[Lynn Weintraub]

I know from everything I’ve read i can’t have columns in cmap… I have been working on this all day with all the heavy formatting involved just to get it to look half way decent I found that I can’t even use this template with columns. I’m very disappointed I don’t have the freedoms to tweak the template so it’s usable for my needs. There are no other templates that will work either. I paid the $75 and tried them all. Do you offer custom builds so this will actually work the way I need it to? I also need custom buttons on my “card” that will link to different pages. Is there a way to add those? Please respond as your response will determine whether I scratch this whole thing and start over with something else. Thanks.

[Steven Zahm]

@ Lynn

re: I know from everything I’ve read i can’t have columns in cmap… I have been working on this all day with all the heavy formatting involved just to get it to look half way decent I found that I can’t even use this template with columns

Sorry, but, nothing anywhere says cMap can be formatted in a columnar format The sample on the product page, the demo page and all live sites using it show how it displays. I do put in a lot of effort to attempt to make sure nothing is hidden and the design of the templates can be seen plainly. If you have suggestions on what would have made it more clear to you, do please share them. All feedback is taken very seriously.

re: I’m very disappointed I don’t have the freedoms to tweak the template so it’s usable for my needs.

Actually you have a lot of freedom. I’d say the templating engine in Connections is one of the defining differentiating features. cMap has over 60 shortcode options to do for small tweaks.

Fo complex tweaks there are custom template CSS and custom template override files that you can create.

You can use these features to do pretty much do anything you want without ever having to edit the actual template files.

re: Do you offer custom builds so this will actually work the way I need it to?

Yes, I do offer custom development services. I frequently develop custom templates to meet whatever the specific design requirements of the user.

re: I also need custom buttons on my “card” that will link to different pages. Is there a way to add those?

Yes. Likely the best way to add custom links would be add a filter to add additional link types. The new link types could then be designed into the template as buttons.

Here’s a sample filter which will add additional link types:

add_filters( 'cn_link_options', 'cn_add_new_link_types' );

function cn_add_new_link_types( $options ) {
    $options['new_one'] = 'New One';
    $options['new_two'] = 'New Two';

    return $options;
}

You can test this by installing the Code Snippets plugin and adding it as a new snippet.

Displaying a button is a bit more complex but if you know PHP is should be pretty straight forward.

To call one of the new link types in a template you would do this:

$new_one_link_types = $entry->getLinks( array( 'type' => 'new_one' ) );

This will return an array of objects. Each item in the array (the object) will contain the link data entered in the admin. So you can pretty much do anything you want with that data.

Hope that helps!

[Lynn Weintraub]

I’m sorry i was so frustrated last night trying to get all this to work. I searched all over the forums to find out how to get the cmap to display in columns, in a grid on the page right now they line up one beneath the other. The only thing I could find in the support forums were comments that said cmap wasn’t designed that way that I should try gridder or tile (plus). If i’m missing something please tell me where I need to go to get cmap to display in columns in a grid. Thank you!

I tried to create a custom css template and tried uploading it everywhere noted in your post regarding custom css and uploading it to the server and it never worked. I wound up tweaking the actual code.php page which i know is a big no-no because when it updates I’ll lose all my codes! UGH! where do i actually upload this? to my themes/connections-template/cmap/ and if so, how do i activate it?

If i can’t figure out how to make all this work i may have you do it for me!

I know i must be really stupid staring at this for hours upon hours and i’m sure i’m on brain overload, but I can’t for my life figure out how to get the link to view profile to actually go to the profile page, it takes me to …/…/name/xxxxx and says oops nothing is there! What am i missing?

