Layouts and Demo Sites
Last updated: October 28, 2022
Objective: This doc will help guide you through the application or discussion of FareHarbor Sites’ pre-made templates. Templates are available on a page-by-page or full site basis and aim to speed up build times for clients that operate in a predictable way.
For suggestions on changes to templates, adding new templates, or recategorizing templates, please use the FareHarbor Sites Idea Box.
What are Demo Sites?
Demo Sites are full site templates for FareHarbor Sites that include prefabricated pages for everything we expect a client would need in a typical new site build. The pages don’t come with content (photos or text), but instead with empty pre-placed page elements for a variety of purposes.
Each full site template available in the Demo Site selection is geared towards a different type of client. There are templates suggested for food and beverage tours, history tours, watersports rentals, etc. There are templates suggested for clients with more or less text content, more or less photos, and more or less item selection as well. This information is listed on the Demo Site preview page.
Current Demo Sites
There are currently 6 Demo Sites:
What are Layouts?
Layouts are the individual page designs contained in each Demo Site by default.
Layouts are not restricted to being used only with the Demo Site that contains them. Clients can pick and choose what page Layouts they’d like to include in their site build regardless of what overall Demo Site they may choose to begin with.
Layouts should be a starting point for page design. While the aim is to have everything the client needs already on the page, there is no restriction for changing page design once the Layout has been picked.
Layouts are previewable from their native Demo Site page on sites.fareharbor.com under the heading “Layouts included in this Demo Site”. Click on any page title to view the Layout.
How to Apply a Demo Site
Demo Sites may only be applied at the beginning of a website project. The more you know about the content the client can provide, the easier it will be to choose a Demo Site.
- Open the FareHarbor Sites WordPress Admin.
- Click “Add New Site”
- After filling the required company information (URL, Lead ID, shortname, etc), click Add Site.
- A template selector should appear with links to each Demo Site.
- Examine the qualities of each Demo Site to find the best fit for your client
- Click on the Demo Site you’d like to start the build with and you’re ready to start!
How to Apply a Layout
Layouts will comprise all of the Pages in a Demo Site build. If you are not building from a Demo Site, Layouts must be applied at the beginning of a page build.
- Log into the FareHarbor Site and navigate to the Pages section
- Click Add New page
- The Layout Selector will appear, and act much like an Activity Grid
- Each Layout has a preview link and a link to select the Layout
- Click Use this layout and you’re ready to enter the page content!
Feature Restrictions
Client Access:
Clients will only be able to view Demo Sites from the front end of sites.fareharbor.com, they will not be able to apply them in Wordpress.
Choosing Demo Sites or Layouts to start a website project is restricted to FareHarbor employees for the time being.
When to Apply Layouts:
- Layouts must be applied at the beginning of a page build.
- Existing page content cannot be automatically transferred to a Layout. A new Layout page would need to be created and then the content could be manually placed.
- Layouts should be applied only for informational pages. There are no layouts for Activities or Blog posts.
Feature Selling Points
Sites Project Coordinators/Managers can find tips on using this feature to guide Discovery Calls here.
Other client-facing positions are encouraged to show Demo Sites tagged with a similar company concept when answering live site requests, making sales pitches, or conducting discovery calls. Here are some talking points in case you need to describe the feature to a client.
- Thanks to our new Demo Sites and Layouts, FareHarbor Sites can be built faster than ever
- Get up and running on a new FareHarbor website in a fraction of the time it took before
- Start from a website template that has web best practices baked in while keeping control over the end design
- Templates built by our in-house web designers
- Based on thousands of hours building sites for tourism/activity operators
- Different features suggested to meet unique tourism/activity business demands
- Mix and match layouts from different demo sites to find your perfect fit
- 30+ page templates to choose from
- A continuously growing library of templates