FAQs

Edit the address to include: http:// at the beginning of the web address.

Your wp_content folder is not writable, use Filezilla to set the permissions to 755. If you specifically have this folder set to be not writable, you will have to manually create a folder named connection_images and set its permissions to 755.

NOTE: You may have to increase the permissions to 777. In instances where the folder is already present, try deleting it first and then set the permissions.

Connections requires PHP 5, so solution will determined depending on who you have as your web host provider, but you can try the following:

First, try accessing your control panel and see if the option is available to change the default running version of PHP. If that option is not available, please ask you host provider to upgrade your account. If PHP 5 is available on your host and you still are receiving this error try adding the following to your .htaccess file:

SetEnv DEFAULT_PHP_VERSION 5

Connections has not been tested with WordPress Multisite, but is has been reported by several users that Connections does work without issue. Please follow this process to properly activate Connections on WordPress Multisite.

If you have activated Connections for the network, you have to disable the network activation. Then go into the multisite settings and check the box for plugin administration. Next go into individual sites you wish to use Connections, you can then choose which non-network activated plugins you want to activate. Connections should show up in this list, activate it.

At this time Connections does not support POT/PO/MO files.

Connections does not have a built in search. Please try the Search Unleashed plugin.

When copy and pasting the shortcode into a page or post while using the rich text editor (the Visual tab) HTML tags will also be pasted when copying from a webpage. The solution is to paste the shortcode into the HTML editor (the HTML tab). To fix this error, go to the page or post where you pasted the shortcode and switch to the HTML editor and remove any tags that surround the shortcode, for example <pre></pre> and <code></code>.

Also, many commercial themes support a shortcode named [raw]. If yours does, wrap the Connections shortcode in it like so: [raw][connections][/raw]. Why? The theme is removing and then re-applying the wpautop filter which is interfering with the code for Connections and will interfere with other shortcode based plugins as well, but may not be as noticable. If the [raw] does not work, you’ll have to send me a copy of the theme so I can see how they implemented that ‘feature’. Sometimes theme authors simply rename the [raw] shortcode.

Some browsers put a dotted underline or border on each <abbr> tag. The <abbr> tag is needed for hCalendar event compatibility. To remove this from the styling, add the following CSS rule declaration to your theme’s CSS.

.vevent abbr{border:0}

The custom templates are uploaded to the wp-content folder. The path is ../wp-content/connections_templates/

The images are uploaded to the wp-content folder. The path is ../wp-content/connection_images/

Older versions of Connections didn’t set this property to an entry. To fix; edit all entries that should appear in the list by selecting the appropriate type and then save the entry.

When adding a new entry you have the option of choosing public, private or unlisted. This setting affects if a listing will be shown when embedded in a page/post. If an entry is public, that entry will shown at all times. If an entry is private, that listing will only be shown when a registered user is logged into your site. By choosing unlisted, that entry will not be shown and is only visible in the admin.

NOTE: When using the shortcode an attribute can be set that will allow you to override the private status of an entry. This is useful if you wish to show a single entry or group of entries regardless if it was set to private or not.

Connections requires PHP version 5.2.4 or greater.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/u-extended-comment/

There might be a conflict with this plugin. The only info I was able to get was that when activated with Connections the site broke. I tested both activated with the default 2011 theme and both plugins seems to function correctly. So, it you are having issues, please try deactivating this plugin.

Update: I was told they were unable to login to their admin. I was not able to replicate this issue either.

NOTE: This FAQ was written based on U Comment Extend 1.1.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/auto-thickbox-plus/

This plugin re-writes the links created for the Note and Bio tray links on the cMap and Market templates causing them to no longer function. The only fix it to disable this plugin.

NOTE: This FAQ was written based on Auto Thickbox Plus .3.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/flickr-gallery/

It has been reported by a user that this plugin causes the images to fail to load. The mostly likely issue is bad JavaScript as the user also reported that it caused another plugin to fail to function properly.

A potential fix to the Flickr Gallery plugin has been posted to the WordPress forums:
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-flickr-gallery-jquery-error?replies=2#post-2520850

NOTE: This FAQ was written based on Flickr Gallery 1.5.2.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/strx-magic-floating-sidebar-maker/

If Connections is used on a page where a floating sidebar has not been setup the images in Connections will not load. This is because this plugin causes a fatal JavaScript error before the Connections JavaScript has an opportunity run.

NOTE: This FAQ was written based on Strx Magic Floating Sidebar Maker 1.2.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/events-made-easy/

If the template you are using has an embedded Google map and only an empty box is showing, the cause might be a conflict with Events Made Easy.

This plugin still uses the Google Maps API 2 which is loaded in the head of every page instead of just the pages it is needed on.

Connections uses Google Maps API 3 which is only loaded on the page foot where it is being used.

