[Resolved] Giving up on figuring this out

[Author]

Posts

[John Mac]

I have spent several weeks now trying to understand and built the setup and layout we need. This is a very complex plugin, and there are too many things that's just not working out the I expect after following the documentation.

The mixing and combinations of all the different sections, functions and plugin is confusing. I usually learn fast, but this is taking too long and ending up with too many support cases.

I actually need to talk to someone in person, show my screen and figure this out.

How can I get 15 - 20min with one of you, sharing my screen with Skype or Appear.in. ?

[Shane Supporter Languages: English (English ) Timezone: America/Jamaica (GMT-05:00)]

Hi Johnny,

Thank you for contacting our support.

Unfortunately we only offer support through the use of our support forum.

What I can do is see how best I can assist you through this medium. Let me know what issues you are having and i'll try to guide you through the process as best as possible.

We are here to assist so please let me know 🙂

Looking forward to hearing from you.
Thanks,
Shane

[John Mac]

Hm, okay. This could be fixed within one hour today having a Skype call. But it will take days and a lot of time for both you and me spending time on explaining through writing and screenshots. Some issues take days for us to complete while using a forum for communication, and the waiting for feedback.

I'm pretty tired of spending time on this, and it annoys me that I have to spend so much time writing, trying to explain! But here goes:

To recap, this new organization will research and collect new innovations and breakthrough development for the humans on this planet. For this, we have created a separate new post type called Innovations.

I'm loosing control of why things are not working with the setup. I'm loosing control of what I thought I understood with using content templates, views, layouts and how it all blends together.

Innovations posts are using a Template and Views: hidden link

But the layout I'm expecting is not showing. Here's the template code for that posttype: hidden link

But this is what's showing in frontend: hidden link

Why?

I have spent hours on your site trying to figure out the different modules. But how they all blend together and what's needed to have it all play nicely together is harder to undestand. Do I have to use layouts? do I have to use Views? Do I have to use a content template for this setup?

Ok, like here: hidden link

It says "Since this page uses a layout, styling with a Content Template is disabled." Right, so then I go to Layouts hidden link

I open that and look at the code: hidden link

I see the layout code is right, but why is the frontend layout something totally different? hidden link

I don't have the time or energy to explain more now. I can't move on with this site until I get a full overview and clarity on how things actually work together.

[John Mac]

Another topic,

The client will sell one book on this site using WooCommerse. That's been set up now, but why isn't the product displaying on the site using the standard WooCommerse pages?

hidden link

[Shane Supporter Languages: English (English ) Timezone: America/Jamaica (GMT-05:00)]

Hi Johnny,

Would you mind if I took a look at how things are setup on the backend ? This way I can help much better and identify any issues with the setup.

The private fields will be enabled for your next response.

Thanks,
Shane

[Shane Supporter Languages: English (English ) Timezone: America/Jamaica (GMT-05:00)]

Hi Johnny,

It seems that we have some issues with our Divi integration since version 3.

Would you mind trying the fix in the link below and let me know if everything starts working correctly
https://toolset.com/errata/issues-multiplied-no-content-display-wrong-fields/

Thanks,
Shane

[John Mac]

Hello,

Okey, I thought about that. But it was working a few days ago. Anyway, I tried the fix and it seems it fixed the layout at least to show what I expected to see.

But this is still confusing. I'm expecting that since we have a custom post type, we need to create a content template that will be used for this post type. Isn't Content Template what we use as a WordPress template for specific post types?

This one is is selected as the Template for the post type: hidden link

When I click Edit Template, I'm taken to a layout instead.

When I look at one of the posts in Innovations, I see that on the top it says "Since this page uses a layout, styling with a Content Template is disabled"

Why is that? In your training videos, I'm sure I was told that we need to set up a Content Template for custom post types.

In that Innovation post above, if I set Layout to none and turn on Content Template again: hidden link

- I'm getting another layout on the frontpage: hidden link

So what do I use? Content Templates, or Layouts, or Views, or how do I mix them.

I just don't get all this now because of all this hassle. Usually I learn things fast, but this is out of my mind now.

Is Content Templates the main wrapper for customer posttypes. And then Layouts are added with in that, and then Views within layouts?

I need to see this visually in some way.

[Shane Supporter Languages: English (English ) Timezone: America/Jamaica (GMT-05:00)]

Hi Johnny,

Let me see if I can explain things for you 🙂

1. Content template

A content template is used when you want to change the layout or change how your theme displays the content of a created Post. This is specific to just the post body and the custom fields that are on the posts.

Some users want to display their custom fields a certain way and Content Templates allows the user to do this.

Think of content templates as a way to personalise the display of the content in the custom post.

2. View

A view is used when you want to display a list of data, for e.g you would create a view if you want to list out all the posts of a specific author from a CPT.

Also you can use it to list out all the posts. Think of it when you want to create a list.

3. Layouts

Layouts is essentially a theme builder, where you can change how your theme naturally displays its elements.
You have the power to completely redesign a page and is not limited to the content as with content templates.

Layouts incorporates both content templates and views.

In summary lets say we have a piece of Land. This land will be wordpress. The house on the land is your theme and the furniture inside the house is your content.

Content templates allow you to rearrange your furniture. Layouts allows your to re-arrange the house structure so you can take the windows from upstairs and move it downstairs or completely delete a room.

I hope I was able to explain this clearly for you.

Thanks,
Shane

[John Mac]

Hi Shane,

Thank you for that explanation. I think I'm getting a little clearer on the functions or integrations with it all now. I actually had it totally opposite in mind. So no wonder I was struggling.

There is one more question I had. What should I be using as standard for the CPT then?

hidden link

Now a Content Template is selected. Should I use a Layout instead, and just embed a content template within that Layout, as standard for that CPT?

So when we create a new Innovations CPT, a Layout will be used as default?

Thanks a Lot,
Johnny

[Shane Supporter Languages: English (English ) Timezone: America/Jamaica (GMT-05:00)]

Hi Johnny,

I'm happy I was able to clear things up if even a bit for you 🙂

In answering your question, it actually all depends on how much flexibility you want to have with the CPT.

Lets say if you just want to change how the actual content is display then I would just go for a content template as the default.

If you want to change how the page layout i.e add a sidebar to the page and a few other elements including the content then I would go for the use with Layouts.

Also if you're comfortable with how the theme page layout is then you can just use a content template.

When you set a content template/layout as a default for the CPT whenever a new content is created it will get the content template / Layout assigned to it automatically.

Let me know if this helps.

Thanks,
Shane

[John Mac]

Hi,

Okey, then I get it. I will just have a look over, plan this in more detail and see how this best will work with the future plans.

I'll continue my work on this now and see how it goes. Thanks for helping out Shane.

Johnny.