Free CMS Worpdress Theme with Roundabout Homepage – Rotary
Simple, elegant, classy – just a few words that describe Rotary WordPress Theme. Turn your website into a full blown CMS with this beautiful design. The homepage features a carousel of post images, a testimonial section and a latest posts area. Ideal for hobbyists, companies and the traditional blogger.
The custom home page template features a large carousel right above the fold. Each item in the carousel is a custom post type – when clicked, leads to the full content. Fully widgetized, WP menu system, threaded comments – this WordPress theme is a prime solution for your next web project.
Below is a screenshot of Rotary’s homepage. The roundabout carousel sits right on the fold – with images that are pulled straight from your post thumbnails. Click to view the Rotary Demo page:
Custom Post Type
You like that carousel / slider in the home page? Well that is due to the amazing code known as the roundabout by Fred LeBlanc. You can easily change the contents of this carousel in two ways:
In the left hand side of the admin area you will notice a section called “Roundabouts”. Simply add a new roundabout and give it a title, some content and attach a “feature image”.
The images are automatically resized to the right dimensions. Also – you’re only allowed up to 5 roundabouts.
2) Change the static code
If you decide you don’t want to use the custom post type feature – you can simply change the HTML. Inside home.php you will see an unordered list with each item as follows:
; ?>/images/586x360.jpg)
Simply replace the values of your images, title and link and you’re set to go.
The Navigation Menu
This by far is my favorite 3.0 feature – custom menus. It’s simply amazing. I’ve added the code to Rotary that lets you design the main navigation of the theme.
Simply drag and drop items to the menu builder and save.
Feature Images
Just like the roundabout items – all posts in this theme can have its own feature image. Simply use the “Set feature Image” option for each post:
This image will show as thumbnails in the archive pages, and a medium photo inside the single page template:
Additional documentation can be found from this series of posts. Download the file from here. Please don’t forget to let us know what you think in the comments area below.
Hi..i just downloaded this theme and i would like to put my logo in the left upper corner. I am a total newbie to WP and can’t seem to find where i would do that. Thanks for help in advance!!!
Nice blog! Is your theme custom made or did you download
it from somewhere? A theme like yours with a few simple tweeks would really make my blog stand out.
Please let me know where you got your theme. Kudos
I just upgraded WordPress to 3.3.2 and all the roundabouts are all left justified and in a column. Do you have a fix for this? Update?
I purchased Rotary last August and I’d like to download it again. How can I do that?
Smashing theme by the way 🙂
email me mks6804@gmail.com and I’ll send you the file
Hi,
Where do I change the text of testimonials and who we are?
very thanks,
Carlos.
that section will have to be edited in the html. go to appearance > editor > below-ra.php = you should see the code in the editor.
Hello,
I recently bought this theme and have applied it. It’s great, except for one thing, when clicking on the left & right Roundabout images, some will go to another image (clicking on the left image will go to the right image.) Some work fine, but some don’t. I’m not sure why. Here is the site: http://www.raincitycatering.com/
I did add Brian’s Autoplay Javascript, so there might be the issue, but I don’t know javascript enough to figure out what is causing this issue.
Thanks for any help.
try taking out the autoplay script. then add it again line by line. use tools like firebug and console.log to debug.
I just purchased the Rotary WP Theme and so far, I am very impressed. However, being relatively new to WP, I did have one question.
How can I change the header background from the default to a solid color? Also, is there a way to add a logo image instead of the default text?
Thanks!
You would have to edit the html and css.
new to wordpress, and just downloaded this theme. I cant seem to get the roundabout to work – all I get is ‘Oops. Sorry – That page isn’t available…’. I have
1) Created a new roundabout with a featured image and nothing seems to work – even when I view roundabout. Is there somewhere the roundabout is meant to go?
Try setting up 3-4 roundabouts.
When I upload the zipped file through the theme directory in WordPress 3.3, it doesn’t recognized the style.css file as that. Also, I’m using PeaZip to re-compress and it created the style file as style.css.css
Thank you for a great theme. I am actually using it to create a website for my neighbors bakery that she is starting and it is going to be her Christmas present…
But my question is… How do I activate and use the links
“About, Contact Us, Bookmark this Site, Subscribe to RSS” which are located on the sidebar of all of my pages?