When the request for the map is sent to Google, it is using the Google Maps API 2 because it was loaded first in the page head by Events Made Easy. The map request from Connections is sent in the Google Maps API3 format which causes a JavaScript error and the map fails to load.

Unfortunately there is no fix for this conflict. The developer for Events Made Easy would need to alter it so it only loads its JavaScripts on the pages where the plugin needs them.

NOTE: This FAQ was written based on Events Made Easy 1.0.1

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/bp-gtm-system/

This plugin has the following JavaScript error in its global.js file:

Uncaught TypeError: Object [object Object] has no method 'autoCompleteResps'

This error prevents the images from displaying. They appear to be stuck “thinking”.

A possible solution would to be to edit the global.js file found here:
../wp-content/plugins/bp-gtm-system/_inc

Look for line 237:

var resps = jQuery("ul.first").autoCompleteResps({type: 'resps'});

Change it to this:

if (jQuery.fn.autoCompleteResps) { var resps = jQuery("ul.first").autoCompleteResps({type: 'resps'}); }

Now, do the same for line 243:

var tags = jQuery("ul.first").autoCompleteTags({type: 'tags'});

Change it to this:

if (jQuery.fn.autoCompleteResps) { var tags = jQuery("ul.first").autoCompleteTags({type: 'tags'}); }

This is completely untested, so try at your own risk.

NOTE: this FAQ was written based on BP GTM System 1.0.1.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/auto-font-resizer-plugin-for-wordpress/

I personally haven’t tested this, but it has been reported that when this plugin is active the “Add Address”, “Add Phone”, “Add Email”, “Add Social Media ID” and “Add Link” buttons do not work on the add entry form page. The cause would be that the plugin does not limit its JavaScript to its own admin pages. So if you find that these button do not work when you install Connections or that those buttons just stop working and you have this plugin installed, please deactivate it to see if it resolves the issue.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/contact-form-plugin/

This plugin named simply Contact Form shows up as BWS Contact Form in the WordPress admin. It sets the menu position manually which overwrites the Connections admin menu if it is in the first position in the plugin section after the WordPress Setting menu. So if you install this plugin or have it installed and you do not see the Connections admin menus, please deactivate this plugin.

There is a jQuery version conflict between Connections and cForms II. To resolve this conflict, go to the cForms Global Settings page in your WordPress admin and put the post IDs that you are using cForms on in “Include cForms header data only on specific pages” and save the settings.

Unfortunately, out of box, the Connections templates are not compatible with the Mingle theme. However, there is a solution, read on…

First, the easy thing. For some reason the theme designer decided to float tables by default instead of just targeting the the instances in the layout where the design requires the table to be floated. You may run into problems with other plugins because of this design choice. The fix for Connections is quite simple. On the “Design Settings” admin page for the theme, click the “Default skin” button and add the following to the custom CSS area:

div#cn-list table { float: none !important; }

That should fix that.

The other fix is a bit more involved. First, a brief explanation without getting to technical. The Connections templates registers its required javascript files which then hooks into the wp_footer action. Somehow, the theme runs the wp_footer() action before the template can hook into it. Basically this means that the template’s javascript is never loaded in the page, which is, of course, bad. This very same issue might cause you headaches with other plugins. Or maybe it won’t. I go thru great lengths to keep javascript loaded only when needed. Most plugins just load it in the header on every page and call it a day. This adds unnecessary weight to the page and also increases the risk of stuff breaking. With that said here’s the edit you need to make:

Open the footer-default.php file found here:
/wp-content/themes/parallelus-mingle

Look for this line:

wp_footer();

Change it to:

//wp_footer();

Save the file and overwrite the one on the server.

Open the layout-and-design.php file found here:
/wp-content/themes/parallelus-mingle/framework/theme-functions

Look for this block of code:

// bottom content area
startblock('bottom');
 
	// Include footer design file.
	get_template_part( 'design', 'footer' );
 
endblock();

Change it to this:

// bottom content area
startblock('bottom');
 
	wp_footer();
 
	// Include footer design file.
	get_template_part( 'design', 'footer' );
 
endblock();

Save the file and overwrite the one on the server.

Now, Connections should work fine without negatively effecting the theme. The only real change is altering where the wp_footer() action is run.

Please note this FAQ was written based on Mingle  1.5.1, this solution may or may not with with other versions.

First deactivate and then delete the plug-in from your WordPress installation. Download the latest version of Connections and upload that zip file to your WordPress installation using the built-in upload tool in WordPress 2.7 and newer.

Optionally you could unzip the file and FTP the contents to your WordPress plug-in folder.

The category ID can be found on the Connections : Category admin page as shown in this screen capture.

The entry ID can be found on the Connections : Manage admin page by clicking the ‘Show Details’ link. The entry ID can be found in the right most column.