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Creator can be downloaded directly from SmartSimian.com, either as part of the Standard or Pro Bundles, or by itself.  After purchase, you will be provided a link which downloads the plugin to your computer as a .zip file.

Creator can be installed the same way as any WordPress plugin.  Follow these steps:

1. Make sure you have the downloaded copy of SmartSimian Creator (the .zip file) on your computer.
2. Log into your WordPress dashboard and go to Plugins > Add New.
3. Click “Upload”.
4. Click the upload button underneath “Install a plugin in .zip format”.  Navigate to your downloaded copy of SmartSimian Creator and select it.
5. Click “Install Now” and wait for the plugin to install.
6. Click “Activate Plugin”.

SmartSimian Creator will now be installed and activated on your website.

Entering Your License Key

After purchasing the plugin, you will receive a license key in your Purchase Receipt email.  Once you activate the plugin on your site, you can enter the license by going to Creator > Home, and then clicking on the “Licenses” tab.

Simply paste the license key into the form, then click “Update Licenses”.  This may take a few seconds as the license is verified.  If successful, a green checkmark will appear next to the license key indicating that the license has been activated.

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The home screen, accessible from your dashboard at Creator > Home, shows basic information about your SmartSimian plugins.  You can see which extensions are installed, which components are being used, and options to export or import settings packages.

Components

“Components” are different sections of SmartSimian.  The base Creator plugin comes with four (Content, Fields, Taxonomies, and Connections), and the extension plugins all add their own.  This box shows how many items have been created in each component, and a description of that component.

Status

The status box tells you what SmartSimian plugins you are running, and their current version numbers.

Tools

In the tools box, you will find  Export, Import, and Delete buttons.

Export

Click the Export button to be taken to a page that lists all of your SmartSimian configurations — your content types, field groups, etc. You may uncheck or check certain items to exclude or include them in the export. Click “Generate Package” when finished and a package file will be downloaded that can be saved as a backup or uploaded to any other SmartSimian installation.

Import

To import an existing package, upload the file here and click the Import button. You will be taken to a page that lists all configurations in this package. You may uncheck or check certain items to exclude or include them in the import. Click “Import Package” when finished, and the items selected will be imported.

An attempt to import an item with the same system name as an existing item on your site will be skipped. For example, if your site contains a content type called “book”, then a package containing a content type called “book” will not be able to import that content type.

Delete

Delete allows you to clear your site of all SmartSimian configurations and start fresh. Click on the Delete button to go to a verification page. If you’re sure, then click “Delete Everything, I’m Sure”.

Upon deletion, an export package containing all configurations that were just deleted will attempt to automatically download. This can be used to restore the configurations that were just deleted.

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What are content types?

As we introduced in the Creator overview, a content type is a way to create, edit, and store information. WordPress comes with some content types already built in.  Posts, Pages, and Media are the three major ones, but there are also two private content types — Revisions and Navigation Menu Items.

SmartSimian allows you to create your own custom content types — to handle things like slides, videos, podcasts, recipes, or anything else you may need.

Note: elsewhere in the WordPress world, you might see content types called “custom post types”.  That’s always been a little confusing because there’s already a built-in content type called “posts”, so we consider “content types” a better name.

Content Types are controlled via the “Content” item in the Creator menu of the dashboard.  Through there, you can reach screens that enable you to view all content types, edit an existing content type, or add a new content type.

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What are fields?

All entries in a content type need to have certain information associated with them.  By default, WordPress lets you add things like titles, content, and authors.

For your custom content types, you will inevitably need more specific information.  For example, a “Movie” content type might need fields for Synopsis, Release Date, Running Time, Poster, Rating, and Official Site.

A field is just a single piece of information.  It can be a simple text field, a large text box, a date, a file, a checkbox, and more.

Taxonomies (a list of specific options, displayed in a dropdown, checklist, or radio button list) and Connections (direct relationships between multiple entries) can also be added as fields.

“Field Groups”

SmartSimian enables you to create Field Groups, or sets of these fields.  These field groups can then be added to one or more content types.  Each field group can have as many fields as you like.

Field groups are controlled via the “Fields” item in the Creator menu of the dashboard.  Through there, you can reach screens that enable you to view all field groups, edit the fields within an existing field group, or add a new field group.

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Overview: What are Taxonomies?

Taxonomies are ways to classify entries in a content type.

A taxonomy is a single set of classifying information.  Categories and tags are the two main taxonomies built into WordPress.

A term is a single option within the taxonomy. For example, for Categories, each individual category is a term.

“Categories” and “tags” are both, by design, very broadly-defined.  Your own taxonomies can be as specific as you need:

• A Book content type could have a taxonomy called Genre with terms like Mystery, Romance, and Sci-Fi
• A Vehicle content type could have a taxonomy called Brand with terms like Ford, Audi, and Jaguar
• A Clothing content type could have a taxonomy called Size with terms like S, M, L, XL, and XXL

Whenever you need to categorize something by choosing from a set of possible values, chances are you should use a taxonomy.

