I’m not sure if due to an update, but now on some of our website pages it looks like a second column or sidebar has appeared on the left side of the page. The page content displays poorly in the now right (was full screen) column, but in the new (unwanted) left column or sidebar is the html from the page. For example:
This should have the image of the flip-book centered and full screen width. Please help.
Using WordPress version 5.4.1 and have already checked that it was not due to a theme update or another plugin.
Hi hc
Thanks for posting your question.
At first glance, I don’t see any SiteOrigin plugin assets loading on the page in question. If you go to Plugins and temporarily deactivate all plugins authored by SiteOrigin, does the issue persist?
Hi Andrew,
I did try disabling plugins and the issue persists…I believe it’s the SiteOrigin Page Builder versus any widgets because there shouldn’t be any widgets on the page. Within the ‘edit page’ section of my WordPress, I can see page attributes and the template for the page is just set to Default (doesn’t say full screen)…the only other options are Product, Slideshow, and Print Confirmation but I’ve left on default. I tested with the others and could still see the second column there with the link floating in it.
The link that appears in the smaller, left-side column is the link to the media on the page, but it didn’t used to show. It used to show just the media, centered, across the whole screen. I’m not sure what changed because I hadn’t updated anything, which I guess is why it’s a little bit frustrating to get to the bottom of. I have also put a support request into the Theme Foundry as the creators of our Basis theme (which our actual site uses a child theme of), and they asked about plugins as well but I don’t have any further info from them either.
Thanks for responding, I hope you have some good insight!
HC
Hi HC
Thanks for your reply.
At this stage, it’s worth just testing the influence of SiteOrigin plugins. I’m not referring to a general plugin test. I’m just asking for SiteOrigin plugins to be deactivated. Was that done, only deactivating all SiteOrigin plugins? From what I can see in the source code, this isn’t related to SiteOrigin. Temporarily deactivating all SiteOrigin plugins should help to confirm that.
Here is what the output looks like from a code perspective. You can view the image here on the forum. The container is called
page-header-descriptionPerhaps this helps: https://thethemefoundry.com/tutorials/basis/.
Default pages
The default page template has two different layouts, depending on whether or not the page has a featured image. Without a featured image, a page will have a one-column, full width layout. Adding a featured image will switch the page to a two-column layout, with the featured image and description on the left and the page title and content on the right.
Content can be added below the featured image in the left column by inputting it in the Description field in the Media interface.
To resolve the issue, try editing the page in question, locate the Featured Image setting in the right column. If there is a featured image inserted, remove it. The page should then restore to the centered layout as described in the theme documentation above.
Andrew,
Thanks for this! I did actually deactivate all SiteOrigin plugins at one point (and a few others). This definitely gives me a bit more knowledge to talk to the theme creators about – although I’m almost wondering if they will be able to help since we’re using a child theme of Basis. We will see. I appreciate you being able to rule out SiteOrigin, but if you have any other ideas I would be open to them.
HC
We posted at about the same time so please, see my last reply, I’m hoping that’s the issue.
If you have doubts about an element like your child theme being an issue, you can switch back to the parent, it’s a quick test and an easy way to rule it out as a problem.
Thanks – I did just catch your second response also. I tested by checking that there is no featured image (there was not for these pages that are affected) and then added one and previewed to see what happened. Unfortunately, none of them were set up with a featured image and nothing interesting happened when I tested by adding one.
I think you are correct that there is something in the theme amiss. I am hoping that I don’t have to switch the theme though as that seems like something I (as a novice) could really screw up. My worst fear is having to edit the theme to be honest.
Thanks. That’s strange, the output seems to perfectly match what the default template does if a featured image is added. Theme support will ask you to confirm the issue with no plugins activated and the parent theme activated. If you can show them the issue, perhaps with a screenshot in that state, it’ll be a good confirmation. No plugins and the parent theme in use.
Just to close the loop on this thread, I was able to update the custom CSS to fix the strange errors that were occurring (at Theme Foundry’s suggestion). Apparently, the theme has always been set up to show this preview ‘column’ and for some reason, it just now appeared for us and I thought it was an error.
I added the following CSS in Appearance > Customize > Custom CSS:
To remove the floating link in the left-column or what was really ‘page header description:’
.page-header {
display: none;
}
And then to re-center my pages that had shifted due to this popping up:
.page-template-default.has-featured-image .entry {
float: none;
width: 100%;
margin-left: 0;
}
After that, the pages are displaying normal once more.
Super, really glad to hear you made progress. Thanks for keeping us updated. If SiteOrigin questions arise in the future, please, let us know.
Cheers for now :)