Getting Started (Installation & Initial Setup)

Mai Theme is a different theme than most WordPress themes. The power of Mai Theme lies in it’s flexible customization settings in the Customizer, Content Areas (block-based widget areas), and custom blocks like Mai Post/Term Grid, Mai Columns, Mai Icon, and Mai Divider.

With these unique features Mai Theme makes it simple to create beautiful sites quickly, the possibilities are endless. Our docs will help you get setup in minutes, and walk you through the available customization settings.

We hope our documentation provides the information you need. If you’re still stuck after reading the documentation, please send us a note and we’ll be happy to help you.

Requirements

Please have the following ready or already installed.

1. The latest version of WordPress installed on your hosting.
2. The latest version of the Genesis Framework zip file from your BizBudding account.
3. Your chosen Mai Theme zip file from your BizBudding account.

Mai Theme

Login to your WordPress website. First, you need to install the Genesis Framework if you haven’t already, and then install your purchased Mai Theme. You will need to activate Mai Theme when you are finished installing.

1. In the WordPress menu, click on Appearance > Themes.
2. At the top, click on Add New button.
3. At the top, click the Upload Theme button.
4. Click the Choose File button, and find the file for Genesis on your computer; it will have an ending of “.zip”.
5. Click the Install Now button.
6. Repeat steps 1-5 with Mai Theme.
7. Finally, click the text link Activate next to Mai Theme.

Mai Engine

Mai Theme requires the Mai Engine plugin to power much of its core layout, features, and functionality. Here are some things to understand about our engine plugin.

1. The Mai Engine plugin will be automatically installed and activated when any Mai Theme is activated.
2. If you activate a theme that doesn’t support Mai Engine, the plugin will automatically deactivate itself.
3. 99% of our updates come safely via the Mai Engine plugin. You can simply update as you would any other plugin in WordPress.

Mai Icons

After installing Mai Theme and Mai Engine, you should see a notice to install Mai Icons with one-click. Mai Icons is recommended to use with Mai Theme and Mai Engine. Without it, Mai Icons block, [mai_icon] shortcode, and menu search toggle icons will not display. You can also install Mai Icons via Mai Theme Pro plugin or download manually anytime from your BizBudding account.

Mai Design Pack & Mai Plugins

If you have an active subscription to Mai Theme Pro you can install the Mai Theme Pro plugin to get easy access to all of our premium add-on plugins.

Troubleshooting

The Mai Engine plugin and Mai Icons plugins are larger plugin like WooCommerce, Yoast SEO, Gravity Forms, etc. If you run into issues with the engine installation/update process you are likely using a shared hosting account like GoDaddy/Bluehost/HostGator/etc. These hosts typically have a really low PHP timeout set, and the process times out before the engine is done installing. Nothing is actually broken or wrong, there’s just not enough time to install. We’re looking into alternate ways to make this less of an issue in the future.

Here are the steps that should resolve the issue.

1. If the engine partially installed, you’ll need to delete the entire  mai-engine or mai-icons directory from /wp-content/plugins/mai-engine . You can also ask the host to do this.

2. Ask the host to increase your PHP timeout limit. We have yet to hear of any host denying this request.

3. Visit Dashboard > Plugins to trigger the auto-installer. You may have to refresh once. You should see a “Mai Engine installed” notice.

Managing Your Account & Subscription