calicosun

Thanks for looking at this.

1. No error message with start_wp (); but the actual page content doesn’t display. I did try setup_postdata($post); when attempting to problem solve and when I used that the page content on every page displays the testimonial details ie. home page should have home page info (well full in text at the moment!) but whatever random testimonial was displayed in sidebar – the content would display in homepage… same when I go to about page.

This problem also occurs with the Recent news if the Testimonials are not displayed in the left sidebar. The code I used to display the recent news is:

<?php $posts = get_posts("category=6" . $cat->cat_ID . "&numberposts=4");
            if( $posts ) : ?>
            <?php foreach( $posts as $post ) : setup_postdata( $post ); ?>
            <li><a href="<?php // bump out what we need courtesy of template tags
            the_permalink(); ?>" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to <?php the_title_attribute(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></li>

            <?php endforeach; ?>
                <?php endif; ?>

Here is the url to the development site so you can see for yourself: https://tbminsurance.slicetest.co.nz/. (unless I have managed to fix by the time you look at it). If I remove the testimonial block the recent news article title shows in whatever page I am on. If the testimonial block is there then the testimonial content displays.

It is strange as this problem does not occur when I put either of the code in the right menu, just the left. I can’t think where else the problem is coming from.

2. The excerpt is set up in functions:

<?php
// Sets the post excerpt length to 40 characters.

add_filter( 'excerpt_length', 'texcerpt_length' );
function excerpt_length( $length ) {
    return 40;
}

add_filter('excerpt_length', 'new_excerpt_length');
function excerpt_ellipse($text) {
   return str_replace('[...]', ' <a href="'.get_permalink().'"> more...</a>', $text); }

   add_filter('the_excerpt', 'excerpt_ellipse');
function new_excerpt_more($more) {
$ct=get_the_category($post->ID); $ct = $ct[0]->cat_ID;
return '<a href="'. get_category_link($ct) . '"> more ...</a>';
}

add_filter( 'excerpt_more', 'auto_excerpt_more' );
?>

3. readmore: That was my mistake – eyeballs tired from trying to sort out the above problem so overlooked this. Thanks for pointing it out!

Do you have any idea why the sidebar content is being displayed in all the pages?

Thanks so much. I have spent hours trying to figure this one out so any help would be very much appreciated.

Hi Jupiter76

You mentioned you hard coded the images. Did you figure out how to integrate the script to enable the images to be uploaded via word press by any chance?

I am not very experienced with scripts so gave up trying to figure it out. Disappointing as so far Galleriffic seems to be the best gallery script – fast, light and very cross browser compatible.

Thanks!

Thanks for you help. I am using carousel at the moment but it doesn’t have the forward/back arrows. I really want the viewer to have both options ie. navigate by clicking on the thumbnail or clicking the forward arrow.

Thanks shauno. I do appreciate you looking into this for me.

I have spent some more time looking into this but my knowledge of scripts and php is still developing so it is a bit like looking for a needle in a Haystack for me. I have enough knowledge now to have some idea of where to look usually but this one has got me totally stumped.

I have noticed another problem in that all the titles have become links. I know why that is – I just need to figure out how to code the php so it displays the album title as a link if something is in the custom field and if not just the album title not as a link.

I am hoping to have my site live by the end of the weekend so perhaps it might be easier if you wait until then – I can post when it has happened – so you can see exactly what I am talking about.

Hi Shauno

Closing as you suggested breaks the code completely, including removing the title name completely. I work with strict and closing as I did validated fine, plus the code works fine (except for the link duplicating behind the scenes). It is also how the other hrefs are closed in this file and others I have seen when enclosing a php tag so I don’t think that is why I am having the duplicated link problem – plus the links display perfectly (with the tag) when view in firebug, html.

Hi ontwerp73
Thanks for replying. Hmmm – not sure if your suggestion is going to work for me but thanks… first off I just want the title to have the link. I have the large image displaying on the page with the title underneath and then the thumbnails using the carousel (https://nextgen-gallery.com/templates/carousel/) nextGEN theme. Carousel doesn’t use the imagerotator.php file. There will only be some titles that need to link as the portfolio is a combination of both printed work and websites – only want a link for the website.

Does anyone else have any suggestions as to why this might be happening? Again, apologies for not having the site live – I know this makes things harder to get help.

