[Support request] GP Archive still there despite one created in Elementor with sitewide conditions

[Angus]

Currently trapped in WP hell. My site (https://staging.knowledgemappers.com) is made with Elementor and GeneratePressPro. So the the problem is that I have created an archive template in Elementor and applied the display conditions as site wide, however it is the GeneratePress generated Archive that is being used on the page designated for posts – https://staging.knowledgemappers.com/blog/.

This never used to be the case when I first set things up a couple of years ago, however everything has changed since when I have taken my eye off the ‘backend ball’ as it were so I have no idea where the problem lies as everything now has a different interface and seems to work differently. It could be with Elementor or GeneratePress, and I guess even WordPress as it wants to be a page builder as well.

I can’t find a setting in that simply says use the archive generated by Elementor. My understanding (https://elementor.com/help/create-archive-template/) is that by simply creating an Archive template in Elementor and setting the display conditions to be ‘All archives’, this would automatically over-ride that created by the theme. This is obviously not the case here. I know it is the GeneratePress archive because I can change settings in the customiser and it is reflected in what is shown on the page.

It could be that the problem lies with Elementor, and possibly the Elementor / WordPress tussle as how the user interface where plays out has changed. The back end page list no longer gives me the option to ‘edit with Elementor’ the page designated as the posts page in the WP site settings. It just says ‘Rewrite and Republish’, which takes you to the default WP page editor where nothing is there. Click on the Edit with elementor option and the conten is there, but click on re-publish takes you back to the WP editor where nothing is shown.

Thus I could well believe that the problem lies with Elementor and therefore the theme Archive is being displayed by default, in which case there’s maybe nothing you can do. But any advice you may be able to give will happily be received. Happy to give you login details so you can look for yourselves.

Thanks

Angus

[Fernando]

Hi Angus,

If you’re not using GeneratePress for the Blog Module, can you try disabling the Blog Module?

Or, if you’re using that, go to Appearance > Customize > Layout > Blog > Columns, and disable “display posts in columns” to test.

[Angus]

Hi Fernando

Firstly to say I raised this issue with Elementor Tech Support yesterday. They had administrative access to the site. Excerpt from their recent reply…

“I checked it, and after I switched a theme, it works as expected, as you can see on the screenshot. In this case, I will recommend you report this issue to the developers of your active theme, GeneratePress. Unfortuantunately, we are not providing any support for 3rd party themes as we do not have any control over their development.”

So the correct archive is displayed if I switch to the Hello Elementor Theme, although there are still issues with the Elementor Archive Posts widget (column gap and internal padding) as you can currently see at https://staging.knowledgemappers.com/blog2/ (the theme is set to Hello), which may be relevant.

So anyway Elementor is saying the problem lies with Generate Press. So you can investigate further I have set you up as an administrator (user details in private information area).

Thanks

Angus

[David]

Hi there,

GeneratePress follows WordPress coding standards, we don’t do anything special in regards to how the Blog page is displayed. We leave that to the WordPress template hierarchy:

https://developer.wordpress.org/themes/basics/template-hierarchy/

The Theme provides an archive.php and an index.php in its templates and those are the ones that WP will choose if nothing more suitable is found.

If Elementor can explain how they override the themes templates then maybe we can assist.
But considering we follow the way WordPress works i think you will find the issue lies firmly with Elementor.

If you can provide an Admin login i can take a look, but i am not an expert in Elementor to say i will know what to look for.

[Angus]

Hi David

I don’t doubt you are ‘legit’ in what you do and it would not surprise me if the fault does lie with Elementor. As I said in my last post there are still Elementor issues there in the Archive when GeneratePress is taken out of the equation. It wouldn’t surprise me if the issue mysteriously disappeared after an Elementor update despite technical support denying any liability (that would certainly not be the first time as far as I’m concerned). As I said in my initial post it wasn’t a problem a few months ago and now it is, though as I said everything has updated, you and WordPress as well as Elementor.

I did provide administrator login details in the private area in the last post, but I will post them again.

Best regards

Angus

PS – I am still pursuing Elementor Technical Support and they have their own administrator login so you may meet in the back end somewhere!

[David]

The login you provided doesn’t have Admin rights could you check that for us ?

[Angus]

Hi David

My apologies, it’s set to Administrator now.

Elementor Support got back to me on the continuing problems even when GeneratePress is not the selcted theme – the column gap and internal padding issues in the Elementor Archive Posts widget. They pointed out these problems disappear when the GP Pro plugin is deactivated, even though GP is not the selected theme, which I have confirmed myself just now. Thus I would say the problem lies there (not that that probably narrows it down much for you).

As I said there wasn’t a problem a while ago, now there is, so somehting’s ‘gone out of whack’ somewhere at some point. I don’t know if it’s specific to myset up or not. The only thing I can point out is that I only renewed the Pro subscription a couple of days ago, up until then it was ‘stuck’ on the version of when my last subscription ran out a couple of years ago, whilst Elementor has been updating all the way through. So it will have been something that Elementor changed, obviously around the Archivbe template. They have been developing their Theme Builder feature over the last couple of year so that the installed theme is pretty redundant if you choose to make everything – header, footer, menu, archive – with it. This works fine if you are using their Hello theme which is very light in features as it expects you to be using the Theme Builder and Elementor Global site settings for everything.

No disrespect to GeneratePress but the only reason I have still being using it as my theme is because my MaxMegaMenu addin doesn’t work with the Elementor Hello theme, which is why there is no visible menu on the site right now as it’s the Hello theme that’s active to investigate the GP issue – so as MaxMegaMenu is activated but can’t be displayed, it’s stopping the Hello driven menu from being displayed.

I appear to be at a fork in the road. Elementor now wants to do everything and is not playing nicely with everybody else!

Best regards

Angus

[David]

The columns thing is a different issue.
If you’re using a different theme then you should not have GP Premium plugin activated.
In the GP Premium blog module you have Columns enabled which sets the % width of articles on an archive. Disabling the module or the plugin as its obsolete on a different theme would fix that.

To the issue with the Blog Page, I switched to several of the WP Twenty something themes and the All Archives template is not working on them either. This kinda says its not a GP issues if the problem exists with core themes too.

[Angus]

Hi David (again!)

Many thanks for persisting on this issue.

Yes indeed my bad for having the GP Pro addin still enabled when there is a different theme active.As you can tell I’m not a WP Pro….

And yes indeed I see the Archive problem persists for other non Hello themes so I fully accept your point that the problem does not lie with you guys. I have now pointed this out to Elementor Technical Support and await their response with interest.

I think you’ve done all you can do from your end, so thank you very much for that. I may let you know how Elementor responds.

Best regards

Angus

[David]

Yeah, i am sorry we can’t be of much help here. When plugins create their own proprietary functionality that ‘bucks’ the standard way of doing things, then these kinds of things will happen.

Out of interest, what functions of Elementor are you reliant on ?

[Author]

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