Introduction
Activity is a premium WordPress theme ideal for escape rooms booking, immersive virtual reality games, interactive activities, private museums & galleries and other entertainment experiences.
It comes with a powerful and flexible booking system with online payment processing, e-commerce functionality, creative design, is translation ready with RTL support and much more!
Theme Installation
With your purchase of this theme, the first step is to download the package from ThemeForest. Move your mouse over your ThemeForest Login name in the right top corner and click Download. You will see the number of items purchased, along with the package’s content, as shown in the following diagrams.
Next, click Download > All files & documentation next to the Activity Booking theme and save the package on your computer.
The download includes documentation, license, sample content and zipped file with the Activity Booking WordPress theme. Unpack the entire package after downloading.
Uploading your theme
Before you can complete the installation, make certain you have unpacked the entire package. You can complete the installation in either of two ways:
Upload via FTP:
- Firstly, unzip the zip file you downloaded from ThemeForest to a directory on your computer.
- Locate an archive named activity.zip which is your installable WordPress theme file.
- Unzip this archive and upload the Activity folder to your server via ftp to the /wp-content/themes/ directory inside your Wordpress installation.
- Go to Dashboard > Appearance > Themes and activate the newly installed theme.
Installation via WordPress
- Navigate to Dashboard > Appearance > Themes.
- Click the Add New button on top of the page, then the Upload Theme button.
- Click Choose File and find the theme files you’ve just downloaded.
If you’ve downloaded the installable WordPress file, then you do not need to unzip the file.
If you’ve downloaded All files and documentation, you have to unzip the master Activity_Booking_WP_theme.zip file, therein you will see a secondary activity.zip file, this is the one you select to install.
- Once the file has uploaded, go to Dashboard > Appearance > Themes and click the Activate button.
- Once you activate the theme, you’ll find a prompt to install required plugins which we will cover in the next chapter.
“Are You Sure You Want To Do This? / The link you followed has expired.”
If you get this message when installing the theme via WordPress, it means you have an upload file size limit that is set by your host. If this happens, please install the theme via FTP or contact your hosting company and ask them to increase the limit.
Plugin activation
After theme activation a prompt to install required plugins will appear in your dashboard. If you have dismissed the notice you can access the page by navigating to Dashboard > Activity > Plugins.
Installing and activating any of the recommended plugins is optional, however it is recommended that you first install and activate these plugins before starting the sample content import. That will ensure the demo content for that plugin is imported.
Importing the demo content
Important
It is recommended to do the 1 click import on fresh installations only. In order to quickly clean up your WordPress installation, use a reset plugin.
It is advised against running the 1 click import on live (production) site. It is best to do this on a test environment.
Please note that one click import can take a while, so be patient and allow it 5 - 15 minutes to do its job.
Important
Please note the import tool will have a limited functionality if you have renamed your theme to something other than "Activity".
- Install and activate the Activity WordPress theme and all recommended plugins before you import demo content
- Go to Appearance > Import Demo Data and select the demo you wish to import and click the Import button.
Mixing styles + If 1 click import fails or if there are parts missing (styles for example)
If you want to apply only styles of a specific demo website, without loading the content, manual import is the way to do it. Manual import is also useful when you are unable to run the entire one click import due to too low php limits on your server or some other reason, but there is no need to worry, you can still get it all by following these steps:
- Go to Appearance > Import Demo Data.
- Click the Switch to manual import!
- You will be presented a new screen from where you can manually import content, widgets and customizer styles. You can find these files inside the SampleData folder.
Instructions for importing individual pages are located here.
First steps
After the import is complete you should have all the posts and pages from the demo.
There are certain things the importer tool can not do, so make sure you do the following:
- Go to Settings > Reading and under "Front page displays" select A static page and select your home and blog pages. Save settings.
- Go to Settings > Permalinks and configure your permalinks structure (Select Post name). Save settings.
Layout & Styling
With innovative WordPress Live Customizer you will be able to style your WordPress website in real time. Lots of options will make it a breeze for you to modify the structure and the visuals of the Activity theme, including colors, typography, layouts and pretty much anything else you want to change.
Listed below are just a few of the options you have with the Live Customizer. There are over 80 settings available to edit.
Also note that these are global settings. They can also be further adjusted and/or overriden when using the Elementor page builder when editing your content.
