Currently, there are two ways to display a project on your site, one basic and one more advanced. Each one has you make a landing page that briefly explains your project and includes either links or a new menu that lead the reader to other pages or posts from your project. If you are working with a group, make sure to follow the steps at the bottom of this page.
Basic project option
In this procedure (see example here) you are just making one page, the landing page of your project which has a link to all your posts.
- Create a new post category for your project (ideally as a subcategory under a main Projects category). Make sure you check this category on each project-related post.
- Create a page for your new project and title it with your project title. This will be your project landing page (note: we recommend you do NOT use the landing page template as it removes all user navigation).
- In the body of the page, provide the following:
- If there are co-researchers, list them at top.
- Write an abstract summarizing your project background, questions, methods, and results & significance (if available).
- In the summary, make sure to include a prominent link to your project post category archives. In order to find your category archive page, go to Posts > Categories and under the category of choice select View. This will bring you to a category archive page. Copy and paste this URL into your prominent link.
- Make sure to include a link to any posts with significant outcomes (e.g., a final report or poster).
- Optionally, you may include a photo slider, Google presentation, or other graphics below the summary.
- Finally, add this landing page to your menu, e.g., as a sub-item under the Projects menu item.
Advanced project option
The advanced project option (see example here) allows you to create a project subsite, including a custom menu to link to multiple project pages (which—in addition to your landing page—display fixed content, e.g., a map or annotated bibliography) and related posts (which represent time-based content, i.e., the process of doing your project). You’ll do the four steps above, but since you’ll have a custom menu to assist navigation your landing page can be simpler. Here are the additional steps:
- Start a new custom menu for your project. To do this, navigate to Appearance > Menus and create a new menu. Here are the items to add to this menu:
- Your project landing page defined above. (Look under Pages to the left of the menus setup window and click to add it.)
- A link to all project-related posts. (Look under Categories to the left of the menus setup window and click to add it.)
- Links to all additional project-related pages you create. You’ll need to come back to this menu and add these links when you’ve added new project-related pages.
- There are two options for where you’ll place this menu: a sidebar widget (e.g., on the right side of your pages), or a secondary menu (which some but not all themes support). The latter option is easy: simply (a) activate Genesis Simple Menus plugin on your site, then (b) on each related page, enable this secondary menu on the edit page metabox at right.
- If you are doing the sidebar widget option, there are a few more steps. First, (a) activate Genesis Simple Sidebars plugin, then (b) create a special project sidebar that you’ll attach to your additional project pages and your project posts. To do this, navigate to Genesis > Simple Sidebars. Make a new project sidebar; in the ID field, type a simple and unique identifier. Then, add a short description and click Add New Sidebar.
- Once you have a special project sidebar, go to Posts > Categories and click to edit your category. Go down to Sidebar Options, and select your project sidebar. This way, when viewers look at your project-related post category archive (the summary of all project posts), the sidebar will show up on this page.
- Note: this special sidebar will need to be manually applied to each project-related page and post, as you’ll see below. There are automatic options you could consider using either the Widget Ninja plugin or the Jetpack Widget Visibility module; contact us for assistance.
- Now, you’ll add your custom menu, and other desired widgets, to your project sidebar. Navigate to Appearances > Widgets. Add the Custom Menu widget to your newly defined sidebar region, then title the widget area and select the menu you just created.
- Feel free to add other widgets that may be pertinent to your project (e.g., RSS feeds or a map of geotagged posts). Remember, these widgets will show up with your custom menu alongside each and every project-related page or post.
- As you create project-related pages and posts, remember to do the following:
- When you are editing the page/post, go to the Sidebar Selection metabox toward the bottom right and select your special project sidebar.
- Add each new page to your custom menu.
- You may also edit your project post category and specify the sidebar you want to apply to all related posts.
For some examples of project subsites, see the Effective Subsites page.
Working with a group
- If you are working on a group project with other students who also have their own DS sites, you will first need to choose one of your sites to house the project. This site will follow the basic or advanced project option above.
- Each group member may add a link menu item to the project landing page on their own site. This way, all group members can display the project from a link on their site.
- You may aggregate all project member posts via the displaying multiple RSS feeds information at the bottom of this page.
- If you all want to add text etc. to the project landing page, the owner of the site will need to add other group members as users. To do this go to Users > Add New, then Add Existing User and fill in their username, giving them Editor role, so that they can add/edit pages.