Thank you for purchasing the BeautySpot theme!
The goal of this theme is to provide a powerful set of tools for beauty salon or spa websites. Being a WordPress theme, it can benefit from the whole ecosystem of this wonderful platform. There are thousands of free plugins which can extend your site's features and plenty of helpful resources where you can find answers to your WordPress related questions.
We hope you will find this documentation helpful and will enjoy working with BeautySpot theme as much as we enjoyed developing it.
The very first step is to install WordPress itself. Once installed, we can proceed to the theme and plugins installation.
If you haven’t already, download the full package from your downloads on ThemeForest.
When you unzip the downloaded file, you will see a bunch of folders. The most important one is the THEME folder which contains the installable theme .ZIP.
Open your WordPress admin and navigate to Appearance / Themes
Upload the installable beautyspot.zip file
If you don’t know what a WordPress child theme is, please read this article in the WordPress codex. The article also explains how to create a child theme, but don't worry, the BeautySpot child theme is already included in the package.
This documentation assumes that you are running the child theme, so it is highly recommended to install it. The Child theme .ZIP can be found in Child Theme folder. Install it in exactly the same way as parent theme, described in previous steps.
Once you have both parent and child themes installed, you need to activate the child one.
Before we proceed to plugins installation, let's talk about them a little bit first. This theme comes prepackaged with several plugins. Basically any major functionality (like services, testimonials, galleries, etc.) has a separate plugin. This has one big advantage - you can choose which one you need. For example, if you don't need the services functionality for your site (or you plan to use a 3rd party plugin for that), there is no reason to install the LSVR Services plugin. And same goes for LSVR Galleries, LSVR Testimonials, LSVR People and LSVR FAQ plugins as well. But let's do a quick overview of all of those plugins so you can decide for yourself which ones you need:
One last thing. You may be worried that so many plugins can have a performance impact on your site. The truth is that the number of plugins alone has no real impact on the performance. It's the way they are coded that's important. Since all of those plugins (with exception of Envato Market) were coded in-house, their optimization and performance is fully under our control. Also, don't forget that the quality of your hosting plays a very significant role in overall performance of your site.
Let's finally install some plugins. Once you've activated the theme, you should see a prompt message at the top of your admin informing you about recommended plugins.
After you activate plugins, head to your Dashboard and that’s it. Plugins should now be installed and activated. Remember that all bundled plugins can be found in the Plugins folder in the full package, so you can install any of those plugins manually anytime you need (via Plugins / Add New / Upload Plugin).
Here is a list of some useful 3rd party plugins. You can install them by typing their name in the search box under Plugins / Add New:
Let us start by saying that we do not recommend to import the demo data at all. Why? Because you are basically bloating your site with data you will eventually want to to get rid of sooner or later. You may be tempted to have your site to look like the demo quickly and then start customizing it to your needs, but you are actually making lot of unnecessary work for yourself. Our professional advice on how to build the site using this theme (or any other WordPress theme for that sake) is to read the documentation first (at least just browse the titles). Then (after you install the theme and all its plugins) head to Appearance / Customize and browse through all the available options to familiarize yourself with the theme. Then go back to the documentation, head to Post-Installation Setup and simply follow all the steps, read all chapters thoroughly and apply all that knowledge to your own site. That said, it is up to you of course. If you want to proceed with the demo import, read further.
The quickest way to import the demo data is using the One Click Demo Import plugin. To install it, simply go to Plugins / Add New and type "One Click Demo Import" into the search field. Once installed and activated, go to Appearance / Import Demo Data where you can import content, customizer settings and widgets separately (they should be imported exactly in this order).
Once you've imported all three (content, customizer settings and widgets), continue here.
If you want to have more control over imported data, you can do it manually. Demo data can be found in the Demo Data folder in the full package.
You will notice there are several .xml files in the Demo Data folder. You can decide to import either all posts and pages or just specific post type posts.
To import the content, navigate to Tools / Import and click on WordPress. You may be prompted to install the Importer plugin if you don’t have it already. After you install and activate it, go back to Tools / Import / WordPress. Now choose which content you want to import. If you want to import everything, choose the content.xml file. If you want to upload services only, choose services.xml. You can of course do multiple imports if you want to import more than just one .xml file (for example services.xml and then testimonials.xml).
If you haven't installed all bundled plugins but are trying to import the content.xml file, you may notice several errors during the import process. Those are caused by the fact that posts related to missing plugins can't be imported (for example service posts without LSVR Services plugin installed). You can ignore those error messages, as they shouldn't affect the import of the other posts.
You will need the Customizer Export/Import plugin to import customizer data. Once installed and activated, go to Appearance / Customize / Export/Import and upload the customizer.dat file from the Demo Data folder.
You will need the Widget Importer & Exporter plugin to import widgets data. Once installed and activated, go to Tools / Widget Importer & Exporter and upload the widgets.wie file from the Demo Data folder.
Some content seen on the demo was created using 3rd party plugins and it is not included in the complete import file (content.xml). You can import this content separately.
Contact Form 7 plugin was used for the contact from used on the Contact page. Once you install and activate the plugin, manually import the cf7-contact-form.xml file. Then make sure the imported form ID matches the one used in shortcode in the Contact form page (e.g. [contact-form-7 id="123"]).
