In this tutorial we will go through the process of setting up the WPCasa Bahia theme. Please notice that you will need a self-hosted WordPress installation up and running on your server in order to use WPCasa and Bahia.
Install WPCasa Plugin
The Bahia theme is a real estate WordPress theme built for WPCasa. It includes a lot of powerful tools but the basic functionality comes with the WPCasa core plugin.
Install WPCasa Bahia Theme
Once WordPress and WPCasa are up and running, you’re ready to install the Bahia theme. Make sure you have the theme zip file at hand that you can download from your account on our website.
Please go to WP-Admin > Appearance > Themes > Add New > Upload Theme and browse to the theme package on your local computer and click on Install Now and finally activate the theme.
Use Theme Customizer
When setting up Bahia one of the most important things is to add your own logo, set the color scheme of the theme to match your corporate design and change the header text. Please visit the WordPress theme customizer on WP-Admin > Appearance > Customize. There will find multiple options to customize the theme to your needs.
Optionally Import Example Content
To get started with a theme and get an idea of how your website will look like it can be useful to import some example properties. These can be removed after the setup when it’s time to add your own listings. Feel free to follow our tutorial Import Example Data.
Set Up the Front Page
One of the most powerful assets of Bahia is the home page that you can set up very easily. Have another peek at the demo home page to see what we are doing.
Create Static Page
The Bahia home page is built upon a static page that you can create on WP-Admin > Pages > Add New. Then define this page as static front page on WP-Admin > Settings > Reading.
Apply Page Template
There is a dedicated home page template in Bahia that allows you to set up the front page in no time. Please apply the Home Page template to your static page.
Add Home Page Content
After applying the home page template a range of custom meta boxes will appear in the page editor.
- Home Icon Links – displays eye-catching icon links
- Home Carousel – shows lastest or filtered listings in carousel
- Home Call to Action #1 – calls users to a specific action
- Home Listings – shows multiple listing queries based on your filters
- Home Call to Action #2 – calls users to another action
To add your front page content just go through the meta boxes one by one and make your settings.
Set Up the Listings Page
When you first activated the WPCasa plugin the main listings page, where e.g. the search results will be displayed, was created automatically. Have a look at the demo to see what I mean. You can find this page in your admin on WP-Admin > Pages > Listings > Edit.
To make sure the listings look like in the demo and not inside a big white box (the default page content) you will need to apply the Listings Page template in the Page Attributes meta box on the right. If you prefer a listings page without sidebar like the demo, just choose the Listings Page (full width) template instead.
As you can see the content of this page is the [wpsight_listings] shortcode. We recommend to leave this shortcode untouched. If you would like to create a listings, page that e.g. only shows rental properties, you can create a child page, apply the Listings Page template and add the following shortcode:
[wpsight_listings offer="rent"]
For more options of this shortcode also see Shortcode: [wpsight_listings].
Activate Widgets on Single Listing Page
Finally let’s have a look at another centerpiece of the theme… the single listing page. Take a look at the demo to refresh your memory.
When you first active the Bahia theme you will see a default layout on the single listing page. But using widgets you can tailor them to your special needs by dragging and dropping widgets into the available widget areas. The single listing page consists of multiple widget areas.
There are two full width areas Listing Single Top and Listing Single Bottom. Further you can activate your preferred widgets in the main content or in the sidebar area.
The four single listing widget areas and the custom widgets to display the property information provide a wide range of options to build your personal listing page.
Add Menu Icons
While browsing the Bahia demo you might have noticed the menu icons in the top bar.
If you want to use something similar, please have a look at the free plugin Menu Icons that allows you to apply icons to menu items through the custom menu editor on WP-Admin > Appearance > Menus.