You can edit general styles such as links color, spacing etc. via Appearance > Customize > General.
You can set a website background via Appearance > Customize > Background.
You can edit website typography via Appearance > Customize > Fonts.
You can edit buttons via Appearance > Customize > Buttons.
You can edit form styles via Appearance > Customize > Form elements.
You can set widget styles via Appearance > Customize > Widgets.
The list is quite extensive, so please go to your Live Customizer and click around.
Elementor Page Builder
Elementor is the World's Leading WordPress Page Builder. It is certainly the most intutive and most popular.
You can find all video tutorials, documentation and more here.
Pro features are not required to run your website as it is shown on the demos.
Elementor Templates
- When editing a page with Elementor, click the Add Template From Library icon to add a Page template, Block, or your own Saved template from the editing screen.
- Here you can also Preview a template before inserting.
- Click INSERT to select the required template.
- Click the arrow in the top right corner to upload other .json templates from the SampleData\Elementor folder.
- You can also use several free templates from the Template Library.
Saving Pages as Templates
- Click the green button located at the bottom of the panel
- Choose Save Template
- Give a name to your template and save.
Individual Demo Settings
Here is a list of demo specifics that cannot be imported and have to be redone manually in order to get the exact replicate of the demos All of these settings are completely optional.
Bowling
Media Settings
Image sizes are set to the following dimensions:
Thumbnail size: 400x300
Medium size: 1170x600
Large size: 1170x900
Elementor Settings
Via Elementor > Settings, in the Styles tab, Content Width is set to 1180px. Other settings are kept as default.
Escape Rooms
Media Settings
Image sizes are set to the following dimensions:
Thumbnail size: 650x520
Medium size: 1170x500
Large size: 1920x500
Elementor Settings
Via Elementor > Settings, in the Styles tab, Content Width is set to 1190px. Other settings are kept as default.
Virtual Reality
Media Settings
Image sizes are set to the following dimensions:
Thumbnail size: 900x400
Medium size: 900x600
Large size: 1200x500
Elementor Settings
Via Elementor > Settings, in the Styles tab, Content Width is set to 1190px. Other settings are kept as default.
Museum & Gallery
Media Settings
Image sizes are set to the following dimensions:
Thumbnail size: 600x600
Medium size: 900x600
Large size: 1240x800
Elementor Settings
Via Elementor > Settings, in the Styles tab, Content Width is set to 1190px. Other settings are kept as default.
Content editing
Your WordPress site’s back-end or “administration area” is where content creation and editing happens. The default location for your back end is http://yourWebsite.com/wp-admin (replace “yourWebsite.com” with the address of your website).
After logging in you’ll see the administration dashboard and a left-column menu.
Content is organized under Pages, Posts, and so on.
For creating a page, click Pages or sub-menu All Pages to see a list of existing pages. Click sub-menu Add New to create a new page. Use the same procedure for any other content type.
WordPress Gutenberg
Gutenberg is available as part of WordPress 5.0 and later. It is a new content editor, created by the WordPress team. The Classic Editor plugin allows users to switch back to the previous editor if needed.
WordPress Classic editor
There are two modes for editing WordPress content: Text and Visual.
Visual mode is an approximation of how published content will appear and includes formatting buttons for bold, italic, strikethru, and more.
The far right button, Toolbar Toggle, shows an additional row of buttons. Highlight content and press a button to apply that style to the selection. Feel free to play around with these controls - you can’t break anything, and you can always delete or not save your expirements.
Text mode shows all the HTML code that controls layout, styles, media resources, etc.
Elementor Page Builder
Elementor Page Builder allows you easily build any type of layout on any page. It is an intuitive Drag and Drop WordPress editor and requires no coding skills.
More information and instructions about the Elementor Page Builder can be found here.
Page templates
To select/change the page template of your page, go to Pages > All pages and open your page in Edit mode. Locate the Page attributes box that can be found on the right hand side of your Dashboard and select the desired page template from the drop down list and hit the Publish button.
All page templates have a Sidebar selection setting, where you can select the page layout: No sidebars, right sidebar, left sidebar or dual sidebar (left and right).
Activity theme supports a number of sidebars. Their usage is optional. They include the following:
- Header sidebar: shows inside the header area in some headers.