I get a bit confused when closing a tags in this situation. I have done it like this:

<a href="<?php echo nggcf_get_field($current->pid, "Link"); ?>" /> <?php echo $current->alttext ?>

ie. with the />. The code I first posted just had the > …. but that seemed to validate with strict.

Am I closing it incorrectly? breaks things.

Thanks for looking at this by the way. I do appreciate it and know it is a pain that my site isn’t live.

Hi there

Thanks for your quick reply. Have tried your suggestion and have the same problem as using the $current. They both work, even the source code looks fine but the first thumb nail is not positioned properly as there is a random sitting in there that has been duplicated. When I check the html code using firebug you can see the repeated links (3x). It looks like this – not all the code, just the code that shows the duplicate links of bayhomeopathy. The first one is correct the rest have sneaked in…:

<div class="ngg-galleryoverview">
<div class="albumtitle">
<a href="https://bayhomeopathy.co.nz/">
titleofimage</a>
</div>
<a href="https://bayhomeopathy.co.nz/"> </a>
<div class="ngg-galleryoverview">
<a href="https://bayhomeopathy.co.nz/"> </a>
<div class="ngg-gallery-list">
<a href="https://bayhomeopathy.co.nz/"> </a>
<li id="ngg-image-88" class+"ngg-thumbnail-list">
<a href="https://bayhomeopathy.co.nz/"> </a>
<a title=" " href="/slicecreative/portfolio/other-projects/thumbs/thumb id="ngg-image-88" class="ngg-thumbnail-list"> and some other stuff</a>
</li>

Thank you so much for helping me out. I took your code which worked perfectly and made a few minor adjustments so the child category heading linked through to a page that displayed excerpts of the posts in that category and to remove the words ‘List of posts in category’. Here is my final code in case it is helpful to anyone else:

<?php
//get terms (e.g. categories or post tags), then display all posts in each retrieved term
$taxonomy = 'category';//  e.g. post_tag, category
$param_type = 'category__in'; //  e.g. tag__in, category__in
$term_args=array(
  'orderby' => 'name',
  'order' => 'ASC',
  'child_of' => 16
);
$terms = get_terms($taxonomy,$term_args);
if ($terms) {
  foreach( $terms as $term ) {
    $args=array(
      "$param_type" => array($term->term_id),
      'post_type' => 'post',
      'post_status' => 'publish',
      'showposts' => -1,
      'caller_get_posts'=> 1
      );
    $my_query = null;
    $my_query = new WP_Query($args);
    if( $my_query->have_posts() ) {

      echo '<li><a href="' . get_category_link( $term->term_id ) . '" title="' . sprintf( __( "View all posts in %s" ), $term->name ) . '" ' . '>' . $term->name. '</a> ';

      while ($my_query->have_posts()) : $my_query->the_post(); ?>
        <ul><li><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to <?php the_title_attribute(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></li></ul>
       <?php
             endwhile;
    }
  }
}
wp_reset_query();  // Restore global post data stomped by the_post().
?>

Thanks so much.

Forgot to mention… go have a look at the show case. There are a heap of sites up using the plugin and some of them are featured here:

https://getshopped.org/showcase/

Also, I should clarify, was tired and in a hurry when I wrote the above post – when I said it is not perfect, I mean that it does what it does really well but there are more features that would be great to have. One is multi-currency which was a big thing for me and yay… they are working on that at the moment and should be done in a few weeks.

If you are using wordpress I would strongly suggest you give wp e-commerce another go. It is not perfect yet but they are certainly doing their best to move it forward. In just the last few months major improvements have occurred in all areas. It is a, mostly, free plugin and in an ideal world there would be more support on the forums but they do their best. There are some amazing technicians who pop in there and help out where they can and most of what you need you will find by searching the forums.

As I said, it is not perfect but it does work and the developers are proactive in moving this plugin forward. There is a great community of suppport if you look around. I don’t have any affiliation with wp e-commerce and have certainly had my frustrations with the plugin. As I said it is not perfect but most of my frustrations have been due to not knowing how to do something or expecting it to something that it can’t. Their documentation still needs improvement but again, I know they are aware of this, and are working on it. It is a case of never having enough time to do everything I suspect. I still feel it is the best option and it is a good option for a lot of situations.

Hi there. Have installed Role Scoper but there doesn’t seem to be any area where you can set permissions to use tools. Can anyone give me a heads up as to how to do this or if it is even possible.

I just want my client to be able to edit pages, posts and the tools area. Does role scoper do this?

Thank you so much for your help. This has worked perfectly. I appreciate you taking the time to help me out.

