[Resolved] Problem I need solving with "Dispatch" theme

[James]

Hi guys, after messing around with Elementor, I thought that Dispatch was a better choice, and broadly that was a correct choice. However, with little to no experience with WP, it’s got a steep learning curve. Could you help me with the following?

Why does WPShowPosts allow shortcode to appear correctly into “Pages” but not into “Categories”? I’m just now understanding the difference between the two.

However, it’s my Categories that will be updating regularly not my pages, so how do I circumvent this problem?

[David]

Hi there,

Categories are not a standard post type – they use a function that calls the list of posts to be displayed and cannot be edited directly like a static page can.

What exactly are you trying to do on the Category pages that is different to the standard post list they generate?

[James]

So I have created a navigation menu that consists of the following:

HOME Page
NEWS Category
FEATURES Category
INTERVIEWS sub item Category
LONG READS sub item Category
RELEASES Category
LISTEN Category
MIXES sub item Category
YOUTUBE sub item Page
EVENTS Page
CONTACT Page
NEWSLETTER Page

When I click each “page” then my site shows me the correct things I want it to show me. However, when I click each “Category” it is showing like a normal blog as opposed to having been designed in “Dispatch”. For example, if I click “NEWS” then “Align” isn’t active, instead showing the usual masonry style grid seen on a regular blog.

If I switch my menu and create all of the above as “Pages” then when I enter a piece of shortcode e.g. [wp_show_posts id=”1275″] then it does show aligned content, however it isn’t the content that I want it to show. E.g. it will show me news, when I want it to show me interviews. How do I customise a list to only show specific content?

[David]

If you want i can assist with some CSS and settings to style the Category archives to look the same as the wpsp-align class – it would be easier then creating static category pages and then redirecting categories to those pages.

Let me know and if so can you can you share a link to your site – you can edit your original topic and use the Site URL field to share it privately.

[James]

Yes I’ll do this now.

[David]

Which of the Dispatch styles you want to use? Is it the Align style – So image to the left and title/excerpt/meta to the right?

If so can you go to customizer > layout > blog and set the columns to 1 column.

[James]

All of them preferably!

[David]

Aah – then its back to the drawing board and using static pages i am afraid 🙂
And its going to require a duplicates of each of the lists to be made for each of the category types. So quite a lot of work involved. I can step you through how to if you want? And to confirm will your want the header element grid for each category as well?

[James]

Aah – then its back to the drawing board and using static pages i am afraid 🙂

I don’t mind this, but what are the downsides?

And its going to require a duplicates of each of the lists to be made for each of the category types. So quite a lot of work involved. I can step you through how to if you want? And to confirm will your want the header element grid for each category as well?

If you don’t mind! I’m planning on learning HTML/CSS anyway, so I guess this might help?

[James]

Also, I forgot to add, I’m getting this appearing on some pages with two grey boxes underneath saying “Previous” and “Next”

1, ‘include’ => $prevPost->ID ); $prevPost = get_posts($args); foreach ($prevPost as $post) { setup_postdata($post); ?>
PREVIOUS
1, ‘include’ => $nextPost->ID ); $nextPost = get_posts($args); foreach ($nextPost as $post) { setup_postdata($post); ?>

[David]

So the downsides are – you will need to set up each page manually and the Category links of your posts will go to the default archive pages so redirection would be required. Its going to be more repetitive and learning how dispatch is built then anything else….. If thats ok then we can proceed.

For the post nav go to the Appearance > Elements and edit the Custom Post Navigation hook – can you make sure the Execute PHP option is checked? If it doesn’t allow it is because PHP is disallowed.

This article covers that issue:

https://docs.generatepress.com/article/disallow-php-execution/

If your host allows it then you can change the wp-config statment to
define( 'DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT', false );

[James]

So the downsides are – you will need to set up each page manually and the Category links of your posts will go to the default archive pages so redirection would be required. Its going to be more repetitive and learning how dispatch is built then anything else….. If thats ok then we can proceed.

Sure why not…

If your host allows it then you can change the wp-config statment to
define( ‘DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT’, true );

The file already said this, so I changed it to false. (which did nothing)

[David]

OK – so the easiest ( lol ) steps are to install the Duplicate Post plugin:
https://en-gb.wordpress.org/plugins/duplicate-post/#description

Within its settings check Elements and WP Show Posts ( as well as Posts and Pages ).
When using the plugin use the Duplicate Draft instead of Clone.

Now its a case of creating duplicates for each of the following for every category you need (make sure rename them!):

1. Home Page – and rename these as your Category pages.
2. In Appearance > Elements – Duplicate the Magazine Grid. Edit each one and set the Display Rules to the specific category it belongs.
3. The WPSP Lists you will be using. Edit each one of them and select the required category in the Taxonomy Filter.
4. Now you will need to edit each category specific page / header element and change the WPSP Shortcode IDs to match those of the new lists you have created.

Thats the boring basics of doing this…..
Now the first list to be displayed is the Header list ( in the Header Element ) this will default to showing you the latest posts. So for each of the lists added to the page content you will need to change the Offset value by editing the list and going to the More Settings tab. So the first list in the page ( after the header grid) will be offset: 5, if thats showing 4 posts the next list on the page will require an offset of 9 and so on…..

So worth planning ahead by making the changes to the first category get it right and then duplicate those lists for the next category and so on.

[James]

Thanks – before I begin. Would any of this be a problem if I had the pro version of WPShowPosts?

[David]

WPSP Pro would allow you to create different card styles without the need for HTML wrappers that is used in Dispatch. But what you’re trying to do with various card styles on a single page would still require the process outlined above.

[Author]

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