It should be in the sidebar.php. You have to edit the HTML.
Hello, Love the theme – but as I am a noob to wp i have a couple of questions.
1) I have added 2 roundabouts (Title, content, Image) but only one shows up on the homepage?
2) Where do i find the place to change the Testimonial Text, who are we? and the blog post?
Would be great if you could help 🙂
Thanks
1) the roundabouts are in the page (its just one on top of the other). add a couple more and you’ll see
2) I believe the testimonial / who we are sections are in home.php – go to appearance > editor > select “home.php” in the right side
*need to know a bit of html.
3) the posts are automatically filled with your posts.
Hi, Is this theme updated to work with the newest version of WordPress?
yes. latest is 3.2
How can I have the sidebar on the front page also?
Great theme! thanks!
a) how do I disable the breadcrumbs on the pages?
b) how do I stop the photos in the roundabout from linking to a page?
c) if I wanted to remove the search bar how much of the code would I need to remove?
THANKS!
1) open index.php – find the call to the function “dimox breadcrums”
2) that would require some careful html editing. you need to open home.php – look at the section where the roundabout is and take out the anchor tags surrounding the image
3) the search bar – that should be in header.php. i usually wrap it inside a div called “searchform” or something.
I’ll admit to being a wordpress dummy! How do I actually get the ’roundabouts’ to do what I need them to? I just need to put up perhaps 6 or 7 pages. And I’d like each of the ‘slides’ to go to one of the specific pages.
Any help would be great. Thanks!
Does your theme work on WordPress 3.2 ? Are you thinking about an update? 🙂
My prior post didn’t retain the formatting. This is a hybrid hack job of Andy’s code and the original code in the theme. It adds AutoPlay and retains the original formatting (*not tested in all browsers*)
Replace all of the javascript at the bottom of home.php with the code on this page: http://snipt.org/xoRm
thank you Brian for the code.
I got the slider to animate automatically while retaining the text. It’s a hybrid of the default and Andy’s post.
I haven’t tested it in all browsers and I’m not a programmer either. This is a total hack job but I hope that it works for you as well.
Andy, the part you mentioned about the layout breaking was likely due to the minScale being set to .3 … I changed that to 1.
<script type="text/javascript" src="/scripts/jquery.easing.1.3.js”>
var interval;
jQuery(‘#roundabout ul’).css(“visibility”,”visible”).roundabout({
minOpacity: 1,
minScale: 1,
//easing: ‘easeInBack’,
duration: 1500,
reflect: true,
startingChild: 0,
btnNext: ‘#nextRound’,
btnPrev: ‘#previousRound’
}).hover(function() {
clearInterval(interval);
},function() {
interval = startAutoPlay();
});
interval = startAutoPlay();
function startAutoPlay() {
return setInterval(function() {
jQuery(‘#roundabout ul’).roundabout_animateToNextChild();
}, 5000);
};
//
Also, trying to use the menu-builder but it’s not actually creating a drop-down menu
Trying to change the main web title font with TTFTitles plugin… can’t find the code where I need to do that, and also can’t find where to delete/change ‘just another wordpress site’
help?
Thanks
Wow, this is a neat theme and that too for free 🙂
Thanks!
Hi Michael
Love the theme, but can’t seem to get past the error below. I took a look at line 96, but can’t seem to find anything that looks like it doesn’t belong.
any ideas?
Warning: Cannot modify header information – headers already sent by (output started at xxx/wp-content/themes/rotary/functions.php:96) in xxx/wp-login.php on line 353
Hi Rupie,
The cannot modify header information error is common to php – especially for unwanted blank spaces. try switching to another theme and going back to rotary.
Thanks so much for the awesome theme! Is there a way to change the little thumbnail images on the main page by “latest blog posts” at the bottom? What about the little images for “testimonials” and “About us”? Thanks!
the square thumbnails are from the post thumbnails. the rest – edit the html in home.php
what feature ive got? fshare tshare? anything about social plugin?
its look like no longer free 🙁
This theme is one of the best on the market for business.