- Left sidebar: shows on the left side of the content.
- Right sidebar: shows on the right side of the content.
- Above footer sidebar: shows above the footer on every page. It also has its own styling options at Appearance > Customize > Widget Styles.
- Footer sidebar: for creating the website footer. It also has its own styling options at Appearance > Customize > Footer.
Sidebar layouts
All wide sidebars (above footer, footer) allow you to set your own basic layout.
To set a desired sidebar layout, take the following steps:
- Go to Dashboard > Appearance > Customize and click the Sidebars menu
- Select the sidebar you want to edit
- Select the desired column layout
Activity includes a wide array of custom widgets in addition to the default WordPress widgets. All widgets are found in the Appearance > Widgets tab in your Dashboard.
There are various customization options and fields for each individual widget, and they are all self explanatory. You can put as many widgets as you want inside of a widget area.
How to add widgets to sidebars (widget areas)
- Navigate to the Appearance > Widgets tab to access the list of widgets and widget areas. The left hand side shows all the widgets you can use. The right hand side shows all the different widget areas you can add widgets to.
- Simply drag and drop the widget you'd like to add into your chosen widget area on the right hand side.
- To rearrange widgets in a widget area, just drag and drop the widgets into the order you'd like.
- Expand settings of the widget to see its settings and options.
- When finished, make sure to click the Save button in the widget editing box to save your changes.
Activity custom widgets
- Address Widget: is used to display the company details (name, email, phone number, address).
- Call to Action Widget: displays text with a button
- Post List Widget: displays a list of posts. Various display and filtering options are also available.
You can also use these widgets with Elementor and include them anywhere on your site.
Widget styling options
At Appearance > Customize > Widget Styles you can adjust widget styles: backgrounds, colors etc.
Image settings
Important
Generally speaking, image sizes will be unique to your own site setup. There is never a "perfect size" for all sites, it depends on many factors and is unique to each person's site.
Below is a general guide on how to gauge how big or small your images should be to fit your website, as well as to look crisp and high definition on your viewer's screens. The size of your images depend on multiple factors, such as your site width, sidebars, and sliders, among others.
Factors that influence Image sizes
- Content layout
- Sidebars
Image size guideliness
- Thumbnail size: is used for displaying thumbnails
- Medium size: is recommend for content use
- Large size: is used as the featured image on singe post pages
Attachment display settings
When uploading an image into the page content, you'll find the 'Attachment Display Settings' section. This section affects how your images display on the page.
- When you upload an image into the page content, the Media Library window will appear.
- Select or upload your desired image. To the right side of the window, find the "Attachment Display Settings" section.
- Under this section, you'll find the 'Size' option. Using this option, you can select which size to use when uploading an image. You can choose between Thumbnail, Medium, Large or Full Size.
Image optimization tips
Large, high definition images can have huge file sizes which will significantly affect your website's loading speed as well as your search engine rankings, so it’s critical to find a good balance between image quality and image file size when you save an image for your site.
1. Use JPGs whenever possible
Unless you need an image that can handle transparency. JPGs (also known as JPEGs) are the most popular file type for images on the web. JPGs are perfect for photographs, or complex images containing lots of colors, shadows, gradients, or complex patterns. JPGs handle these type of images well because JPGs have a huge color palette to work with. JPGs can also be saved in in high quality, low quality or anywhere in between. This allows you to adjust and save the image exactly how you want, balancing quality and file size.
2. Consider cropping
Trimming the visual fat kills two birds with one stone: your images will pack more visual punch and the filesize will come down too.
3. Saving images properly
As can be expected, large images take longer to load. When we say large, we’re referring to file size rather than the dimensions of an image, i.e. the value in KB, MB, GB etc.
Besides Adobe Photoshop for offline use, consider Pixelmator on the Mac or IrfanView on Windows. You can even use the default Preview and Paint programs for Mac and PC respectively.
You must open the image in your chosen software and view it at a 100%. This allows you to view the image at the exact size it will be displayed on a computer monitor when you save the image for web. It’s possible to reduce the file size without significantly reducing the quality of your images by using the "Save for Web" option.
4. Consider using image compression
Image compression plugins allow you to easily optimize images in WordPress for better speed and performance. A comparison of image compression plugins can be found here.
