How to Configure "Featured Posts" in Free WP Theme?

Hi, I'm using WP theme and I've downloaded some free WP themes that have "featured posts" but how to set/configure for "featured posts"? Because the portion of featured posts show nothing after installing the theme, and there is no option under "Appearance" for configuring "featured posts", anyone who is familiar with WP, can u guide me? There is no instruction on download page also...thanks

There is featured.php but I don't know whether anything to do with it or not? Here is the entire featured.php:

<div class="featmaindiv">
<div class="featmainframe">
<div class="featframe">

<h2 class="recenttitle3" style=" padding-top:0px;">Featured <span>Posts</span></h2>
<div style="padding-top:5px;">
<?php
$my_query = new WP_Query("meta_key=is_featured&meta_value=1&showposts=4&orderby=rand");
$e=1;
while ($my_query->have_posts()) : $my_query->the_post();
$do_not_duplicate = $post->ID;
if($e<=4){
?>
<?php
$arc_year = get_the_time('Y');
$arc_month = get_the_time('m');
$arc_day = get_the_time('d');
?>

<?php
$image = get_post_meta($post->ID, 'image', true);
if ( $image ) {
$g = get_bloginfo('template_directory') . "/thumb.php?src=" . str_replace('http://'.$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'], "", $image) . "&amp;h=145&amp;w=195&amp;zc=1&amp;q=100";

}else{

$image = get_bloginfo('template_directory') . "/images/default2.gif";
$g = get_bloginfo('template_directory') . "/thumb.php?src=" . str_replace('http://'.$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'], "", $image) . "&amp;h=145&amp;w=195&amp;zc=1&amp;q=100";

}
?>

<div class="featsubframe"<?php if($e%2){ }else{?> style="padding-right:0px; border-right:0px;"<?php } ?>>
<div class="pic">
<a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" title="<?php the_title(); ?>" rel="nofollow"><img src="<?php echo $g;?>" alt="<?php the_title(); ?>" /></a>
</div>
<h2 class="feattitle"><a href="<?php the_permalink()?>" title="<?php the_title()?>"><?php the_short_title(42)?></a></h2>
<div class="featureddes">
<?php the_excerpt_main("70"); ?>

</div>

</div>
<?php }$e++;endwhile; ?>
<div class="clear"></div>

</div>

</div>


<div class="featadframe">
<script type="text/javascript">
google_ad_client = "<?php echo get_option('ti_pubid');?>";
google_ad_width = 160;
google_ad_height = 600;
google_ad_format = "160x600_as";
google_ad_type = "text";
google_color_border = "ffffff";
google_color_bg = "ffffff";
google_color_link = "1B60AE";
google_color_text = "000000";
google_color_url = "000000";
</script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"></script>
</div>
<div class="clear"></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="featbottom"></div>

Can someone guide me? Thanks.

 

I currently operate two WP sites MarketSecrets.biz and WezeeMall.info which I installed and edit scripts myself so i am pretty decent with WordPress. But the first thing we would need to know is do you have any posts published being that you just installed the theme?

 

Hi, thanks for your reply, I have been checking this thread for reply...at last someone reply me, thanks again.

To answer your question, yes, I installed it in my live site, which has more than 100 posts and 10+ categories. The theme I use is DigitalBlue. This is the site of the designer & where I downloaded the theme: http://www.rockingwpthemes.com/3-colors/digitalblue-free-wp-theme/

Hope you can help me. Thanks.

 

what's your site so i can have a look at where this section should be and how it should look?

 

Here's My blog

btw, I added is_featured in "Custom Field" in edit post page, the post can show up in the Featured Posts now with Title & excerpts but No image, I have images in every post...so, now my problem has reduced to one only that is - any idea how to put post image in Featured posts? Thanks.

 

Those same custom fields in the edit post also allow you add image and there are a few plugins that do this..just put "featured posts with post images" into your WP Admin Add/Search New Plugin field and install the one that works best for you. If you don't like how it ends up looking then delete that plugin and try the next one.

I also found a great post on adding post images into your theme that is not too difficult to do...and here's yet another post using a different approach to Display Featured Posts with Thumbnails in WordPress..

..although it says "thumbnail" in the second approach you can alter the size and instead of putting it in your sidebar as they suggest you can just paste the call function into your main index

Tell me how this goes for you and if thnone of this does the tricjk then we''ll see what else can be done. Ther is always a way to manifest what you see in your mind

 

The themeyou're using expects you to enter an "image" custom field for each featured post and put the image URL into that custom field. If you try this and it doesn't work, try removing your site URL from the image path so it just starts from wp-content as sometimes the resizing scripts can freak out at a full image URL.

If you haven't put much effort into setting it up yet, I'd recommend finding a newer theme that lets you use the featured image (or "post thumbnail" as it's usually known), just to make life easier for yourself in future. A lot work by just having a "featured category" and showing whatever is posted there in your featured posts area, again it's a lot simpler from your point of view. WordPress has made some huge improvements in the last year and your theme might be awesome but it's most definitely out of date.

 

Hi, sorry for very later reply Yes, I added is_featured and image url, it works. Thanks