I’d like to know that as well, the autorotate function!
look for Andy’s code (above)
Hah! The part to look for in “home.php” got left out somehow.
Look around line 43. Replace the 3rd with what’s written in the comment above. It’s the directly below this :
<script type="text/javascript" src="/scripts/jquery.easing.1.3.js”>
Sorry for clogging up the comments.
Andy
Thank you Andy. Many people are looking for this functionality.
Something is not working when i try it. Did you changed the whole:
//
with your code? Or mayby just one line from this chunk of code?
Hey all…
Sorry about the way late reply. I’m guessing I didn’t click the “notify me of follow-up comments” bit.
I’m not a programmer – I know enough to break a lot of things…but was able to find some workarounds from other bits of code online.
As such – I can’t remember how I did this or what I changed – but it is working on my site (which is in maintenance mode right now pending a re-launch this week).
I’ve dropped the home.php file into a .txt file that you can take a look at. If you have any questions…you’re welcome to ask, but I can’t guarantee I’ll have any idea what you’re talking about 😉
Have a great day everyone!
http://www.andyfrew.ca/code/home.php.txt
Thank you for posting this Andy! I was able to get mine to autorotate by copying and pasting the code from the file you linked to.
Got the roundabout working with autorotate. Took a few times to get it going without throwing the whole layout off.
The only functionality that I couldn’t get to work properly was the title/continue link directly below the roundabout…so I removed it and will just make sure all the pertinent info is in the actual image in the roundabout.
If you’re up for it, try replacing the following bit in “home.php” :
//
With THIS :
var interval;
jQuery(‘#roundabout ul’).css(“visibility”,”visible”).roundabout({
minOpacity: 1,
minScale: 0.3,
//easing: ‘easeInBack’,
duration: 1500,
reflect: true,
startingChild: 0,
btnNext: ‘#nextRound’,
btnPrev: ‘#previousRound’
}).hover(function() {
clearInterval(interval);
},function() {
interval = startAutoPlay();
});
interval = startAutoPlay();
function startAutoPlay() {
return setInterval(function() {
jQuery(‘#roundabout ul’).roundabout_animateToNextChild();
}, 5000);
};
ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS save a copy of the older code so that you can fix it if you don’t like what happens. Made WAY too many mistakes like that in my time.
This theme is going to go live on my church’s site sometime in early August. Really looking forward to using it. Great theme.
VERY interested in the autorotate for the roundabout. This would be a VERY helpful feature. Love the theme!
Hello, what is the trick for activating autorotate in roundabouts? I know it can be done (i’ve add some messy code – roundabouts autorotate, but layout is completly ruined). What is the dedicated (working and clean) code for autorotate in roundabout? Please help 🙂
And last question, I promise…I would like to add left/right arrows or some type of indicator so people realize to scroll. I read through the info from the Roundabout website, but saw no mention of indicators. Besides adding them directly to the image, are there any other options?
Thanks again!
Sorry a second post…Back on Sept18, someone asked about creating a page with all his blog posts; you answered with: “that can be achieved by creating a special template…” Can you elaborate more on this? For example, is this something easily done within this template? Or really I have to code a special page?
Thanks
http://codex.wordpress.org/Pages#Creating_Your_Own_Page_Templates
Hi, great template. I cleaned up the URL with /%postname%/ and it worked fine, but the roundabouts URL are something like http://www.sitename/roundabouts/postname…Is there a way to remove the roundabouts from the URL? I am only intermediate on WP, so sorry if this is a silly question. Thanks in advance for your reply!
-Gabe
it is needed for the custom post types.
Hi,
I bought this theme yesterday for our company site but for some reason I can’t customize anything except the content. The web guy says there’s code embedded that won’t let me change anything. Help?
Any solution for the white screen of death yet? I have created a website using this theme which btw is great and easy to use but cannot log in the admin anymore because it produces a white screen of a death. I remade the entire website and the same thing happened. I don’t want to have to do it a third time.
ive seen this happen but not with one of my themes. try this – access your db using phpmyadmin. look into the wp_options table, template field – and delete the value. this will reset back to twentyten theme.
thanks for that. It only seems to happen with your theme others have worked out. Thanks for the solution I was able to export the content now trying a different theme. Great design though I wish it could have worked for me
Hi there!