Let’s say you’re creating a content type called “Movie”.  You’re thinking about all the information you need to record for each movie, so you jot down:

• Title
• Synopsis
• Release Date
• Rating

Of that information, Title can be handled with the default title field.  Synopsis could be a text box field, and Release Date could be a date field.

Then you get to Rating.  At first, you think it could be a basic text field where you could type in the rating — G, PG, PG-13 and so on.  But every movie you add is going to be one of five or six ratings.  It would make more sense to create a master list of those ratings, which you could then choose from whenever creating a movie.  You wouldn’t have to worry about typos, and you could do cool things on your site like list movies by a specific rating.  That’s a taxonomy.

Taxonomy terms can also have parent-child relationships, in the same way that post categories can have sub-categories. For example, we could have a taxonomy called Colors with terms Primary and Secondary. We could then add Red, Yellow, and Blue as child terms to the term Primary, and we could add Green, Orange, and Purple to the term Secondary.

Taxonomies are controlled via the “Taxonomies” item in the Creator menu of the dashboard.  Through there, you can reach screens that enable you to view all taxonomies, edit a taxonomy, or add a new taxonomy.

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Connections allow you to create direct relationships between any two posts, of any content type, or users.

While fields allow you to add information to content, and taxonomies allow you to categorize your content in various ways, connections can link all your content and users together.

Example usage:

• Articles connected to multiple Authors
• Multiple Reviews connected to Movies
• Cars connected to Brands
• Locations connected to Events
• Recipes connected to Ingredients
• Conferences connected to Sessions, which are connected to Presenters
• Leagues connected to Teams, which are connected to Players

In the documentation that follows, two terms will be used often:

• A connection refers to a single instance of one post or user connected to another post or user
• A connection type refers to a certain kind of connection — usually two specific content types related to each other for a specific reason. Each example listed above could be a connection type.

SmartSimian allows you to set up connection types, which in turn allow you to create connections.  For example, given three content types — Leagues, Teams, and Players — you would create one connection type between Leagues and Teams, and one between Teams and Players.

Connection types are controlled via the “Connections” item in the Creator menu of the dashboard.  Through there, you can reach screens that enable you to view all connection types, edit a connection type, or add a new connection type.  You can also set up connection types when creating fields.

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In a number of different scenarios in SmartSimian, when you select a content type from a dropdown, a box labeled “Narrow…” appears.  This allows you to limit results to a more specific set of entries within that content type.

This option is available when you:

• Create a connection type: limit the posts that are available to be connected
• Create a Query: limit the results that will be returned
• Create a Report: limit what appears in the report

Some examples of what you can do with “Narrow”:

• Return all posts in a particular category
• Return all posts with a particular parent
• Return all posts with a specific field value
• Return five specific users of my choice

Begin by clicking the “Narrow…” button to display a table with additional options.

Parameters that allow you to narrow your results are called “Rules”.  To add one, select a value from the “Select Rule” dropdown that appears.  When you do, more options will appear pertaining to that rule to the right.

You can add multiple rules by clicking the “Add Rule” button at the bottom of the table, or delete existing rules by clicking the trash bin icon to the right of each rule.

Available rules for content types (click the link to jump to the section):

• Status
• Author
• Published Date
• Parent
• Custom Field
• Taxonomy
• Direct Connections
• Specific Items

Available rules for users:

• Role
• Custom Field
• Search Phrase
• Specific Items

Status

This allows you to limit results to content that have certain statuses (such as “Published”, “Pending”, and “Draft”).

When you select this rule, a multi-select box labeled “Select Status” will appear.  Click inside it to select one or more statuses.

Unless this is set, only “Published” content is returned by default.

Author

This allows you to limit results to content by specific authors, or content not by specific authors.

When you select this rule, a few options will appear:

• A dropdown with which you can toggle “Includes” (only return posts by the specified authors) or “Excludes” (return posts except ones by the specified authors).
• For Queries only: one of two radio buttons can be selected: “Current global post’s author” or “Specific user”.  “Current global post’s author” is useful when this query is placed on a page that displays one singular post; each result will be content with the same author as that post.  “Specific user” means that each result will have the author specified using the box underneath.
• A box labeled “Search by username or email”.  Click inside and begin typing to search registered users.  A list of users will appear.  Select the user or users you wish. You can ignore this option if “Current global post’s author”, above, is selected.

Published Date

This allows you to limit results to content published at a specific time.

When you select this rule, a group of text boxes will appear labeled “Year”, “Month”, “Date”, “Hour”, and “Minute”.  Enter numbers in these boxes to limit the date.

For example, to return only content from December 2001, enter “2001” in Year and “12” in Month.  To return all content from 2015, enter “2015” in Year and leave the rest blank.

Parent

This allows you to limit results to content with a specific parent.

When you select this rule, the following options will appear:

• For Queries only: One of two radio buttons can be selected: “Current global post” or “Specific post”.  “Current global post” is useful when this query is placed on a page that displays one singular post; each result will be a child of that post.  “Specific post” means that each result will be a child of the post specified using the box underneath.
• “Search all posts”, when clicked on, will display a search box. Begin typing for the specific content you are looking for.  A list of results will appear; select the post you want.  Only content that his this chosen post as a parent will be returned. You can ignore this option if “Current global post”, above, is selected.

