Bug #2676
closedAR2 Theme "terms" bug
0%
Description
I'm using the newly-added AR2 theme on http://arctest1.commons.gc.cuny.edu/
The theme options (under appearance) has a problem with the "terms" portion of the featured areas. It appears that the taxonomy for the featured areas is broken; when "categories" is selected as the taxonomy, and the specific category is entered into the "terms" section, nothing happens. The featured areas pull from all of the categories.
Path: Appearance -> Options -> Home. Slideshow, featured posts 1 and 2, and news posts all have this issue.
This appears to be a known issue:
http://forums.arrastheme.com/discussion/8925/homepage-category-selection-bug-theme-options
There is a fix for it; you have to go back into postviews.php and do the following:
postviews.php:
Delete line 294 ('use_query_posts' => true,)
Modify the line 295 ('count' => 3,)
I tried a suggested workaround first because I can't get into the database to edit postviews:
http://forums.arrastheme.com/discussion/comment/35732#Comment_35732
Basically, the dashboard will recognize the category number, but this is only something I can identify in the site database. I guessed around a bit and found that "news" is 5, and "debate" is 15, but everything only shows up in the right place when I enter "5, 15" in "terms" for the slider. I guessed a bit more but didn't figure out what the "watch" category number is. Anyhow, it's not a great workaround, as it too seems to be problematic in its own special way.
Thanks!!
Updated by Matt Gold almost 11 years ago
- Category name changed from 44 to WordPress (misc)
- Status changed from New to Assigned
- Assignee set to Boone Gorges
- Severity deleted (
Critical)
Hi Boone -- if you could look into this, I'd appreciate it. Thanks.
Updated by Laura Kane over 10 years ago
Hi Boone,
Is there any way to get a time table for how long this issue will take to fix? Please let me know if you need any additional information about the problem that I'm having.
Best,
Laura
Updated by Boone Gorges over 10 years ago
- Target version set to 1.4.32
Hi Laura - We have a release on August 11. I've slated this ticket for that release.
Updated by Boone Gorges over 10 years ago
- Status changed from Assigned to Reporter Feedback
Hi Laura. I've spent some time trying to figure this out. From what I can gather, the function you're talking about is fundamentally working, though because of some wonky implementation by the theme author, it's almost impossible to tell. Two things:
- As you've suggested above, the "Terms" fields on Appearance > Options > Home must take a comma-separated list of numeric term IDs. You can find these term IDs without having to look in the database. Go to Dashboard > Posts > Categories. As you hover over the names of the categories, look at the URL that appears in your status bar (or click through to see the URL in your location bar). The tag_ID parameter is what you're looking for. For example, the ID of your "Slider" category is 125271 http://arctest1.commons.gc.cuny.edu/wp-admin/edit-tags.php?action=edit&taxonomy=category&tag_ID=125271&post_type=post It looks like there's supposed to be a nice autocomplete feature for these Terms fields, but it is broken.
- The Terms fields on this settings page do not display the saved values. For example, I have currently set 125271 as the value of the Slideshow Terms field, and it's correctly filtering the posts that are shown on the homepage slideshow. But if you look at the settings page, the field will be empty. So, this is another bug in the theme - not necessarily one that keeps the site from working, but certainly one that makes it more difficult to maintain.
Please have a look for yourself, given what I've found, and see if you can reproduce. Thanks.
Updated by Laura Kane over 10 years ago
Hi Boone,
Thanks for looking into this issue. I was able to figure out how to get the right categories to show up in the correct areas (I apologize for not updating this ticket with that information), but there is an issue that still persists.
After I read your update, I went to the site and noticed that, while the slider was pulling from the right place, the "Featured Posts..." area directly below the slider had been reset, and was just pulling the most recent posts from any category. Because the Terms field doesn't save the values, if any one of them is changed without adding any values to the other ones, the Terms fields left blank are then reverted back to pulling the most recent posts, not posts from a specific category.
I'm not sure if the original fix that I found and posted about covers this problem.
Updated by Laura Kane over 10 years ago
Just for your reference, the slider is supposed to pull from "Slider", the first featured posts area is supposed to pull from three categories - "Immigration", "Inequality" and "Religion", and the second featured posts area is supposed to pull from "Watch".
Updated by Boone Gorges over 10 years ago
I'm not sure if the original fix that I found and posted about covers this problem.
The fix in that post must have referred to a different version of this theme; the code they'd suggested changing doesn't exist anywhere in our version. In any case, I don't think it would have fixed anything anyway, as it looks to me like the feature is working correctly - it's just a javascript issue that is keeping the admin panel from being usable.
I put a temporary fix into place that forces the numerical IDs to show up while looking at http://arctest1.commons.gc.cuny.edu/wp-admin/themes.php?page=theme_options#zone-home. Will you have a look and see if it's working the way you would expect? Thanks.
Updated by Laura Kane over 10 years ago
Yea! It's totally working properly now. I changed the slider and saved and the other featured areas remained the same. Awesome!
One last question - we have to move this site to a different URL soon (the official URL). Is this theme going to be made available for the entirety of the Commons, or do I need to submit a request to have it applied to a different URL? When the site moves, will you have to put that temporary fix in again?
Thanks so much for your help!
Updated by Matt Gold over 10 years ago
Hi Laura,
When you know the final URL, just give us a heads-up and we'll make it available.
Updated by Boone Gorges over 10 years ago
- Status changed from Reporter Feedback to Resolved
Is this theme going to be made available for the entirety of the Commons, or do I need to submit a request to have it applied to a different URL?
Your call. I guess I would prefer to make it available only for your site, since (as we've seen) the theme is a bit buggy for general use. Just let me know what the URL is when you're ready (feel free to leave a note here, or to open a new ticket).
When the site moves, will you have to put that temporary fix in again?
Nope - it's temporary only in the sense that it's a stopgap until the theme author fixes the underlying issue. The fix is in place for all users of the theme on the Commons.
Updated by Laura Kane over 10 years ago
Hi Boone,
Thanks again for the work you've done to fix the site bugs. Matt Gold has made the URL available for the site, so no need to do anything else!
Thank you!
Updated by Boone Gorges over 10 years ago
Great - thanks for reporting back, Laura!