Love the theme and cant wait to get into it.
However I try and activate and it keep coming up with activation failed….
Any tips on how to overcome this?
Cheers
Ok Michael, sorry for the premature post. As Murphy’s Law would have it I have somehow got it working!
which comment system plugin you using for this ? 😛
the default wp comments
Hello there…. love the theme; once I get it up and running. Had a few challenges, and was able to work through them thanks to some of your posts above. I am stuck on the “Who We are” section below. I did see how to change the text. However, how do I change the continue button? I want to link to a page that will expand on the who we are?
Hi,
Can you please tell me how I can change the background color of the roundabouts? Right now it’s a kind of faded grey color.
How can I change the Site Title? I wanted to use an image instead of text but can’t seem to find the file it’s in. HELP! Thanks.
Ok, every time I’ve posted a question here I figure it out shortly after I ask… yes… I’m lame. But yay for figuring it out on my own. Thanks again for the awesome stuff you make 🙂
on the front page, the text for Testimonials. and Who we are – how can that be changed? probably simple, just can’t figure that out….
First of all, thanks for the awesome theme!
I’m trying to add a logo on the top left to replace the text one. Doing so breaks the navigation bar and shifts it either up or down from its original position. Any ideas on how I can add a logo?
I can’t seem to get the roundabout to work – I think the images are not resizing right, any ideas?
I figured out the problem, cforms plugin was messing with it. Am torn, I use cforms for some data acquisition but have spent a bit of time messing with this theme… Any suggestions on how to fix the problem?
Hello,
How to exceed the limitation of 5 images (menu) in the roundabouts menu ?
I am completely lost….
Beforehand thank you;)
Hi,
I find your theme great! however got some problems with roundabouts… It doesnt work. Im also newbie, so have no idea what could it be. could you help?
Hello michael and thank you for the free rotary…
I would like to ask you some things.
1. i want to put a audio player plugin in order to play and stay in the right of the header(because the header is the only that doesnt changes).. is it possible?
2. in every roundabout i would like to put an image gallery(like yours in blue rooster theme photo gallery) in order not to scroll down to see all the pics.. is it possible?
Please let me know.. thank you very much, donlee
Very nice dude. Love the colors and layout. Thanks a bunch for sharing.
Hello!! I absolutely love this theme! Very easy to use and adjust the code. I do a have question though regarding the Roundabout. Is there a way to make the pictures move automatically? Thanks ahead of time! Happy Holidays!
Wonderful theme, congratulations, I was surprised with the quality of this theme, would love to translate it into Portuguese br, is this possible?
If possible could you send me the file so I can translate and send back to you?
Again congratulations, great job!
I will make a donation soon.
This Template is pretty charming design really beautiful Well done worth the hours spent on it
Great work, nice design, thanks!
First of all, thanks for making so much of your work available. It’s really outstanding stuff.
I’m trying to use a custom page template with this theme, but can’t seem to find the area where you select it for the life of me. Am I missing something?
custom page template would have to be created, then it will show up in the page template selection
Wow, I must have been really out of it last night. It’s working fine now that I’m doing it right.
Any chance to get the roundabout auto spinning?
I’m having an issue with the custom menu. I’m able to add all the elements I want, but the drop down loads behind the roundabout, making it impossible to see.
Anyone else having this issue? I see that the demo screenshot doesn’t have this problem, so hopefully it is an easy fix.
Thanks for the awesome theme. This is such a phenomenal resource.
I am having a problem with the permalinks. When I change it to a custom permalink %postname%, the roundabouts do not show as in the pages saying it is not available, but regular posts are fine. When I leave it on the default it works. How can I change it to the custom and still have it work?
Hi Christina
you need to flush the permalinks structure. go to “permalinks” and click “save” at least 2x.
oh nevermind, I figured them both out.
hi cindy,
can you offer any advice as to how to change or remove the testimonials and who we are text?
thanks,
pati
better yet – login to your wordpress admin panel, under appearance, click on “editor”. on the right hand side – click on “below-ra.php” – you should see the contents of that file in the editor. you will notice the text “The standard chunk of Lorem Ipsum…” is what you edit.