TablePress plugin was used for the service post pricing table. Once you install and activate the plugin, manually import the tablepress-service-pricing-table.xml file. Then make sure the imported table ID matches the one used in the shortcode in service post content (e.g. [table id=1 /]).
You will need to set your front page and news page under Settings / Reading.
You may notice that some of the menu links won't work because they were saved as absolute URL. To make them work, either edit them manually under Appearance / Menus, or use a plugin to change them to the correct URL. Basically you need to change "http://localhost/wordpress/beautyspot-demo" to your site's URL.
Due to some limitations of the importing functionality, some sidebars and menus may not be set properly after the import. Just go to Appearance / Widgets to configure your sidebars and widgets.
Your first post-installation steps should head into Settings / General. Time Zone, Date Format and Time Format settings will be used to display date info for all post types.
Now head to Settings / Permalinks and change Common Settings to Post name. You can also change URL slugs for all LSVR custom post types and their taxonomies below if needed.
Head to Settings / Reading and choose which pages should be used as your Front page and Posts page. If you haven't imported the demo content, then don't forget to come back to this option once you create your front page and blog pages. More info.
If you already have some pages / posts on your site (for example via importing demo content), you should check out Appearance / Menus to manage your site's menus.
Head to Settings / Media and change the settings to the following values:
If you already have some images on your site, use a 3rd party plugin to regenerate new image sizes based on the settings above.
If your site is running in a language other than English, you should check out Appearance / Customize / Typography and set the Font Subsets option accordingly. Please note that not all font families support all font subsets.
You may also notice that not all Google Fonts are available - we handpicked only the most popular ones. If you need to use font which is not available, disable Google Fonts (uncheck Enable Google Fonts option) and use some 3rd party plugin instead.
BeautySpot comes with a bunch of custom post types. Working with them is very similar to working with standard WordPress posts.
Posts and pages are part of the core WordPress functionality. The best place to learn more about them is the WordPress Codex.
This post type is used exclusively with the LSVR Slides element, which can be added via block editor or lsvr_slide_list shortcode.
Please note that this is a custom post type driven theme. Which mean that all the core content like services, testimonials, galleries, etc. are managed via special post types (very similar to standard blog posts). Almost all front page elements rely on those post types, so unless you've aready created some services, testimonials or other posts, there won't be much to display on your front page. Learn more about theme's custom post types.
The following tutorial assumes that you want to create a front page similar to the "Home 1" from the demo. The preferred way to create a front page is using the WordPress block editor (Gutenberg). Alternatively, you can use the WPBakery Page Builder or Elementor plugin for that too. Even though they have different user interface compared to the block editor, all BeautySpot and LSVR elements are available there as well.
Theme colors can be managed under Appearance / Customize / Colors. You can either choose from predefined color schemes, pick your custom colors or create your own color scheme. The difference between Custom Colors and Custom Scheme is that the latter is much more involved and requires some coding. On the other hand, it gives you more freedom and it is the recommended way for customizing theme's colors.
Since the Predefined Scheme and Custom Colors options should be pretty much self-explanatory, let's describe the process of creating your own custom color scheme.
$accent1: #ff007c; // primary accent color $accent2: #099db3; // secondary accent color $accent3: #edcf56; // minor accents
There are many online tools where you can generate a hex code for your color, for example https://www.colorhexa.com. Just change #xxxxxx to the hex code of your custom color (don't forget that it has to start with the # sign). Feel free to change values of other color variables in the file as well.
If you are going to use this theme in any language other then English, you will need to translate it. The important part is that you need to translate the theme and all LSVR plugins you are using. Most of the translatable text is part of the admin area, so if you plan to translate only the front-end, there won't be that much text to translate.
There are two general approaches to translation. You can either use a 3rd party plugin, or do it the old-fashioned way via the Poedit software. If you prefer the plugin approach, check out their respective documentations on how to do that. We will describe the manual process of translation via Poedit which I recommend over the plugin approach because it is usually much more reliable.
Before we begin, download and install Poedit to your computer.
The whole process is very similar to theme translation, you just need to do it separately for each plugin. Let's translate the LSVR Services plugin for example (but it is the same for all LSVR plugins).
Check out the list of all built-in icons here.
If you want to add an icon into your content, use the [lsvr_icon] shortcode (LSVR Elements plugin is required for this shortcode to work).
More icons can be added via 3rd party plugins.
Code custimization is a broad topic which goes far beyond the scope of this documentation. The best place to start learning about the developer side of the WordPress is the WordPress Codex. Most of the knowledge needed to customize the theme is not theme-specific and can be applied to any theme. There are however some specifics which can come handy when you decide to customize this particular theme.
99% of the frontend code of this theme can be customized very easily by overriding the specific template files via a child theme. Apart from the basic WordPress theme files like header.php, footer.php, etc (you can read more about WordPress template hierarchy on the WordPress Codex), you will find many theme-specific templates inside template-parts folder. Just copy any of those files to your child theme (preserve the relative path) and edit them there.