Hi there

Is the reason no one has been able to help me because I have not provided enough information? If so let me know what else you need.

If it is because this is not possible or too complex to explain please let me know.

Thank you.

Just wondering if anyone might be able to help me out here? I have looked and looked but can’t seem to be able to figure it out myself. Still learning php.

Thanks so much!

I have written this to try and provide a balanced view on the plugin for those who come across this thread and are considering wpec. I do recommend this plugin. I probably would not have several months ago but I most certainly do now which is saying something as I am a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to looking after my clients and the technology I use.

I have received great support from Instinct and from the forums. So far (live but not processing live orders yet with PayPal – just at the testing stage with sandbox) everything is working well.

As with most new things there is a bit of a learning curve involved in order to get an understanding of what can and can’t be achieved and how to achieve what you want. It is not a magic box that does everything but it is certainly at the point where it covers everything most businesses would need in a standard shopping cart.

Bugs do happen. That is the nature of the beast – you don’t get progress and outstanding products with technology without experiencing a few bugs when making changes. The developers at Instinct very quickly sort these where they can if they are aware of them. They also test very thoroughly to minimise these occurrence of bugs and problems. Unfortunately they can’t test every single scenario – there are millions of them so some bugs sneak through and it is not until a user experiences problems that they are picked up.

I am not totally sure how forums for open source software are suppose to work. To my knowledge because the software is mostly free, the forums are to provide a central place for us to help each other and a resource for us to look through and find answers to our questions BEFORE posting our questions based on past experiences. It is not something we should take for granted. Most of the support provided, if not all of the support, is provided on a voluntary basis as it is on this forum as far as I am aware. We are lucky and should be grateful if someone does help us out. As far as I am aware the developers from Instinct do try to check the posts but they don’t get the time to read everyone’s post… something I only just realised recently. They have kindly provided a contact email so if your problem is urgent and you have done the research to try and solve it yourself there are other ways to get help.

One of the best things about wpec is that they are constantly growing and improving… and they really do try and listen to the users and try to accommodate our needs. Again, they can’t do everything everyone would like but they do pretty well. I have only been involved with wpec since around September last year and during even that small amount of time they have moved to a whole new level. The resources on their new site are more extensive, not quite there yet but between the documentation and the forum most things are covered and they will get there. I know from experience how long it can take to put together documentation and it usually takes a back seat compared to customer (or in this case user) problems and issues that need to be sorted.

I am not saying the plugin is perfect. Its not but it is getting there. It does work with absolutely no problems for most people. 80% of my problems so far have been because I was just doing it wrong (better documentation would have helped here). The other 10% were because I was trying to do something that you couldn’t do and I don’t have the php knowledge to hack the code to carry out these more advanced requirements. You can overcome the later if you don’t have good php knowledge by employing the services of a php expert. After all, you are building a site to make money, sometimes you need to invest a little in an expert to get things right in order to get maximum return.

My wish list for wpec is:

1. Multi-currency. Instinct is currently granting that wish.

2. More flexible shipping options. The options available should work for most people but they didn’t for me. I have engaged the services of an expert to create a plugin which provides the additional options that I require. As far as I am aware Instinct do have on their list to further develop their shipping options but as above, what they have now should suit most situations.

3. Valid code. This is probably the main ‘issue’ I have now. The code doesn’t validate. It took me quite a while to reduce the errors to the point I have. Still doesn’t validate but nothing more I can do to fix this as beyond my expertise and my budget to pay someone to fix. This is a big concern for me.

4. More extensive step by step instructions for setting up wpec. From what I understand wpec is easy to set up compared to a lot of other shopping carts but I still struggled with some areas. It was just simple things like doing x first when I should have done y first, or xyz didn’t work because I needed to do abc.

5. An area that clearly advises current bugs and tips on things you can’t do or things you can do that are not obvious so we don’t spend ages trying to figure out what we have done wrong only to find we are not doing anything wrong. I did not come across any bugs but I did come across a couple of situations where I was trying to do something that just wasn’t possible but seemed to be possible and DIDN’T come across a couple of things that if I had known I could do would have made my life much easier!

To be absolutely certain that this plugin will meet your needs make a list of your needs, do your research and ask Instinct if you are not sure if it provides certain features you require.

I can assure you the plugin definitely does work. Based on my experience and from reading through the forum when learning how to use this plugin most of the issues were because things were not right from the users end.