[Support request] Geek Theme and modifying the alternating blog cards template (element)

[Heather]

Hi,

1. I’m using geek theme and really confused about where I can adjust this setting that is creating alternating image/text from left to right when there is only 1 blog card on the archive page. When I make changes to that 1 blog card, it does get applied to ALL the cards, sorta. Some changes apply and sometimes, others don’t. I think it must have something to do with me not knowing where this setting is that is creating that alternate switch in the first place.

2. as you notice, at some point I changed the excerpt length. So some of the posts DO change. And then its just random when there are OTHER posts that won’t apply that custom setting. And to make it even worse, the ones that are applying a different excerpt length have the button just completely missing for some reason.

I just don’t understand!

Here are screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/pJZPWRR

P.S. This website is not live and is in maintenance mode. I can provide crednetials if neccessary.

[Ying]

Hi Heather,

For question 1, Geek is using ablock element - content template to control all the cards on blog/archive. If you make any changes to the block element, it will be reflected in all the cards.

So what exact change doesn’t apply? Can you specify it?

For question 2 about the excerpt, are you using custom excerpts in some posts?

The reason can vary, check this article:
https://docs.generatepress.com/article/excerpt-issues/

[Heather]

As I mentioned, I’m using the block element. I’m modifying the block element.

But the changes are not consistent. As in my message stated above. (missing button, different excerpt lengths, alternating images)

I did provide a sample image screenshot, were you able to see it? It shows you my elemnt block and it shows you the inconsistent output of the block cards.

I’m not using custom excerpts. I’m using what the custom element block provided in the geek theme.

Perhaps, were these cards suppose to be connected to certain features like generateblocks? If so, I do have it installed. But it does not take care of the issue I’m having.

[Heather]

the link you provided does not reflect the issue i’m having. because the issue is with the block element and it’s inconsistent output.

[Heather]

I think I part of my own question.

1. The alternating cards are caused by custom css inside within the customizer that geek theme came with pre-installed.

View post on imgur.com

I’ve attached an image of the CSS. Does anything here look like it could be messing with the excerpts and/or button display of some of the posts with inconsitant excerpt lengths?

Yes, I did make sure that the excerpt length is exactly the same inside the customizer as it is inside the dynamic content block inside the blog card elements settings. So that doesn’t seem to fix that problem.

[Fernando]

Hi Heather,

The CSS shouldn’t be affecting the excerpt and the buttons.

Can you share temporary admin credentials, and we’ll take a closer look at the issue?

Please use the Private Information field for this: https://docs.generatepress.com/?s=private+information

[Heather]

Thank you very much. If you go to this link when you are signed in you will notice these two articles randomly don’t show the button. And it doesn’t matter that one is left nor one is right. This behavior is seen all over the sites archives randomly.
https://www.gatewayfalls.com/category/how-to

-How To Enable Edge Automatic Profile Switching To Keep Your Work And Personal Life Separate
-How To Disable The Safely Remove Hardware Icon And Clean Up Your Overwhelmed Windows 11 System Tray

I have a small feeling it could have something to do with the characters being MORE in the title than in the excerpt. We can control the excerpt output but we dont’ want to control the title output. I would think it would just auto height the entire container to its contents like all the others? But I can’t seem to find anything forcing a min height.

[Ying]

I asked you if you were using a custom except here, but you didn’t answer.
https://generatepress.com/forums/topic/geek-theme-and-modifying-the-alternating-blog-cards-template-element/#post-2344259

I logged in and checked, so you are using a custom excerpt, that’s the reason the read more button doesn’t show.

It’s the first reason that read more doesn’t show explained in this article which I also attached in my previous reply https://docs.generatepress.com/article/excerpt-issues/

The solution would be to remove the content in the excerpt area in your post editor.

[Heather]

oooh, I get it now. I think I confused the custom excerpt for just the ‘excerpt’ default length that came with the theme.

I apologize, thank you for being patient with me.

I have read your article and have actually applied the code in functions.php to allow me to add excerpt length to post content feature, so I can use the post content feature (instead of excerpt) BUT for some reason it’s not displaying at all.

I’ve used both codes and neither one seems to fix that issue. What could be wrong with that?

[Ying]

I have read your article and have actually applied the code in functions.php to allow me to add excerpt length to post content feature, so I can use the post content feature (instead of excerpt) BUT for some reason it’s not displaying at all.

The code is for non-standard post format to have excerpts, they are not the solutions for your case.

Can you tell me what are you trying to achieve?

[Heather]

Since excerpt is using the excerpt field, I cannot use this field appropriately because not all my posts use the excerpt field.

Like the query loop, I want to simply show the first 75 characters of the post content, under the title. I was simply using what came default with the geek theme because it looks very nice.

I tried to change the current ‘block type’ to post content. but post content does not have a character limit like post excerpt includes. Which is confusing in itself actually.

Because its assumed the excerpt box is intended to be an excerpt with minimal characters. Whereas, the post content excerpt is generally where we would set a ‘minimum’ character count.

Is there some way to display the posts content with a character limit like a traditional query loop? So that my buttons won’t have an issue displaying?

[Ying]

In my reply here: https://generatepress.com/forums/topic/geek-theme-and-modifying-the-alternating-blog-cards-template-element/#post-2349957

I have provided the solution at the end, you just need to remove the content in the excerpt box.

[Heather]

um, I can’ remove the excerpt for 20,000+ posts. That would take a lot of time.

So, I’m guessing there no other way to use the blog card template layout for actual archive lists. No way to ignore the excerpts? Is there anyway to use post content and be able to limit characters?

I liked that geek theme very much and the entire design is built around that one very nice blog card template.

It seems I might be stuck using the query loop block and have less control over my design output in a drag and drop manner.

Well, I guess if there is no solution, there is no solution. Thank you for trying and thank you for your help.

[Fernando]

Well, the Excerpt feature is WordPress core. Adding a custom excerpt overrides the default excerpt generated.

You can re-add the read more button through a Snippet: https://docs.generatepress.com/article/activating-read-custom-excerpt/

As for deleting bulk custom excerpts, there should be a way. It would be best to ask in the WordPress forums with regards to this: https://wordpress.org/support/forum/wp-advanced/

You would likely need to access your Database and run a code. For instance: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/13257057/bulk-delete-edit-excerpts-in-wordpress#:~:text=Use-,the%20query,-UPDATE%20wp_posts%20SET – not sure if this will work though. It would be best to ask in WordPress forums as mentioned.

Once you’ve removed the custom excerpts, limiting the excerpt field to 75 should work in the customizer.

There is a way to get the content and trim it, but this I think may be more complicated.

[Heather]

The read more button php code worked perfectly to fix this issue. Thank you both for your help!!

[Author]

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