Where did my support ticket go???

Hi Brickley,

The reason you can’t find your support ticket is because you tacked it onto the end of somebody else’s – link. I cannot and, even if I could, would not delete any support requests.

I would like to make it clear that I have made this plugin and provided it for free. Moreover, all support requests are answered for free in my spare time. Your request smacks of an entitlement that you do not have and I do not appreciate it.

As I said, I am unable to provide the css necessary to sort your issue. This is because all you have shown me is an image of the problem and styling varies significantly enough that I can’t simply guess at it.

Notably though, front-end styling issues do not fall into the remit of this plugin. They are a themes’ and each site’s developers’ concern.

If you have attempted the css and have not managed to solve the issue then either you need to take the time to improve your knowledge of css or hire a front-end web developer to do the job for you.

This kind of issue is the most common support ticket I receive, so it does sound familiar and if you haven’t found a similar issue in the forum, you simply haven’t tried hard enough (#1, #2, #3, #4, …).

Joe

Take a breath Joe…

I didn’t say you deleted the ticket – I asked where did it go? And why would it be missing… You’re right, I now see I piggy backed it onto someone else’s ticket, so my bad for loosing track of it – fair enough.

Entitled…?

Those whose comments I read on this support forum, heap praise on your work and there seems to be a stellar rating for this plugin. Congrats. But my experience has not been nearly worth 5-stars.

Rather than just slamming your plugin right off with a bad rating and leaving, I started by saying “I too want to say your search plugin is brilliant.” I gave you a chance to step up and offer something by way of help. Your reply essentially left me right where I was when I wrote you – on my own.

I didn’t feel entitled to that.

But, working the problem I’m having with your plugin by hacking at the CSS -which I’ve been writing for ->years<- would be okay if I knew in advance how the pieces are “supposed” to fit and work together. Presuming my incompetence is um, what’s the word I’m looking for… oh, yeah, “unfortunate.”

Understand that your widget as it appears when your plugin is turned off – what remains in the menu bar – is a magnifying glass icon followed by the word “Search.” That’s actually what I have been hoping for all along – that looks great.

But when your plugin is turned back on (on my genesis framework site) that all goes away and is replaced by a span, a submit box, and a button – that are WAY outsized and displaced. Thus, it all appears broken.

Knowing that I’m indeed on my own to make your plugin work, because it’s (as you said) “free” and I am “not entitled,” I took yet another stab at it…

I tried using the search function by typing something in the box – and yes, the function works. So back to CSS…

Digging, digging, digging… Lo and behold… both the search input field and the label boxes have a CSS attribute – width:100% – that breaks the layout. Those values are coming from the local theme CSS. I’ve looked and your plugin arrived with very little CSS of it’s own – so your plugin is essentially a leaf in the wind, carried off by whatever css the theme decides it should get.

Might you get fewer support questions if you set some hard CSS values?

So what follows is for the benefit of anyone else who might install this plugin and have a similar issue of the Bop-Nav-Search button and input box are stacked and dropped completely out of the menu bar – and feel like they are, as I was, left with that “Ikea” feeling – on their own to fix it themselves.

I’m offering this CSS “for free” because if – like me – you were led to installing this item by seeing so may glowing reviews and 5-star ratings you are “entitled” to at least fair shot at it working.

These 3 CSS blocks are meant as suggestions only – Review and decide for yourself, but this css should help you to get started putting these elements back where they belong.

The most important lines are these 2:

width: xxxpx; (where xxx = some integer value – like 100)

and in the “screen-reader-text” only:

display: inline-block;

in your custom CSS, add these lines:

/*——————–Bop Search widget———————–*/

.bop-nav-search label input[type=”search”] {
background-color: #CCCCCC;
font-size: 11px;
color: #FFFFFF;
letter-spacing: .2em;
width: 130px;
border: none;
padding: 6px 0 7px 10px;
height: 26px;
}

.bop-nav-search label .screen-reader-text {
display: inline-block;
background-color: #BBBBBB;
border: none;
color: #FFFFFF;
cursor: pointer;
font-family: Lato, sans-serif;
font-size: 11px;
font-weight: 400;
letter-spacing: .2em;
padding: 0;
height: 26px;
line-height: 25px;
text-align: center;
text-transform: uppercase;
width: 70px;
}

.bop-nav-search input[type=”submit”] {
background-color: #AAAAAA;
border: none;
color: #FFFFFF;
cursor: pointer;
font-family: Lato, sans-serif;
font-size: 11px;
font-weight: 400;
letter-spacing: .2em;
padding: 5px 0px;
text-align: center;
text-transform: uppercase;
height: 26px;
width: 66px;
}

/*—————————————–*/

I’ve left the background colors bright so you can see where they sit and what size they are.