Custom Field

This allows you to limit results to content containing specific field values.

When you select this rule, a few options will appear:

• “Field Name” is a text box where you can enter the system name of the field you want to use.
• The dropdown underneath includes comparison operators such as “Equal To”, “Greater Than”, and “Less Than”.
• For Queries only: One of the two radio buttons can be selected: “Current global post’s field value” is useful when this query is placed on a page that displays one singular post; each potential result will be compared against the field value of that post.  “Specific field value” means each potential result will be compared against the field value specified in the box underneath.
• “Field Value” is where you can specify the value of the field.  Checkbox field values will be “1” if checked. You can ignore this option if “Current global post’s field value”, above, is selected.

Examples:

1. You have a series of articles. Each article has a field called “Featured” (system name: “featured”) in which you can check a box to mark the article as featured or not.  You want to only return featured articles, so your selections would be:

• featured
• Equal To
• (queries only) Specific field value
• 1

2. You have a large directory of movies.  Each movie has a field called “Running Time” (system name: “running_time”) which contains the length of the movie in minutes.  You want to only return movies that are less than an hour and a half long, so your selections would be:

• running_time
• Less Than
• (queries only) Specific field value
• 90

Taxonomy

This allows you to limit results to content that has, or does not have, specific taxonomy terms.

When you select this rule, a “Select Taxonomy” dropdown menu will appear. Once a taxonomy is selected, a few more options will appear:

• A dropdown with options for”Includes any”, “Includes all”, and “Does not include”.
• For Queries only: Two radio buttons: “Current global post’s [taxonomy terms]” and “Specific [taxonomy terms]”.  The “Current global post” option is useful when you plan on placing this query on a page that displays one singular post; each potential query result will be compared against the taxonomy terms of that post.  The “Specific” option means each potential result is compared against the taxonomy term(s) selected in the box underneath.
• A “Select [taxonomy terms]” multi-select box that lists all the terms in the chosen taxonomy.  You can ignore this option if the “Current global post” option, above, is selected.

Examples:

1. You want to return all posts in a specific category called “Exclusives”. Your selections would be:

• Category
• Includes any of…
• (queries only) Specific Category
• Exclusives

2. Your site has a number of Events, and each event is assigned a taxonomy called Event Type.  You’re placing a query in the sidebar of all single Event pages, and you want all events with the current event’s Event Type to be displayed.  Your selections would be:

• Event Type
• Includes any of…
• Current global post’s Event Type

Direct Connections

This allows you to limit results to content that is connected to other specific content.

When you select this rule, a “Select connection type” dropdown menu will appear. Once a connection type is selected, the following options will appear:

• For Queries only: Two radio buttons: “Current global post” and “Specific post”.  “Current global post” is useful when you plan on placing this query on a page that displays one singular post; each potential query result will be connected to that post. “Specific post” means each potential result will be connected to the content specified in the box underneath.
• A “Search all posts” multi-select box that lists all the content in the appropriate content type.  Click inside it to search by title and select one or more posts. You can ignore this option if the “Current global post” option, above, is selected.

Example:

1. You have one content type called “Recipes” and one content type called “Ingredients”.  They’re connected to each other via a connection type called “Recipes/Ingredients”.  You have an ingredient called “black beans” and you want to list all recipes with black beans in them, so your selections would be:

• Recipes/Ingredients
• (queries only) Specific post
• “black beans”

2. Same situation as above, except you want to list all ingredients a particular recipe has on that recipe’s public page with a query.  Your selections would be:

• Recipes/Ingredients
• Current global post

Specific Items

This allows you to limit results to hand-picked content of your choice.

When you select this rule, a few options will appear:

• An “include”/”exclude” dropdown. That is, either only include certain content, or return all content except for what you exclude here.
• For Queries only: Two radio buttons: “Current global post” and “Specific posts”.  “Current global post” is useful when you plan on placing this query on a page that displays one singular post; each potential query result will include or exclude that post. “Specific posts” means that only the content specified in the box underneath will be included or excluded.
• A “Search all posts” (or in the case of users, “Search by username or email”) multi-select box that lists all the relevant posts.  Click inside it to search and select one or more posts. You can ignore this option if the “Current global post” option, above, is selected.

Examples:

1. You want to show three specific posts on your homepage with a query.  Your selections will be:

• Includes
• Specific posts
• [Any three posts you choose]

2. You want to create a query that lists all the pages on your site except for the page the visitor is currently looking at.  Your selections will be:

• Excludes
• Current global post

Role

This allows you to limit results to only users of a specific role.

When you select this rule, a “Select Role” dropdown will appear listing all of your site’s user roles.  Select the desired role.

Search Phrase

This allows you to limit results to only users whose usernames, email addresses, or display names include a specific search term.

When you select this rule, a “Search terms” text box will appear.  Enter the desired search term.  For example, entering “dave” returns only users for whom “dave” appears somewhere on their user account.