[Jonathan Hawley]

Good Afternoon! I’m currently working on redesigning a website to be launched in September. We are attempting to use the Connections plugin to handle the directory and staff listings, but are encountering some unusual behavior.

We have a home directory setup, where every staff member is listed. No problems here, as it is working fine. However, we also have staff listings for each department that include only the staff members that work in that department. This is where the problem comes in.

Each department has it’s own page for its staff listing. However, some departments have circumstances that led us to list certain subsets of staff on the same page by using multiple connections short-codes (e.g. separating the staff in that department based on location). In these situations, all of the connections short-codes after the first one do not work correctly. The cards will all display correctly, but when you click the link to go to the biography page, a new page will be displayed that simply says “no results”. Is there a solution to this?

Thank you!

[Steven Zahm]

@ Jonathan

This is because on the single entry profile page, only the first shortcode instance on the page is used. In just about all cases this works out just fine but there can be issues when the shortcode is used on the same page multiple times. For example the issue you are experiencing. The first shortcode is configured in a way that links from the other instances are excluding the desired entry.

I do try to account for this in the code. What are the exact shortcodes you are using? I can likely release an update pretty quickly that can take into account your usage. If not, I do have an alternate solution.

[Jonathan Hawley]

There are several pages that would require the fix, so the alternate solution may be easier. If you don’t think the alternate solution would be easier, I can still post the shortcodes.

[Steven Zahm]

@ Jonathan

The alternate solution would require setting up a dedicated directory home where all link on all your pages would resolve. This would require a new page and altering all the shortcodes so they point to the new directory home page using the home_id shortcode option. Hope that makes sense.

It would still be beneficial to know all the shortcodes that you are using because it is possible, seeing your usage, you would not have to alter anything.

[Jonathan]

I apologize for disappearing and not responding for awhile. Things shifted around and the previous priorities were no longer priorities. However, things have shifted again and this is now a priority again.

I will need to be able to create new pages with multiple shortcodes as well as update current ones, so I believe the alternate solution is still the best route to take.

I understand how to make the shortcodes point to a dedicated directory, however I don’t understand how to set up the new directory home page(s). Can you provide more information on the process for setting up those pages?

[Steven Zahm]

@ Jonathan

Create a dedicated directory page with only the [connections] shortcode page on it. Note the page ID given to it after you publish the page. You can find this in the browser’s address bar.

Set this new page as the directory home page.

Now, on all your dedicated staff pages add the home_id shortcode option set using the page id of the dedicated directory home page.

Hope this helps!

[Jonathan]

That did the trick! Thank you!

[Steven Zahm]

@ Jonathan

Great to hear!

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