I chose Sky because it does a great job with the Geodirectory plugin for location-based directory listings.

However, the directory will just be one section of the site.

I want to use ASE, ASE add-ons and Lasso to make a great long-form storytelling online magazine.

I particularly like the Longform theme by Cohhe, but it seems it is not a trivial matter to just “merge” it with Sky.

Please advise if I can hire you to do this.

Let me explain further, and then perhaps you can advise me on the best course of action or offer some kind of service package.

I definitely want, need and require absolutely 100% of the features/functionality offered by Aesop Story Engine, its add-ons and Lasso. I have already purchased them all.

PLANNED SITE FUNCTIONS

I want to make a site that has the following features/sections.

1. Online Magazine (fancy blog)
This will be for rich media, long-form stories that uses all features of Aesop Story Engine, its add-ons and Lasso. One of your themes or Cohhe’s Longform theme would be ideal for this.

2. A directory of yoga studios
This will use Geodirectory and its various add-ons. So far, Cohhe’s Sky theme offers the best styling and improvements in usability that I have seen for this plugin.

3. A directory of yoga events
This will also use Geodirectory and its events add-on.

4. A directory of yoga teachers
This will use BuddyPress, the Geodirectory BuddyPress compatibility add-on and various other BuddyPress plugins to enable filtering and searching by custom fields so that people can find the right teacher near them.

OPTIONS

1. Create a child theme for an ASE-compatible that brings in the styling for Geodirectory that Sky offers.

2. Create a child theme for Sky that brings in the styling for ASE that a fully-compatible theme would offer.

3. Create separate sites and somehow have them linked together via BuddyPress?

WORKING WITH THE ASE TEAM

For options #1 or #2, hiring you guys to do the work would be ideal. In this case, I would pay you an agreed fee, and you would result in a child theme which you can sell as an additional product.

Or, perhaps if you don’t want to do this type of work, you could allow me to pay you to give advice, consulting and support to my developer – guiding him in the process of creating the child theme. I guess this would be like a premium support contract. I could pay you $X for Y-hours of support time.

Please kindly advise what you can offer.

Hi Michael,

No problem. I understand.

Tuna Traffic look awesome. Thanks for their info. Do they have any specific case study examples of creating child themes to enable full ASE compatibility that you’re aware of?

Hi Michael,

Actually, after all that fuss (thank you very much for taking the time to listen to my madness, BTW), we decided to instead use WP multisite because we will have various sections of the site that each need to use a dedicated theme.

FYI, our current thoughts are to use:
1. The “Longform” theme by Cohhe for our online magazine of long-form stories that will utilize ASE and Lasso. Once it’s ready, I’ll let you guys know and give you a testimonial for your showcase.
2. The “Sky” theme by Cohhe for our places and events directories using the Geodirectory plugin
3. The “Boss” theme by BossBuddy for our yoga teacher directory built with BuddyPress and some other BP-specific plugins

We’ll be using child themes for each one to give some uniformity in branding and navigation, but apart from that, should be able to use the themes as they are and enjoy smooth updates of the parent themes. Well, that’s our current thinking…

Anyway, thank you very much for the kind recommendation of TunaTraffic. They certainly look awesome and I’ll keep them in mind for possible future work.

I’m currently working with these guys:
http://www.tridaz.eu/ (their website is being renewed)
After I introduced them to ASE, they liked it and recommended it to one of their clients last week.

Best regards,
Dylan Robertson