[Support request] Generatepress Marketer & Elementor compatability

[Dean]

I bought the Generatepress Premium package today … and installed the “Marketer” theme on my web site (hosted at siteground) this afternoon.

I was hoping to use Elementor Pro to tweak the design of the Marketer Theme slightly in several area’s …. however, the only thing Elementor Pro seems to be able to edit on the Marketer Theme is the Text Editor element … for some reason, Elementor seems to be unable to tweak anything outside of Text Editor element.

Sure …. I could make my own custom Headers, Footers, Pages, or Posts from scratch in Elementor Pro (or use the Elementor Templates) – but that defeats the purpose of trying to save time by buying an existing theme that already has aprox. 90% of the design features I’m looking for.

Is there something I’m not understanding about Elementor/Generatepress correctly … or is the Marketer Theme Template files just not very editable in Elementor?.

[David]

Hi there,

Marketer is built using the GP Theme, and all customizations of that are done via the Customizer and a little Additional CSS.

Elementor can only edit the content that was built in Elementor. Hence why you can edit the content area and nowhere else.

If you need a hand with tweaking the style then let us know.

[Dean]

Thanks David for your quick reply.

I’m guessing the other Premium GP Themes are the same as Marketer, and that their customization would also be done via the Customizer and a little Additional CSS – and not via Elementor? ………… or is there a premium Generatepress theme where the layout is designed to be fully customizable with Elementor.

EDIT: I was just looking over some of the premium GP themes, and noticed there’s a few Elementor based themes …………. is it possible the “Marketer” theme will be released as a “Page Builder Friendly” theme anytime soon?.

[Leo]

What exactly are you trying to edit?

The home page of Marketer is the blog/archive page which cannot be edited by Elementor.

The rest of the pages are static pages which and you should be able to edit those with Elementor.

[Dean]

Hi Leo …. I’ve put together a quick mock-up in a graphics program … and I’ve included 2 copies here;

(1) a copy without notations.

(2) a copy with some notations on desired customization’s.

As mentioned above, I was hoping the Marketer theme would be a lot more customizable in Elementor, because, if it was, it would be very quick/easy for me to make the desired changes.

Interested in feedback on what my options are for making the desired customization’s with this theme, as I do like the overall concept of the “Marketer” theme………… if you view the graphic mock-up with notations on it’s own in a browser, the notations are alot easier to read as the image will scale out to it’s actual larger size.

Here’s a link to the default Marketer theme layout for quick comparison; https://gpsites.co/marketer/

[Leo]

– Hero image can be done with header element:
https://docs.generatepress.com/article/header-element-overview/

– Sidebar content can be just sidebar widgets. I don’t think that’s something you can edit with Elementor either.

For recent post thumbnails, this should help:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/recent-posts-widget-extended/

– Footer content can be done with footer bar widgets area:
https://docs.generatepress.com/article/footer-bar-widget-area/

Let me know if this helps 🙂

[Dean]

Just a quick update;

(1.) I elected to re-build/clone the Marketer theme with new Elementor made “Post”, “Page”, “Header”, “Footer”, and “Archive” Templates made from scratch with Elemetor Pro blank pages… I felt this was the best/quickest way to get the tweeks/functionality I was looking for.

(2.) The new Elementor default “Header” & “Footer” templates are working good on both test “Pages” & “Posts”

(3.) New test “Posts” started with “Default Template” selected in “Post Attributes” are working good in Elementor Pro Editor.

(4.) However, new test “Pages” started with “Default Template” selected in “Page Attributes” are are not opening in Elementor Pro Editor so far – see #5 below.

(5.) When trying to open a new “Page” in Elementor with “Default Template” selected in “Page Attributes” in WordPress Page Dashboard; Elementor will not open the new Page; Elementor just gives off the following alert-box on a black background;

“The Post Content Widget was not found in your Template. You must include the Post Content Widget in your template, in order for Elementor to work on this page”.

If I go and add the “Post Content Widget” to the Elementor default “Page” Template, new Pages will open in Elementor, however, I don’t want a “Post Content Widget” in default Elementor “Page” Template … and when I do include the “Post Content Widget” in Elementor default “Page” Template (just to get the Page to open in Elementor), the “Post Content Widget” gets populated with “Post” content that is unrelated to “Page” content – and causes the “Page” “Text Editor Widget” content to render incorrectly way down at the very bottom of the Page.

(6.) How do I get rid of the “Post Widget Content” requirement on new “Pages”? – that’s currently being required/requested by Elementor to open new “Pages” in the Elementor Editor… see #7 below for additional info.

(7.) On my Elementor default “Page” template; I’m using the “Text Editor Widget” to add the bulk of Page content – I do not want the “Post Content Widget” to be required/used on the Elementor default “Page” template.

Thanks for any input/help.

[Dean]

An additional tidbit of info that will probably aid in troubleshooting the issue mentioned above is;

* If I start/add a new “Page” in WordPress Dashboard and select “Elementor Canvas” Template in “Page Attributes” box – I have no problem opening the new “Page” in Elementor.

* If I start/add a new “Page” in WordPress Dashboard and select “Elementor Full Width” Template in “Page Attributes” box – I have no problem opening the new “Page” in Elementor.

* I only get the problem when I start/add a new “Page” in WordPress Dashboard and select “Default Template” in “Page Attributes” box – then I have the problem opening the new “Page” in Elementor – Elementor will only open the “Page” after I add the “Post Content Widget” to the Default Page Template made/saved in Elementor.