Translation basics
internationalization and localization are terms used to describe the effort to make WordPress available in languages other than English for people from different locales. The actual localization is done using the GNU gettext framework, which is used by WordPress itself including the themes and plugins.
Activity is ready for localization via .po/.mo files, and works with the WPML plugin.
If you are not familiar with translating Wordpress themes, we recommend you read this codex page: http://codex.wordpress.org/Translating_WordPress
Translating WordPress or Activity theme
Before you do anything else: Go to Dashboard > Settings > General, scroll to the bottom of the screen and select your website language from the Site language field.
Translating with POEdit
To download POEdit, follow this link. Pro version is NOT required.
- Open the languages/activity.pot in POEdit by selecting the Create New Translation button. Once it has loaded, You will find all English text strings in the left column called Source Text. Once you add translations, they will show up in the right column under Translation.
- Choose the line you want to translate. In the lower right section of the POEdit window, you will find a text area where you can add the correct translation.
- When you are done translating all the needed text strings into your desired language, save the file with your language code, for example, if you were translating to the German language, you would save it as de_DE.po. The corresponding .mo file will be automatically created then copy both files to the languages folder.
Where to upload these files?
There are 2 options:
1. In the theme folder:
You can place your .mo and .po files inside the languages folder that is located inside the theme: wp-content/themes/activity/languages.
Note that you will have to always create a backup of these files before updating the theme. This folder will get deleted during the automatic theme update.
2. In the wp-content folder:
Placing the files inside wp-content/languages/themes is the recommended method, because this folder will not get affected during a theme upgrade.
However, in this case, you will have to name your .mo and .po files differently. They must be called activity-de_DE.mo and activity-de_DE.po in order to take effect.
If you do not have a folder called languages inside the wp-content folder, simply create one. The same goes for the "themes" folder that must be located inside.
Translating with WPML
Activity theme was tested with WPML plugin and is fully compatible. If you want to have multilingual website, this is the best way to do it. If you want to use this plugin, you must purchase it first and then install into your wordpress installation. If you’ve purchased WPML and have any questions or issues, please check the links below.
Click Here To Buy WPML Plugin
Using RTL languages
Activity supports RTL (Right-to-Left) languages with no extra coding required.
A RTL stylesheet is build directly into the theme and your website will automatically determine what layout to use based on your language settings.
Change a single keyword
Important
Do not use this method to translate your website. This is only useful if you want to quickly edit a keyword or two, when not translating your website.
The best way to change keywords is to make a translation with POEdit as described above.
But when you want to change only a few keywords a faster solution might be desired. This is where the Say What? WordPress plugin comes in handy. Simply enter the current string, and what you want to replace it with and the plugin will automatically do the rest.
Once activated, go to Tools > Text changes in your Dashboard and click the Add New button at the top of the page.
Original string - This field is for the text you are attempting to change. If you want to change the "Item Name" text string, so that is exactly what you would enter into the field. Note: This field is case-sensitive. That means you must enter the text exactly as it is displayed. "Item Name" and "item name" are not the same text string.
Text domain - activity
Text context - Leave blank
Replacement string - The text you place in the Original string field will be replaced by whatever you put in this field.
Important
1. If your translation files are stored inside the /languages folder that is located inside the theme (eg. wp-content/themes/Activity/languages), make sure to backup these files before updating.
Theme updates
The Envato Market WordPress Plugin delivers a smooth update experience to your Dashboard by connecting with the Envato Market API using a secure OAuth personal token.
Instructions for its use are located here.
Plugin updates
To update your plugins, go to the Dashboard > Activity > Plugins section of your administration panel once you get notified there is an update available.
To update your plugins, select them and click on the Update Plugins button.
Basic troubleshooting
Theme is missing the style.css stylesheet error
The reason you may receive this error is if you have uploaded the incorrect file. Make sure to upload the Activity.zip file (and not the Activity_WP_Theme.zip file!)
Are You Sure You Want To Do This?
If you get this message when installing the theme via WordPress, it means you have an upload file size limit that is set by your host. If this happens, please install the theme via FTP or contact your hosting company and ask them to increase the limit.
Parse error: syntax error, unexpected 'global' (T_GLOBAL) on line 1
Your ftp client has jumbled php files. To prevent this in the future, you must always upload php files in Binary transfer mode (any code files, not just our theme).
