[Steven Zahm]

@ Kathy

This is actually not a bug in Connections, more likely a bug in the theme which is incorrectly using and therefor breaking the global WordPress variable $wp_query. You can read the nitty gritty details in this FAQ.

I run into this issue 5–6 times a year. Mostly in older theme’s which have not been updated in quite awhile. On odd occasion I see it in a newer theme. Likely because the theme dev copied the code from an old tutorial. Of course, the later, is just a guess.

I’m also been running into a new variation of this. A plugin or theme, maybe even the actual users are editing a core WordPress file query.php by commenting out code which will break a lot of plugins, silently. More about it in this post.

All this said…

I use a core WordPress function named get_quer_var() extensively throughout Connections. Which is the proper best practice in order to retrieve a public query variable registered with the core WordPress WP_Query class.

Since this is a core WordPress function and I am quite correctly using get_query_var() to retrieve it. This function should “just work”. However, those two issues mentioned above being caused by third party themes and plugins causes Connections to break about a dozen reported times a year. It important to note that this does not only affect Connections, but every other plugin which correctly uses the get_query_var() function.

I’ve come up with a work around which will be included in the next release of Connections. This work around involves creating a wrapper function for get_query_var(). I updated well over 300 instances of get_query_var() function used in Connections to use this new wrapper function.

What does this wrapper function do? It checks that get_query_var() is callable and that the $wp_query variable is not “broken”. If both are ok get_query_var() is used like normal. If either are “broken” I go thru several other checks and in each check try to call the query variable a different way.

In short, this should work around the issue being caused by third party plugins and theme.

Now, this will not fix other plugins being broken silently by the same issue. So if you run into other odd quirks or something else not working with other plugins it could very well be the very same issue that affected Connections.

I know this is a long technical reply but I hope it helps!

[Steven Zahm]

@ Elham Ali

The WordPress page of your second private directory, the actual WP page where you added the shortcode, change the publish status to “Private”. Now that page will only be displayed to logged in users.

Now, to help prevent data for the private entries from “leaking”, edit each entry which exists in the private directory and set the Visibility to Private.

Hope that helps!

[Steven Zahm]

@ len

re: how would users know to click on the comapny name to get to the single entry with the contact extension? Doesn’t seem obvious.

If you feel your users would not find it obvious, you could add a bit of custom CSS, like the following example (tweak as desired), to the theme’s custom CSS area, to make it “pop” a little more.

#cn-cmap .cn-list-row h3 a span.fn, #cn-cmap .cn-list-row-alternate h3 a span.fn {
    color: #2ea3f2 !important;
    border-bottom: 2px solid #2ea3f2;
    display: inline-block;
}

[Steven Zahm]

@ Greg

I made a tweak which should hide some of these CPT’s that are not intended to be public. Hit the same download link to get the newest revision. Let me know if it reduces the CTP’s shown without actually hiding the one you need. Thanks!

[Steven Zahm]

@ Alan

re: another feature request would be to add a “NoIndex” or “Index” option on the various levels that the directory can be accessed – this way I can avoid duplicate content on the site.

Hmmm, I haven’t had this request before and to be honest I am not entirely sure what you are asking. Could you give an example? I’d like to add that to me feature request list and having that would help me remember why I added it to the list in the first place :)

re: Do you know if anyone has created a custom robots.txt file to handle the duplicate content issue?

None that I am aware of. Generally duplicate content is only the result of how the user setup the directory… for example, setting up multiple pages for separate categories but still having the category select enabled on templates which support that feature.

[Steven Zahm]

@ Lisa

The Connections data is not saved in the user meta, so, there should be no conflict between Connections and User Meta Pro. That said, I am also not aware of any conflicts and none has been reported if there are any conflicts.

Not sure if that answer helps, but I hope it does.

[Steven Zahm]

@ Carolin

I see you’ve purchased and activate the Contact extension (included in the extension Pro Pack). With this extension installed and activated, all email address are forced to be hidden. This is by design because the intent of the contact form is to keep the email addresses private. If you want the email addresses public, deactivate the Contact extension.

Hope that helps!, let me know.

[Steven Zahm]

@ Bert

Hmmm, not sure I fully understand their reply other than them saying it’s not going to work. I imagine it will not work with any other plugins that use the WP roles/capabilities system either since the settings did “stick” in Members either.

In the end, it is good to hear you found a working solution using a different market place plugin for woocommerce.

[Steven Zahm]

@ Alan

If your directory home page is in your sitemap, Google will quite happily index the entries within the directory.

[Steven Zahm]

@ SJ

Let me know what the theme support dev says.

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