As mentioned above; I do not want a “Post Content Widget” to be required in the default “Page” template.

Furthermore; the problem with starting a new “Page” in either “Elementor Canvas” or “Elementor Full Width” template each time you want to start/add a new “Page” is; you are starting with a blank page each time – meaning = manually re-creating the page each time you want to add/start a new “Page”; you don’t get the benefit of new fully coded “Page” template automation compared to when selecting “default template”.

I should also say; I’m not an expert with WordPress Core files, I’m still fairly new to WordPress – even though I’ve been involved in hand-coding with HTML pages & graphics, etc for over 10 years.

Using the GP Marketer theme as the base/core theme/files for this Elementor web project.

[Tom]

Hi there,

I’m not sure what’s going on there – I’ve never seen that error. However, I’m definitely not an Elementor expert, so you might need to check with their support team.

I just gave it a try on a fresh WP install and here’s what happened for me: https://www.screencast.com/t/msCr5CINQToE

I didn’t have to alter any of the page attributes in order to open Elementor. Are you not experiencing the same thing?

[Dean]

Hi Tom … thanks for the reply/info … watched the video – it looks like your using the Gutenberg/Block Editor – it appears to work okay …. I’m using the WP “Classic Editor” plug-in for working in WP Dashboard – not sure if that’s the difference maker?.

I have to leave shortly for a meeting in Vancouver (I just live over on the mainland) … will add some more info tomorrow, and possibly contact Elementor & see if they have a fix … I’ll probably add some screen-shots here, and direct Elementor support here for review/info, instead of trying to duplicate everything in an email too them.

[Dean]

Hi Tom … I noticed in your video you weren’t using the “Marketer” theme.

I have built 4 other Elementor Pro sites recently with default “Pages” & “Posts” built from scratch using the “Twenty-Seventeen” theme as the base-default theme, and did not have the “Post Content Widget” request/requirement issue with the default Page template … I’m thinking this “Page” “Post Content Widget” issue may be unique to the “Marketer” page theme.

I did a quick inspection of the Marketer “page.php” source code located in the WP Dashboard via “Appearance” > “Editor” > “page.php”, and noticed several instances referring to “posts” and “comments” in the source code, which I’ve copied below and bolded;

> Line 29 = 1 instance of “post” keyword

> Line 29 = 1 instance of “posts” keyword

> Line 34 = 2 instances of “comments” keyword

> Line 36 = 1 instance of “comments” keyword

> Line 37 = 1 instance of “comments” keyword

<?php
/**
* The template for displaying all pages.
*
* This is the template that displays all pages by default.
* Please note that this is the WordPress construct of pages
* and that other ‘pages’ on your WordPress site will use a
* different template.
*
* @package GeneratePress
*/

if ( ! defined( ‘ABSPATH’ ) ) {
exit; // Exit if accessed directly.
}

get_header(); ?>

>
<main id=”main” <?php generate_do_element_classes( ‘main’ ); ?>>
<?php
/**
* generate_before_main_content hook.
*
* @since 0.1
*/
do_action( ‘generate_before_main_content’ );

while ( have_posts() ) : the_post();

get_template_part( ‘content’, ‘page’ );

// If comments are open or we have at least one comment, load up the comment template.
if ( comments_open() || ‘0’ != get_comments_number() ) : ?>

<?php comments_template(); ?>

<?php endif;

endwhile;

/**
* generate_after_main_content hook.
*
* @since 0.1
*/
do_action( ‘generate_after_main_content’ );
?>
</main><!– #main –>
<!– #primary –>

<?php
/**

So, going by the source code in page.php; there appears to be references to Posts & Comments – which may be responsible for requiring/requesting the “Post Content Widget” into the default “Page” template when trying to open a new default template “Page” in Elementor? … I’m just not knowledgeable enough with WordPress at this point to know for sure, or what lines-of-code to remove to test it without breaking something.

Also, while researching the Elementor web site last night, I did find a reference to the “Post Content Widget” issue; that the Widget is required to open a “Post” in Elementor … however, as discussed above; I don’t want a “Post Content Widget” in my default “Page” template – see Elementor “Post Content Widget” issue here;
https://docs.elementor.com/article/428-post-content-widget

[Tom]

That template is pretty standard. The actual content area is inside the content-page.php template file. You’ll see Twenty Seventeen is almost identical: https://github.com/WordPress/twentyseventeen/blob/master/page.php

I just create a fresh install with Marketer (sorry about that) and gave it a try with the latest Elementor version: https://www.screencast.com/t/aBXSokJfLs

Marketer itself just has options set in the Customizer – it has all the same template files as a default GeneratePress install.

I’m thinking something weird must be going on with your install itself. Have you reported this error to Elementor support yet?

[Dean]

Hi Tom … thanks for your efforts.

I have found a “work-around” to the issue; by adding/starting new Pages in “Elementor Canvas” or “Elementor Full Width” in WP Page Attributes – by doing this, it’s bypassing the “Default Page Template”, and starts/adds a “blank page” in Elementor where I copy/paste my custom-made Elementor Page template into – and it by-passes the request/requirement of the “Post Content Widget”.

I haven’t contacted Elementor yet … I’ll use the “work-around” for now, and contact Elementor maybe sometime next week to see if they can figure out why the “Default Page Template” is requesting/requiring the “Post Content Widget”.

[Tom]

Strange – glad you found something that’s working for you though 🙂

[Author]

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