I’m spending the majority of my time lately getting to know all the CityGrid publishers, and understanding how they are building web and mobile applications using CityGrid Places,Reviews, Offers and AdvertisingAPIs.

Today I want to showcase an innovative web development shop in Dallas, Texas called The Emerald Curtain Studio. Phillip Bryan of The Emerald Curtain Studio used theCityGrid Reviews API to write a WordPress plugin that embeds a merchants reviews into their WordPress driven websites.

An example of how The Emerald Curtain Studio implemented reviews for a merchant web site, is on the Zen Salon Centrum in Dallas, TX.   The business owners maintained their own CitySearch / CityGrid merchant profiles and wanted their reviews to show up on their business websites.

“I was able to develop the plugin without much trouble, and have used it in three sites so far. The online documentation was very helpful and I was able to develop my tools easily.” says Bryan of The Emerald Curtain Studio.

When you think of using CityGrid Places API, you often think of building nationwide or city local directories, but the usage by The Emerld Curtain Studio demonstrates there is a lot more you can do to provide web development services to existing CityGrid and CitySearch merchants providing added value to your existing services, and making their sites possess much richer content.

Description

This plugin defines a shortcode that generates the necessary iframe statement for a project pier installation.

Requirements

1. WordPress version 3.0 and later
2. A ProjectPier installation running version 0.8.8 alpha or later
3. The Project Pier theme emeraldCurtain 1.4
4. (recommended) The Project Pier plugin theme_settings, with the “Minimal” settings

What does this plugin do?

The plugin creates the following shortcode:

[projectpier url="PATH_TO_PROJECT_PIER" active_project=PROJECT_NUMBER]

Installation

1. Download the plugin and unzip in a temporary directory
2. Upload folder include all files to the `/wp-content/plugins/` directory.
3. Activate the plugin through the `Plugins` menu in WordPress
4. Create a new page and add the shortcode

   [projectpier url="PATH_TO_PROJECT_PIER" active_project=PROJECT_NUMBER]

5. for example:

   [projectpier url="http://www.myawesomesite.com/projectpier" active_project=3]

Screenshots

1. Add the shortcode to a page, and choose a page template without a sidebar
2. Viewing the embedded ProjectPier page
3. Using the “theme settings” ProjectPier plugin to create a minimal theme
4. Viewing the minimal theme in ProjectPier
5. Viewing the minimal ProjectPier site inside a WordPress page.

Changelog

= v1.1 (12/30/2011) =
* Initial version

License

This plugin is released under the GPL, so you can use it free of charge on your personal or commercial blog. But if you enjoy the plugin, you can thank me and leave a [small donation](http://theemeraldcurtain/ “Donate”).

Frequently Asked Questions

• How do I get rid of the WordPress sidebar, so ProjectPier can fill the whole content area?When you create a page, specify a Template that doesn’t include the normal sidebar. Each WordPress theme is different, so the sidebar-free template is determined by your theme’s author.
• What if my theme doesn’t have a sidebar-free template?This plugin comes with a bare-bones template that contains just the theme header, page content, and theme footer. The file is named template-content-only.php. Copy this file to the theme directory of your currently selected theme, and “Bare Bones Content” will be added to the list of available templates. Select this template for your page, and you’re in business.
• The ProjectPier embed is WAY too cluttered. How do I make it simpler?The ProjectPier plugin “theme_settings” allow you to set up a “minimal” theme that strips out most of the ProjectPier wrapping elements. This will allow the embedded page to fit seemlessly into the WordPress page.
• Why is there another scrollbar inside the page, and how do I get rid of it?The embed is accomplished with an iframe, which currently has a fixed height. Getting an iframe to resize itself based on the embedded content is a tricky business, and I haven’t quite worked it out within WordPress yet. For now, the iframe has a fixed height, so the embedded page may have a scrollbar.
• It doesn’t work! I’m using Internet Explorer 9! What’s going on?According to my research, there’s a problem with IE9 and iframes. Please google “IE9 iframe problem” for a full explanation.