However, the code for widgets, shortcodes and blocks is not present in the theme folder. Code for all those elements resides in plugins. The good news is that frontend code of those elements is created using template files as well. You just need to find out which plugin contains the widget/shortcode you want to edit and copy its template file to your child theme under the correct folder using this formula:
For widgets:
[plugin-folder-name]/templates/widgets/[widget-template-file]
For shortcodes (and blocks):
[plugin-folder-name]/templates/shortcodes/[shortcode-template-file]
For example, if you want to override the code for the LSVR Featured Post widget, open wp-content/plugins/lsvr-elements/templates/widgets folder and copy post-featured.php file into your child theme folder under lsvr-elements/templates/widgets folder.
The easiest way to update the theme is to use Envato Market plugin.
Alternatively, you can download the installable beautyspot.zip file from your ThemeForest account / Downloads and then either unzip it and upload it under wp-content / themes via FTP (overwrite the existing beautyspot folder), or upload the file via admin under Appearance / Themes / Add New / Upload Theme (you will have to deactivate and remove your current version of the theme first).
Once you've updated the theme you should see an admin notification which will lead you through the process of updating the bundled plugins (if there are any which needs updating).
Alternatively, you can download the complete theme package from your ThemeForest account / Downloads, unzip it and check out the changelog.txt file to see which plugins were updated in the recent version. You will find all installable plugin files in the Plugins folder. Now, either unzip each plugin file you want to update and upload them under wp-content / plugins via FTP (overwrite the existing folders), or upload each .zip file via admin under Plugins / Add New / Upload Plugin (you will have to deactivate and remove your current versions of those plugins first).
Excerpt is a short text which can be displayed on post archive pages or in some widgets instead of the full post content. You can add excerpt for standard posts and some custom post types.
If you are using the WordPress block editor (Gutenberg), you can add excerpt in the right panel when editing a post (make sure you are switched to Document tab at the top of the panel). If you are not seeing the Excerpt field, click on "dots" icon in upper right corner to enable the field.
If you are NOT using the block editor (for example when you are using the Classic Editor plugin), then while editing a post, click on Screen Options in upper right corner, check Excerpt and scroll down to see the Excerpt field under the editor.
To add a contact form similar to one seen in the demo site, first install and activate the Contact Form 7 plugin. Then download and unzip the full theme package from your ThemeForest account / Downloads (if you haven't already) and upload the cf7-contact-form.xml file from the Demo Data folder under Tools / Import / WordPress in your admin (you may be prompted to install the additional plugin during the process). Please follow the official documentation on how to properly configure the plugin.
The easiest way to do it is to use Intuitive Custom Post Order plugin. Once instaled and activated, head to Settings / Intuitive CPO and check which post types and taxonomies you want to enable this functionality for. After that, you will be able to reorder them via simple drag & drop in your admin.
Following elements are used primarily to build the front page. If you are in a need of some basic design elements like accordions or tabs, search the official WordPress plugins repository for some additional 3rd party plugins.
This shortcode displays CTA block.
[lsvr_beautyspot_cta title="CTA" text="Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit" dark_background="false" more_label="Learn More" more_link="http://www.example.org" more_link_new_window="true" id="my_unique_id"]
This shortcode displays FAQ posts.
[lsvr_beautyspot_faq title="FAQ" category="123" limit="6" order="default" columns="2" dark_background="false" show_category="true" more_label="More FAQ" id="my_unique_id"]
Section with side image, title, text and button.
[lsvr_beautyspot_intro title="Hello World!" text="Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet" image="http://www.example.org/image.jpg" button_label="Learn more" button_link="http://www.example.org" bigger_title="false" id="my_unique_id"]
This shortcode displays standard (blog) posts.
[lsvr_beautyspot_posts title="Latest News" category="123" limit="6" columns="3" dark_background="false" show_date="true" show_category="true" show_excerpt="true" enable_masonry="false" more_label="More news" id="my_unique_id"]
This shortcode displays service posts.
[lsvr_beautyspot_services title="Our Services" category="123" limit="6" order="default" columns="3" dark_background="false" show_category="true" show_excerpt="true" enable_masonry="false" more_label="More services" id="my_unique_id"]
This shortcode displays testimonial posts.
[lsvr_beautyspot_testimonials title="Our Testimonials" limit="6" order="default" columns="3" dark_background="false" enable_masonry="false" more_label="More testimonials" id="my_unique_id"]
This shortcode displays slide posts.
[lsvr_slide_list background_image="" category="0" limit="6" order="default" autoplay="0" id="my_unique_id"]
This shortcode displays a simple icon.
[lsvr_icon icon="icon-check" id="my_unique_id"]
Please note that BeautySpot 3.x is not compatible with older versions. If you want to update your existing site which runs version 2.x (or older) to version 3.x, you will have to basically configure the whole site from the scratch. That applies to theme options, menus, widgets and any custom theme's elements or shortcodes.
Redux Framework and LSVR Toolkit (BeautySpot) plugins are no longer supported in 3.x, so if you decide to update to 3.x, feel free to remove those plugins.
You can find the latest version of BeautySpot 2.x in the full package in "Legacy / BeautySpot v2" folder.