Michael, ok here is what I did this morning. I renamed the function.php file, tested and everything was great. Then I started pasting in one function and test, then another and another. As I was doing this I happen to notice a space or blank line between each function. I did not think this would cause a problem however the moment I took that line out the file worked. Just for my own education does that sound odd?
Yes – that was the cause of the issue Gregg. I’ve update the theme files with the new functions.php.
How/or where do I change the information on the bottom where it says testimonials, who we are and latest posts? Also is there a way to change the background color to one solid color including the header?
I’ve just downloaded the theme within the past couple of days, and when I try activate it, I also get the white screen of death. The error line reads:
Call to undefined function register_nav_menus() in /home/[directory name snipped]wp-content/themes/rotary/functions.php on line 47
Since you said you’d already updated the function.php file with the changes you spoke about with Gregg, any idea why this might still be happening?
make sure you’re running wordpress 3.0 and above.
Like your new theme but I am having a problem. When I activate the theme and then go change a post or just about anything in the admin area the screen goes white. I then have to ftp in and delete the Rotary theme so that it defaults to the twentyten. I have tried several other themes and have not had this happen. Do you have any idea what might cause this? Thanks for the help.
Some users experience the same issue. Others don’t – let me look into it again. I’ll keep you posted.
Thanks Michael! I have tried all the basic things that cause the white screen of death, but no luck.
Hi,
I like your theme so much. Though, I do not find how to use the right column inside pages of the theme, text (about, contact us, mark this site, rss)doesnt lead to any page or anything ether.
Any tip?
Many thanks.
i was being lazy and didn’t put any value for those links. You’d have to enter yourself. Sorry.
This theme truly kicks ass! And the best part… it’s FREE!
Amazing theme mate!!
I wonder if I can use this bloody piece of art on a client project? I’ll be pleased to donate even if I don’t used any of your themes (and leave the credit link also).
Tough question, i know
Awesome theme, I’m wondering is there a way to make the roundabout advance automatically? Thanks for the great theme, I will send you a donation as soon as I can.
yep i’d love that too!
wonderfull themes, i will use it, thanks so much brother n_n
Hello Michael, Amazing theme!
I’m just editing it and getting it nice and stable to my needs.
The roundabout feature is not working even with more than one post. Any tips or knowledge you can share? It’s probably something really simple that I’m missing.
Thanks, James!
Sorry for commenting again;
Also at the bottom of blog posts were page links and your credit is based, the seems to be aligning left in a crumpled untidy manor any idea’s on this?
I am also looking to make a page with all the blog posts, any word on how this can be achieved?
Thanks for your time, James
the page links are meant to float left across from the credits. what browser are you using?
a page with all the blog posts – that can be achieved by creating a special template…
Ok thanks for the help!
Chrome and I just tested on Safari. The credit is also floating left:
http://newordermanagement.com/archives/226
That’s not the theme. That is most likely caused by a div that’s left unclosed. Check the sidebar you modified.
the roundabout will not show until you have 3 or more posts. add another one and you’ll see what i mean.
Beautiful theme!. Sir, is there any way to change the background color to white or to a clearer one? Thanks!!
sorry, im a complete newbie.. how do i chnage the testimonials / who we are text on the main page ? is there a support page for this template that im missing ?
thanks a zillion in advance !
Hi Kuly,
You go into “below-ra.php” and edit the html.
Hi Michael,
Can you clarify how to go to “below-ra.php”?
Thanks,
Pati
to take out the testimonials – you have to manually edit the file called “below-ra.php”.
open this file with any html editor – and you should see the text that is hard coded “Lorem Ipsum…”
why does the demo crash on the ipad?
Amazing theme:)
Is there any way to add full width page ?
No automated way to do it. you can edit the css code.
Nice theme. Also i like homepage roundabout.
Good design. Good work. Thank you.
Nice work…One of the best free wp themes out there!
Tell your wife I said thank you for letting you stare endlessly at a computer screen 🙂 Looks great!
A great theme ..RT 🙂 i will like to learn more about the Roundabouts ..
loox greAt!
😉