[Resolved] Elements Losing Display Rules

[Ian]

For both GP and GPP, I was running 1-2 versions behind the latest Betas. I have now updated to the latest beta builds, could not find anything in search so hoping someone may know here. Have been using Block Elements to hook in something to specific pages. Once setup, they work nicely. But when I go in to make an edit to the block, I see all but a few pages are targeted. The rest show Page = “blank”. Because of this, the blocks are being hooked on random pages on the site. Hoping someone ran into this and this was fixed in the latest beta releases? New site is a few days from going live! Thanks gang!

[Ian]

Update: Running GPP 1.12.0-rc.1 and GP 3.0.0-beta.2. Same issue. When I go back to edit the Block under Elements, only the first 5 pages are still targeted. All other previously targeted pages are blanked out. And clicking on the Dropdown to target a page also brings up a blank. Had to remove all targeting and start again. Odd.

[David]

Hi there,

can you try rebuilding the peramlinks – by clicking Save in the Settings > Permalinks.

If still an issue – are you using Custom Links or any other plugin that changes permalink behaviour?

[Ian]

Hey David,

Maybe we are getting our wires crossed. Not sure what Permalinks has to do with the issue at hand but just in case, I re-ran Permalinks. The issue still exists.

From here, you can see I have set 17 pages for this block to show up via Elements. When I set things up for the first time, they display properly on the site: https://www.dropbox.com/s/nw7mx0n2i2cf3p8/elements-issue-01.jpg?dl=0

Now the problem show up when I go back to Edit the Element. You will see all the pages are now blank except for the first few.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/yjglzu41udlhcdp/elements-issue-02.jpg?dl=0

The only resolution I have found is to make edits to the Block, delete all those Blank Pages as it won’t allow for page selection any longer, re-create a new rule for each of those pages again. It’s cumbersome and dangerous when someone else just goes in and edit the Elements without manually re-targeting everything. The Block was displaying randomly throughout the site until I deleted all blanks and re-created the rules.

Any ideas?

Hope that helps to clarify the issue. Any thoughts?

[David]

It was a shot in the dark in case something had messed with permalink/slugs and therefore the list was no longer relevant.

We have had only a couple of similar reports of this, its usually related to very long lists of display rules – but never been able to replicated locally.

How many pages do you have in total ? And what determines the requirement for the Block Element?
Maybe we can look at a better solution for managing them.

[Ian]

Right now, I have 2 Elements and both show the same issue. One has 17 Pages and the other 20 pages. They are Block – Hook targeting “generate_after_content”. Just trying to hook a block at the bottom of specific pages.

[David]

Maybe this solution will work for you:

https://generatepress.com/forums/topic/header-layout-control-for-client/#post-1421567

[Ian]

Interesting. So if I understand that correctly, this would add a custom field in Posts and Pages so when the client can choose to attach this page to a specific Element? If so, this may work. But I do think it’s best to actually find the cause and fix the original issue. For now, I will just have to live with manually re-creating the page targeting every time I have to update that Element. Not the best way but it’s ok for now. Hope you guys find a fix in the near future. Thanks!

[David]

The tricky part with the missing/broken display rules is its inconsistent – we only had a couple of reports of this and we have not been able to replicate it. But it is something we are mindful of and we’re looking at the many reasons why it may occur. If we do identify it as a bug, as opposed to a localised issue, then we will address it.

That proposed solution registers a new taxonomy called ‘Post Element Control’ the UI in the post editor will be the same as Categories and Tags. All it requires is you create a separate term for each of your elements.
Eg. Hero Element, Footer Element.

Then assign those as your Display Rules eg.

Post Element Control > Hero Element

Then any post you add Hero Element as term will automatically display the Hero Element.

Keeps display rules down to a single location and allows you to control the display from within the post editor.

Its something we’re looking at as a future feature of elements.

[Ian]

Thanks David. Noted. Appreciate your help on this one.

[David]

You’re welcome

[Ian]

Something painful happened today and thought I would circle back to see if there have been any other reports of this disappearing Elements targeting. An element was updated today and 60% of the targeted pages disappeared from the list again. Could not even re-target them until I deleted ALL targeted pages, Saved, then edited the Block Element again and started to add in all new Page targets again. Painful. Luckily I had a list of the pages that were targeted as this was a known issue. Was hoping there was some headway in this by now?

[David]

Hi Ian,

We have had no further reported issues of this happening, and we are still been unable to replicate the issue locally which makes it impossible for us to identify why a couple of users are experiencing this.

Did you try the other method i proposed ?

[Ian]

Hi David,

So the idea is to create a new taxonomy in addition to Category and Tag? If that’s the case, what’s the best way to create this?

Also, the disappearing targets are all pages and not posts. I have always had a difficult time creating a tag for pages as there really isn’t a standard way to do this in WordPress.

Any help would be appreciated.

[David]

This topic explains how:

https://generatepress.com/forums/topic/header-layout-control-for-client/#post-1421567

[Author]

Posts