I do apologize for my frustration, it’s a fabulous program and i’m sure you worked tirelessly to do everything possible to make this available for me and everyone else. I really am stumped on how to make this all come together….

sorry for this long post… here’s how my site works:
search for outfitter by species which is a category, right now i have category black bear hunting…
this will show a list of paid outfitters who offer black bear hunts. Each outfitter pays a certain amount, the more they pay the higher they are at the top, which makes it impossible to have a long list one under the other… they have to be in columns.

on the list of bear outfitters they can see photo/details (bio)/photo gallery/videos/ etc. of each outfitter based on what the outfitter paid for…

they should also be able to go to company listing (view profile) i can’t seem to get that to work.

Also, in the notes section is there a way to embed youtube video channel?

I’m SO sorry!!

[Lynn Weintraub]

sorry this should say, they have links to: details (bio) with at least 8 photos (now set as bio/ a link to separate photo gallery which i’ve created and used a shortcode in notes/videos that of which i can’t figure out how to get my shortcode to work in notes and i really need a link that says, go to company listing which will have all the above on it!

[Steven Zahm]

@ Lynn

Let’s see…

re: I tried to create a custom css template and tried uploading it everywhere noted in your post regarding custom css and uploading it to the server and it never worked. I wound up tweaking the actual code.php page which i know is a big no-no because when it updates I’ll lose all my codes! UGH! where do i actually upload this? to my themes/connections-template/cmap/ and if so, how do i activate it?

Since it sounds like you might use the Gridder template instead, I’ll use that for the instructions.

To make this a bit easier, copy the gridder.css file to this path:
../wp-content/uploads/connections-templates/gridder/

The connections-templates folder will not exist in the uploads folder, so you will have to create it first.

There’s nothing you need to do to activate the custom CSS file, it’ll automatically be used instead.

Now with the file in that folder, you can tweak it as much as you want. Something to note, sometimes, due to server level file caching (if it exists) the change might not take effect immediately.

re: If i can’t figure out how to make all this work i may have you do it for me!

I do offer development services. If you want to put together a mockup or two, I can give you a quote.

re: I know i must be really stupid staring at this for hours upon hours and i’m sure i’m on brain overload, but I can’t for my life figure out how to get the link to view profile to actually go to the profile page, it takes me to …/…/name/xxxxx and says oops nothing is there! What am i missing?

Honestly, you’re fighting your server here. IIS6 is pretty dated.

I see that .htaccess file must have been updated to remove the index.php. That is great as the URL are correct now. But now I think you have a different problem…

It seems like you old site and your new WP installation on running on the same server. I’m guessing that the WP installation is in a folder named hunting-outfitters is that correct? If it is, then the change done to the htaccess file will need to be tweaked to account for that. What is happening is that the server is rerouting the links back to the old site and of course those links do not exist on the old site so that is why you are seeing the not found message.

What change do you need to make to the htaccess to fix that, sorry, I’m not exactly sure since server config is out of my area of expertise. Unfortunately your host support may not be of much assistance either (at least in my experience).

re: search for outfitter by species which is a category, right now i have category black bear hunting…
this will show a list of paid outfitters who offer black bear hunts. Each outfitter pays a certain amount, the more they pay the higher they are at the top, which makes it impossible to have a long list one under the other… they have to be in columns.

Just something to think about right now… by default the list will sort alphabetically. Connections does offer an order_by shortcode option to define other supported sort methods. There a new as of yet undocumented sort method which can be used to sort by a custom field. You will like have to use this to get the sorting your need.

Another thing to note… your old site is not responsive so the number per row stays the same on every device no matter the screen size. The WP and Gridder are both responsive. What this means to you is on devices with smaller screens, you will end up with a list, but that should be desireable otherwise the entries to the right would not be visible to the user unless they finger scroll right.

re: on the list of bear outfitters they can see photo/details (bio)/photo gallery/videos/ etc. of each outfitter based on what the outfitter paid for…

I think… no matter the template you settle on, it’ll need to be customized to get exactly what you want.

re: Also, in the notes section is there a way to embed youtube video channel?