To fix this, if for example using FileZilla, please go to Transfers > Transfer Mode > select Binary and then upload all theme files again.
If you require technical assistance please open a new ticket at our support center. We are happy to help.
Before you get started, please be sure to always check out these documentation files. To install this theme you must have a working version of WordPress already installed and configured on your machine or server. For a detailed guide on installing WordPress, please visit the WordPress Codex installation documentation. Below are all the useful links for WordPress information.
Minimum requirements
To use Activity, please make sure you are running WordPress 4.6 or higher, PHP 5.6 or higher, and MySQL 5.6 or higher.
WordPress recommends PHP 7.0 or higher. Other PHP versions have reached the end of their life cycle and may expose your site to security vulnerabilities. There is a significant reason to no longer use old PHP versions, always update to the latest versions.
- Check to ensure that your web host has the minimum requirements to run WordPress.
- Always make sure they are running the latest version of WordPress.
- You can download the latest release of WordPress from the official WordPress website.
- Always create secure passwords for FTP and Database.
Recommended PHP Configuration Limits
Many issues that you may run into such as: white screen, your demo import fails or other similar issues are all related to low PHP configuration limits. The solution is to increase the PHP limits. You can do this on your own, or contact your web host and ask them to increase those limits to a minimum as follows:
- max_execution_time 300
- memory_limit 512M
- post_max_size 256M
- upload_max_filesize 128M
Licenses
When purchasing Activity from ThemeForest, you have two licensing options. The Regular License, and the Extended License. To learn more about what each License is for and which one to purchase, continue reading below.
Click Here To View License Information
Buy Another Activity license!
Common Questions
1. If I need to use Activity on a second site, do I need a second license?
Yes. One purchase of Activity allows you to use the theme on one finished site. If you need to use it on a second site, it requires you to make a second license purchase.
2. Can I use Activity on a test site, then move it to a live site when finished?
Yes, you can. You can keep the theme on a test site to build it, then move it to the live site once you’re finished.
3. Can I keep a test site and a live site with one Regular License purchase?
According to the licensing rules set by Envato, this is not allowed. If it is installed in two places permanently, then it requires two licenses.
Item Support
All of our items come with 6 months of included support and free lifetime updates for your theme. Once the 6 months of included support is up, you have the opportunity to extend support coverage for 6 or 12 months further. If you choose to not extend your support, you will still be able to submit bug reports via item comments and still have access to our online documentation and theme updates.
Envato clarifies item support here http://themeforest.net/page/item_support_policy
We have an advanced, secure ticket system to handle your requests. Support is limited to questions regarding the theme’s features or problems with the theme. We are not able to provide support for code customizations or third-party plugins. If you need help with anything other than minor customizations of your theme, we suggest enlisting the help of a developer.
How To Renew or Extend Support
You are eligible to renew or extend your support subscription if you have less than 6 months support remaining and the author is still supporting the item. The cost of purchasing support can vary according to the different periods of your subscription. For example, extending your support subscription while it’s still active costs less than renewing it when it has expired. To learn more about this, please read Envato’s ‘Extending and Renewing Item Support’ article.
- Login to your ThemeForest account and go to the Downloads tab.
- Locate your Activity purchase. On there, you’ll see how many months of support you have remaining, and beside it there’s an ‘Extend Now’ link.
- Click the ‘Extend Now’ link, and it will redirect you to the Activity Theme’s item page.
- On the right hand side, click the ‘Extend Now and Save’ button.
- Once you click the ‘Extend Now and Save’ button, you’ll be redirected to the checkout page. Confirm your payment details and follow the on screen prompts to finish purchasing the extension.
What Will Happen If I Do Not Renew The Item Support?
The only thing that changes is that you will not be granted access to hands on support. You will however continue to receive theme updates that contain bug fixes, patches and new features and access to our online documentation, help files, and public tickets.
When Can I Renew The Item Support?
There are 3 scenarios for when you can extend or renew item support; At the time of purchase, during your support period, and after your item support has expired.
- Support Upgrade: At the time of purchasing the item. This will cost 37.5% of the item price.
- Support Extension: Extend item support before it expires. This will cost 62.5% of the item price.