The work is not done yet as – now that I have things put in place – I still need to make it all look like belongs where it’s at.

So, Bob, In the end, with your plugin installed, I have “something” that begins to sort of “resemble” what I had hoped for. And yes, I know it’s free. Your plugin stands out as the only one that seems to be able to live in the menu bar – where others have said that’s not possible – and I’m sure I’ll make work – eventually. But once I’m done I won’t forget how I got there.

And no, I won’t appreciate it.

Hi Brickley,

Are you seriously suggesting that your message at the start of this thread wasn’t, in a snide fashion, heavily implying that I’d done something to get rid of your previous request? The quotes around discussion make the overall insinuation quite clear.

I feel I ought to respond to a couple of your points.

> …I gave you a chance to step up…

Forgive me for this. Entitled? Yes, you clearly think that I’m privileged in some way to be helping to build your website.

> Understand that your widget as it appears when your plugin is turned off – what remains in the menu bar – is a magnifying glass icon followed by the word “Search.” That’s actually what I have been hoping for all along – that looks great.

The search menu items are saved to the db in the same place as ordinary menu items using the same key=>value pairs for information (this is somewhat due to the restrictive nature of the WP admin area design in this section of the system). On deactivation, plugins are only supposed to remove certain things (e.g., cached materials) and, generally speaking, info shouldn’t be deleted from the database. One of the main reasons is because plugins are deactivated in the upgrading process. Hence, when you deactivated, the search item was still part of the menu. However, because there is then no code telling it to be a search form rather than an ordinary menu item called search, it comes out as just a normal menu item with no search capacity. Naturally, a menu item of this sort will fit more with your theme’s design.

> Might you get fewer support questions if you set some hard CSS values?

No, as I have mentioned twice already, there are a multitude of ways that people theme their websites; there is no point in me second-guessing how they will. Moreover, it would add another request to their website (making it more clunky) and it would make it even harder for them to restyle. Further, it breaks any sense of the idea of separation of function and design – the main reason for WP having a plugins folder and a themes folder.

I decided with careful aforethought that it was better to use the WordPress default search form html and no additional css, so that the form would appear as any third-party theme would have designed it. Whether that’ll fit especially well with the menu is unknown, but it’s the best guess with the least interference and hindrance to the user’s website.

Note well, that if you had the native WordPress search form provided by the default get_search_form anywhere reasonable in your site, it would look very similar to the one you got in your menu. The issue is not that my plugin provides a broken looking form, but that your theme (Genesis) has a menu-search form mismatch.

Finally, the next time you seek support, remember that it’s a two-way relationship and that if you’re not polite and respectful to them, they might not be in return.

Cheers,
Joe

Yes Joe – Seriously not snide.

“discussion” = 2 people sharing a conversation. What words we exchanged in the beginning felt more like you talking “at” me. Very similar to the way you continue to lecture even now.

Your explanation above, about the non-functional menu search widget, I already understood. I got that. I brought it up in the first place as a point of reference about the look of it when the plugin is non-functioning and deactivated vs activated and (looking) broken. The contrast…

I did not ask or need your help to build my website (this has really gotten under your skin…) I just asked you to shed some light on why your plugin “seemed” broken here – when so many other people showered it with praise.

This is rapidly becoming pointless.

Allow me to leave it at this – may I?

You have talent Joe. Your skills are obvious and your accomplishments set the best example of how someone can apply their passions. You are here because you want to be and your work is to the benefit of many.

I know you will continue to do good things here and I’ll stop by now and then to see what you’re up to.

Okay?