CUNY Academic Commons

Here's the second (https://cunycommons.zendesk.com/agent/tickets/7967):

"We are working on publishing the JADT issue and are having problems accessing the custom field category on the site.

I am trying to create a custom field for each article but the category is not showing under screen options. I am also not able to install a plugin. There is a note that says : Custom Sidebars plugin is NOT compatible with the new widgets edit screen (powered by Gutenberg). Install the official Classic Widgets<https://jadtjournal.org/wp-admin/plugin-install.php?s=classic%20widgets&tab=search&type=term> plugin if you want to continue using it.

When I click the link, it says i am not allowed to install it on this site. Please let me know if you have another option for installing the plugin and having the category show. I am aware this is also an issue with Arab Stages.

Thank you for your help.

Lynn"

Regarding the arabstages.org issue, I don't think it has anything to do with Custom Sidebars or Classic Widgets. The category page https://arabstages.org/category/volume-12/ is not showing anything because the items in that category don't have the metadata with the key 'issue-order'. In previous categories, each post had an 'issue-order' value, and the arabstages theme used that order to build the category archive in the proper order. When none of the volume-12 items had this metadata, no items showed up in the list. I'm unsure how the editors previously added this value, but I was able to do so on https://arabstages.org/wp-admin/post.php?post=2826&action=edit&classic-editor by (a) ensuring that 'Custom Fields' was checked in the 'Screen Options' tab, and (b) creating a new Custom Field with Name 'issue-order' and Value '1'.

I'll follow up separately on the other issue as I haven't yet investigated whether it's related.

Regarding the jadtjournal.org issue. Here I also think that the 'Custom Sidebars' notice is a red herring, so let's set it aside for the time being.

The user says:

We are working on publishing the JADT issue and are having problems accessing the custom field category on the site.

I am trying to create a custom field for each article but the category is not showing under screen options.

Could I get more info on this workflow? What is the "custom field category"? Could the user provide a URL where they're trying to "create a custom field" but "the category is now showing"?

JADT replies:

I attached two screenshots, the first shows the note from wordpress and the link it has to download a plugin : when i click it it says i am not allowed to do so.

As for the custom field, it should be under screen options but this category is not there because the plugin is not installed. This allows us to put in the title of the article, name etc and have it appear on the front page to click and access each article. Please let me know if you need more information.

I attached two screenshots, the first shows the note from wordpress and the link it has to download a plugin : when i click it it says i am not allowed to do so.

I don't see the screenshots here, but I can guess what they look like.

I attached two screenshots, the first shows the note from wordpress and the link it has to download a plugin : when i click it it says i am not allowed to do so.

Correct - it's not possible for users to install plugins on the CUNY Academic Commons.

As for the custom field, it should be under screen options but this category is not there because the plugin is not installed. This allows us to put in the title of the article, name etc and have it appear on the front page to click and access each article. Please let me know if you need more information.

The plugin (by which I think is meant "Classic Widgets"?) is not relevant to this issue. The issue in this case is that the 'Advanced Custom Fields' plugin is activated. When this plugin is active, the 'Custom Fields' option is not available under Screen Options. Since it appears that the Advanced Custom Fields plugin is not in use on the site (there may be some confusion because of the name overlap), I would recommend deactivating that plugin.

Thanks for the screenshots. They confirm my diagnosis in comment 5. The user should consider deactivating Advanced Custom Fields, at which point the Custom Field option should appear in Screen Options.

I'll open a separate ticket about the Custom Sidebars notice, which is harmless and not totally factually accurate, but which appears to be confusing some users.