- Support Renewal: Renew item support once it has expired. This will cost 82.5% of the item price.
Envato purchase code
Envato provides you with a purchase code for each item you purchase. Please read below for instructions on how to download your purchase code.
- Login to your ThemeForest account and go to the Downloads tab.
- Locate your Activity purchase in the list of items you have bought.
- Click the “Download” button to activate the dropdown menu.
- Select to download the license certificate and purchase code as a PDF or Text file. Open the file to find the purchase code. Example Purchase Code: 91d36x28-ddd5-4q70-a109-c9wc8aac6a16
General WordPress settings
WordPress general settings control some of the most basic configuration settings for your site: your site's title and location, who may register an account at your site, and how dates and times are calculated and displayed.
Site title
Enter the name of your site (or blog) here. Most themes will display this title, at the top of every page, and in the reader's browser titlebar. WordPress also uses this title as the identifying name for your Syndication feeds.
Tagline
In a few words, explain what your site is about. Your sites's slogan, or tagline, might be entered here. A tagline is short phrase, or sentence, used to convey the essence of the site and is often funny or eye-catching.
WordPress Address (URL)
Enter the full URL of the directory containing your WordPress core application files (e.g., wp-config.php, wp-admin, wp-content, and wp-includes). For example, if you installed WordPress into a directory called "blog", then the WordPress address would be http://example.net/blog (where example.net is your domain). If you installed WordPress into your web root, this address will be the root URL http://example.net. WordPress will trim a slash (/) from the end. If you defined the WP_SITEURL constant in your wp-config.php file, that value will appear in this field and you will not be able to make changes to it from the WordPress administration screen.
Site Address (URL)
Enter the address you want people to type in their browser to reach your WordPress site. This is the directory where WordPress's main index.php file is installed. The Site address (URL) is identical to the WordPress address (URL) (above) unless you are giving WordPress its own directory. WordPress will trim a slash (/) from the end. If you defined the WP_HOME constant in your wp-config.php file, that value will appear in this field and you will not be able to make changes to it from the WordPress administration screen.
E-mail Address
Enter the e-mail address to which you want WordPress to send messages regarding the administration and maintenance of your WordPress site. For example, if you allow new users to register as a member of your site (see Membership below), then a notification will be sent through e-mail to this address. In addition, if the option, An administrator must always approve the comment, is set in Administration > Settings > Discussion, this e-mail address will receive notification that the comment is being held for moderation. Please note this is different than the address you supplied for the admin user account; the admin account e-mail address is sent an e-mail only when someone submits a comment to a post by admin. The address you enter here will never be displayed on the site. You can send messages to multiple admins by using an email address which forwards email to multiple recipients.
Membership
Anyone can register - Check this checkbox if you want anyone to be able to register an account on your site.
New User Default Role
This pull-down box allows you to select the default Role that is assigned to new users. This Default Role will be assigned to newly registered members or users added via the Administration > Users > Users Screen. Valid choices are Administrator, Editor, Author, Contributor, or Subscriber.
Timezone
From the pulldown box, choose a city in the same timezone as you. For example, under America, select New York if you reside in the Eastern Timezone of the United States that honors daylight savings times. If you can't identify a city in your timezone, select one of the Etc GMT settings that represents the number of hours by which your time differs from Greenwich Mean Time. Click the Save Changes button and the UTC time and "Local time" will display to confirm the correct Timezone was selected.
Date Format
The format in which to display dates on your site. The Date Format setting is intended to be used by theme designers in displaying dates on your site, but does not control how the date is displayed in the Administrative Screens (e.g. Manage Posts). Click the Save Changes button and the "Output" example below will show the current date in the format entered. See Formatting Date and Time for some of the formats available.
Time Format
The format in which to display times on your site. The Time Format setting is intended to be used by theme designers in displaying time on your site, but does not control how the time is displayed in the Administrative Screens (e.g. Write Post edit of timestamp). Click the Save Changes button and the "Output" example below will show the current time in the format entered. See Formatting Date and Time for some of the formats available.
Week Starts On
Select your preferred start date for WordPress calendars from the drop-down box. Monday is the default setting for this drop-down, meaning a monthly calendar will show Monday in the first column. If you want your calendar to show Sunday as the first column, then select Sunday from the drop-down.
Site Language
The Dashboard language.