ‘Monday night open house’ or ‘Thursday night dharma”.  This is a good widget to place in the sidebar on your programs page.

You will be able to show individual upcoming program dates or the names of the recurring programs themselves.  Play with it to see what you can do. Note that if you have images associated with these recurring programs in the SDB, they will show up here.

What you will see on your site:

 

 

3. Program Categories

This widget places a list of clickable program categories on your website.

What you will see on your site:

 

4. Program Misc.

This widget makes links to your regional programs and your monthly calendar.  This is a great widget for your programs side bar.

What you will see on your site: