Install Cartavera

Requirements

	Minimum	Tested with
WordPress	6.7	7.1.4
PHP	7.4	8.2 and 8.3 (code is also checked for PHP 7.4 compatibility)
WooCommerce	9.6 recommended	11.2.1

Cartavera also runs without WooCommerce, as a content theme (see Using Cartavera without WooCommerce).

What’s in the download

The ZIP you download from your wpruby.com account, cartavera-<version>.zip, is the theme. It also contains the free Cartavera Blocks plugin (bundled/cartavera-blocks.zip), which the theme installs for you in step 3.

Don’t unzip the file before you upload it.

Install

1. In WordPress, go to Appearance → Themes → Add New Theme → Upload Theme.
2. Choose cartavera-<version>.zip, click Install Now, then Activate.
3. A notice at the top of the admin says Cartavera works best with the free Cartavera Blocks plugin. Click Install and activate Cartavera Blocks. You can do the same later from Appearance → Cartavera.
   • Installing plugins needs the install_plugins capability, which administrators have. Other users see Ask a site administrator to install and activate it.
   • If your host asks for FTP or SSH details, WordPress shows its usual connection form. Fill it in as you would for any plugin.
4. Install and activate WooCommerce if it isn’t active yet.
5. Check that your Cart and Checkout pages use the Cart and Checkout blocks. New WooCommerce stores have used them since WooCommerce 8.3. Pages that still use the [woocommerce_cart] and [woocommerce_checkout] shortcodes work, but they get less of Cartavera’s styling. See Cart and checkout.

Activate your licence

Cartavera works fully without a licence key. An active licence adds one-click updates. See Activate your licence.

First steps

You want to…	Go to
See the theme with sample products	Tools → Cartavera Sample Store. See Starter sites
Add your logo and site title	Appearance → Editor → Patterns → Header, or Settings → General for the title
Change colours and fonts	Appearance → Editor → Styles. See Styles
Pick another header or footer	Appearance → Editor → Patterns → Header (or Footer) → Replace. See Headers and footers
Edit the homepage	Appearance → Editor → Templates → Front Page. See The homepage
Make a Deals page	Create a page and choose the Deals page (sale products) template

Appearance → Cartavera is the theme’s own screen. It has a setup checklist that ticks off each step as you finish it (WooCommerce, Cartavera Blocks, products, logo, payments, shipping and licence), shortcuts to the styles, header, footer, homepage, menus and patterns in the Site Editor, a preview of every style variation, links to the few store settings Cartavera adds to WooCommerce, the Cartavera Blocks plugin status and the licence form.

Why the companion plugin?

Cartavera keeps the theme to design (templates, patterns, styles), and puts the features in the plugin. The plugin adds:

• the Store Search bar with live suggestions and a category selector
• the category drawer and the mega menu
• the account menu
• savings badges, rating summaries, “New” and “Best seller” badges
• purchase notes, the sale countdown, size guides and the wishlist button
• the sticky purchase bar on phones
• recently viewed products and the category grid
• quick view, free-shipping progress and the starter sites

Running the theme without the plugin

The theme still works if the plugin isn’t active. Where a plugin block would appear, Cartavera uses the closest WordPress or WooCommerce block, or leaves the spot empty:

Plugin feature	Without the plugin
Store Search	WordPress’s Search block, limited to products (no live suggestions or category selector)
Account menu	WooCommerce’s Customer Account block
Rating summary	WooCommerce’s Product Rating block
Savings badge	WooCommerce’s Sale badge
Category grid	Hidden on the homepage
Category drawer, purchase notes, sticky purchase bar, recently viewed	Not shown. The header still lists your top categories
Mega menu, badges, sale countdown, size guide, wishlist button, quick view, free-shipping progress	Not shown

Nothing you saved is lost. Plugin blocks in your saved pages and templates come back as soon as you activate the plugin again.

Using Cartavera without WooCommerce

Without WooCommerce, the header search becomes a normal site search and product sections are hidden. Administrators see a notice with an Install WooCommerce link. The blog, page, archive, search and 404 templates work as usual.

Updating the companion plugin

New versions of Cartavera Blocks come inside theme releases. When you update the theme and your installed copy of Cartavera Blocks is older than the one the theme includes, WordPress offers the newer version as a normal plugin update:

• Dashboard → Updates lists Cartavera Blocks under Plugins. Tick it and click Update Plugins.
• Plugins shows There is a new version of Cartavera Blocks available under the plugin, with an update now link.
• Appearance → Cartavera shows the installed and included versions in the Cartavera Blocks plugin panel, with an Update Cartavera Blocks button.

The update installs from the copy inside the theme, so it needs no licence and no download, and works on sites that can’t reach the internet. If you turned on automatic updates for Cartavera Blocks, WordPress applies it on its own. Your blocks, settings and content stay as they are.

If you’d rather update by hand, unzip the theme ZIP on your computer, go to Plugins → Add New Plugin → Upload Plugin, choose bundled/cartavera-blocks.zip from the unzipped folder and choose Replace current with uploaded.

The changelog says which plugin version each theme release bundles.