I’m not entirely sure about a “channel” but, yes, Youtube videos can be embedded in the notes. Here’s a FAQ.

re: sorry this should say, they have links to: details (bio) with at least 8 photos (now set as bio/ a link to separate photo gallery which i’ve created and used a shortcode in notes/videos that of which i can’t figure out how to get my shortcode to work in notes and i really need a link that says, go to company listing which will have all the above on it!

I am having trouble visualizing what you want. Maybe you could create a couple mockups to show it?

[Lynn Weintraub]

Steven thank you for spending so much time with me…
First I moved everything to Linux server and started over… I will keep my current ASP site live until this new one is done. Moving the site will allow me much more flexibility with WordPress! And yes, my server is VERY outdated, it’s been on there since 1998! LOL

I think the Gridder is going to be the answer for me, however I must have certain items on the gridder panel where it shows, The phone, email and social media icons. What I actually need there is the Owner (outfitter) First & Last Name, phone number, website link View Profile. I know view profile is at the bottom but I really need it at the top. Some of these outfitter have a lot of text and I’d like the profile link easy to find at the top. I looked through shortcodes but saw nothing to do that…

All of that being said, where it says, view profile i will have to change that to say “View Hunt Information” I need it to link to a specific page within my site..

so for example… Willow Creek OUtfitters is listed on my bear page, http://75.103.85.206/black-bear-hunting-alberta-canada/ a user clicks the + and the panel opens and i need to show the owner’s name, phone, website, view hunt information… click on view hunt information and it will go to a specific page that I manually put in the link: http://75.103.85.206/andre-van-hiltens-willow-creek-outfitters-black-bear-hunting/ I need to do it like this because I cannot get all the details I need in your profile page.

Does this make more sense?

[Lynn Weintraub]

Oh and i should mention the whole reason for redesigning my site is because I want/need it responsive! I realize that on different devices it will show different numbers/row but that’s okay. not everyone can be first :)

[Lynn Weintraub]

OMG Look at me!!! haha
http://75.103.85.206/black-bear-hunting-alberta-canada/

now i just have to figure out how to change the words View Profile and change the link and i’m good to go!! whew!

[Lynn Weintraub]

Steven, i think i’m almost there. i went back and read your message about custom links and i’m not quite sure where to put this;

If i add these Will these then show up on the “add entry” form in admin?

add_filters( ‘cn_link_options’, ‘cn_add_new_link_types’ );
function cn_add_new_link_types( $options ) {
$options[‘new_one’] = ‘New One’;
$options[‘new_two’] = ‘New Two’;
return $options;
}

The key is I need different links for each outfitter & for each category
would i do;
$options[‘bear’] = ‘Black Bear Page’;
$options[‘whitetail’] = ‘Whitetail Page’;
$options[‘muledeer’] = ‘Mule Deer Page’;
etc for each category?

For example again, Willow Creek Outfitters will have a whitetail deer page, a mule deer page, a black bear page and a company listing. On the main black bear page where all the outfitters will be listed, the user clicks “View Hunt Information” That link would need to go to the respective pages for the outfitter, in this case, willow creek black bear page, a different one for the whitetail page and a different for mule deer page and a different for company listing.

Please tell me this is possible with custom links otherwise I don’t know what to do.

[Lynn Weintraub]

Okay so i went into admin and added additional links but they all say Website:

Website: http://www.willowcreekoutfitters.com

Website: http://75.103.85.206/andre-van-hiltens-willow-creek-outfitters/

Website: http://75.103.85.206/andre-van-hiltens-willow-creek-outfitters-black-bear-hunting/

I’m assuming doing this

$options[‘bear’] = ‘Black Bear Listing’;

$options[‘company’] = ‘Company Listing’;

would make it look like this:

Website: http://www.willowcreekoutfitters.com

Company Listing: http://75.103.85.206/andre-van-hiltens-willow-creek-outfitters/

Black Bear Listing: http://75.103.85.206/andre-van-hiltens-willow-creek-outfitters-black-bear-hunting/

I just need to know how to do this. I won’t bother you anymore until i hear back… sorry for being a pain, i’m just so close!!

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