» Download plugin

Important

This plugin requires administrator accesses. Improper or malicious use of this plugin can have damaging effects on your project pier database.

This plugin has been designed to work with Project Pier 0.8.8-alpha, using the emeraldCurtain-1.4 theme. Using this plugin with other versions of ProjectPier, or with other themes, may have unexpected results.

Plugin Installation

1. » Download plugin files
2. Unpack the files to a temporary space on your hard drive
3. Upload the files to your web server in the directory  /projectroot/application/plugins where projectroot is the root directory of your ProjectPier installation.
4. Log into ProjectPier and select: Administration > Plugins
5. Select “Active” for the “Theme Settings” plugin and click the “Change” button

Plugin Usage (general)

1. Log into Project Pier as an administrator.
2. Select a project from the “My projects” menu.
3. On the Project Overview screen, select “Theme Settings” from the “Actions” dropdown menu.
4. Select “Add Theme Settings” button.
5. Please refer to the screenshots for descriptions of the “Theme Settings” panel

About ProjectPier

ProjectPier is an Open Source project management and collaboration tool that you can install on your own server. It is released under the terms of the Honest Public License – HPL (see license.txt for details). It is built upon the source code of the activeCollab software version 0.7.1 which is also licensed under the HPL : http://www.projectpier.org

Change History

~1.1

* First public release

Screenshots

01 – newly project using emeraldcurtain1-4 theme
02 – access the theme settings plugin
03 – there are no settings for this project yet
04 – set the favicon and title position
05 – set the user menu
06 – set the header image
07 – set the navigation menu
08 – set the page background
09 – dont use the custom css
10 – hot theme in action
11 – dashboard view uses theme from active project
12 – a second projects theme
13 – a third project using custom images
14 – creating a minimal theme for mobile devices or wordpress embed
15 – minimal theme in action

Project Pier is an excellent project management system for small businesses. Version 0.8.8-alpha is available from the github repository for phpfreak: https://github.com/phpfreak/Project-Pier

The EmeraldCurtain 1.4 theme is an update to an earlier version, modified to work with the new Project Pier. The theme is adapted specifically for the version of Project Pier. Please don’t try it with other versions.

Installation:

1. Start with a working installation of Project Pier 0.8.8 alpha
2. Download Project Pier theme EmeraldCurtain-1.4
3. Unpack the files to a temporary space on your hard drive
4. Upload the files to your web server in the directory /projectroot/public/assets/themes/ where projectroot is the root directory of your ProjectPier installation.
5. Log into your ProjectPier installation and select: Administration > Configuration > General
6. Select your new theme from the drop-down menu and click the “Save” button

Change History

~1.4

• Updated to work with Project Pier 0.8.8-alpha
• Header area reworked
• Dropdown “menu” styling
• Major changes to Time page
• Major changes to Permissions page
• Significant changes to Reports page

~1.3

• Header and login graphics replaced
• Header area restyled
• Tickets page restyled

~1.2

• First public release

Screenshots

Project Pier is an excellent project management system for small businesses. You can get it here

I wanted the interface to resemble the look and feel of our websites, both for our own benefit and that of our clients. The excellent Marine theme was my starting point.

Installation:

1. Download Project Pier theme EmeraldCurtain-1.2
2. Unpack the files to a temporary space on your hard drive
3. Upload the files to your web server in the directory /projectroot/public/assets/themes/ where projectroot is the root directory of your ProjectPier installation.
4. Log into your ProjectPier installation and select: Administration > Configuration > General
5. Select your new theme from the drop-down menu and click the “Save” button

	Login Screen
	Project Overview The logtypes in the main table have been displayed as icons, and the colors lightened.
	Project Overview legend In case the logtype icons aren’t apparent, there’s a handy reference.
	Task List Task lists have been reformatted, so that the first line of each task receives emphasis. Individual tasks are separated for easier skimming
	Top Menu The topmost navigation menu has been streamlined. The header area has been reworked, and the sidebar has been simplified.