Weaver II Pro Installation Instructions

Installation Instructions

Important! Weaver II Pro is a full WordPress Theme. You install it using the standard WordPress Themes control panel. It is considered by WordPress to be a different theme than the Weaver II basic theme. You can keep both versions installed if you wish, but it is also fine to only install Weaver II Pro. If you are updating to a new version, read the updating section below!

After you’ve downloaded Weaver II Pro, you will need to install and activate it. IMPORTANT! Beginning with Weaver II Pro 2.1, you will need to install and activate the Weaver II Theme Extras plugin from WordPress.com. You can do this automatically by clicking on the install message boxes.

Initial Installation

  1. Download Weaver II Pro to your own computer by clicking the Download link above.
  2. From the WordPress dashboard, open the Themes Tab on the left menu, and click the Install Themes tab. You’ll see the “Install Themes” page.
  3. Click the “Upload” item in the top menu. That will open a page that will let you select the file to upload. Important Note for WordPress Multi-Site Users: The default file upload size limit is set to 1.5 Megabytes, which is too small for Weaver II Pro. You will need to increase that limit from the Settings panel.
  4. Select the “weaver-ii-pro-2-0.zip” file you downloaded (the version number will change as Weaver II Pro gets updates), and click the “Install Now” button.
  5. After the file uploads, you’ll be given the choice to activate the theme, which you should do. Important: The free version of Weaver II and Weaver II Pro are treated by WordPress as different themes. You will need to activate Weaver II Pro before its features will become available.
  6. The left menu will now show “Weaver II Pro Admin” instead of “Weaver II Admin”.
  7. Due to some WordPress quirks when you switch themes, you may need to re-select your header image, background image, and custom menu locations. See this FAQ – Upgrading from Weaver II Free to Weaver II Pro.

Updating Weaver II Pro

Because Weaver II Pro is a premium theme, you won’t get the standard notifications from WordPress when updates are available. Instead, when you open the Weaver II Pro Admin panel, you will get a notification that a new version is available. The process to update Weaver II Pro is fairly simple, but requires a couple of extra steps over the standard WordPress theme update process.

There are three approaches for updating Weaver II Pro. Because the standard WordPress update process does not work with premium themes (you would get a message that the theme is already installed), you need to manually update the theme.

The Easy Way: Save/Restore – Update Weaver II Theme

The easiest way to update from previous versions of Weaver II Pro is to use the “Update Weaver II theme from .zip file on your computer” on the Weaver II admin Save/Restore tab. (You must install the Weaver II Theme Extras first to enable this option!) Download the latest Weaver II Pro file from this site, then open the Save/Restore tab, pick the .zip file, and you will be quickly and easily updated.

Manual Update: Delete Previous Version / Install New Version

  1. Download the new version of Weaver II Pro – same as the earlier instructions.
  2. Open the Dashboard->Themes page. You’ll see a list of all your installed Themes.
  3. Find the “Weaver II” basic theme. Click the “Activate” item. This will deactivate the Weaver II Pro theme, and activate the basic version.
  4. Now, click the “Delete” item to delete the old version of Weaver II Pro. Don’t worry – all your settings will be preserved.
  5. Now install the new version using the same procedure as in the “Initial Installation” instructions above. You’ll be back in business, with everything working just as it was.

During the short time between deactivating and deleting the old version, and the reactivating the new version, Weaver II Pro features won’t work on your site. This is probably not a major issue. If you are concerned, there are “Maintenance Mode” plugins that will block visitors to your site while you are making changes.

Alternate Installation: Use Easy Theme and Plugin Upgrades plugin

Historically, this method has been an easy way to update Weaver II, but is really no longer needed.

  1. Upload and activate the Easy Theme and Plugin Upgrades plugin, available at WordPress.org. This plugin adds a new option to the theme (and plugin) upload page.
  2. Download the latest version of Weaver II Pro to your computer, as previously described.
  3. Go to the Install Themes tab, and click upload. Then set the “Upgrade Existing Theme?” to Yes. Now select the Weaver II Pro zip file, and install the theme normally.
  4. Weaver II Pro will be upgraded. The plugin even keeps a zipped copy of the old version on your site media library.
  5. You can deactivate the Easy Theme and Plugin Upgrades plugin until the next time you need it.

 

Release Notes

Release notes for the latest version of Weaver II are available here.