[Steven Zahm]

@ Richard

First… You might want to check your cache. You home page is being loaded without the theme’s CSS and other assets. I suggest switching to WP Rocket from W3 Total Cache. I’m not affiliated with them in any way, simple a satisfied user who got tired of having to tweaking W3TC constantly.

re: Since the last update I cannot edit add new posts or pages to my site and the media library won’t open when editing old content.

Well, this is very odd because Connections has no code what’s so ever touching the Media Library or admin Posts and admin Pages for that matter. I did quickly test my main site and dev site both which have 90+ plugins installed and the Media Library is uneffected.

Browsing around the site… it seems very slow. Often pages are shown with no styling. I wonder if you are running up against the web host’s resources allocated to your site.

I see you seem to be running on Bluehost. What package is your site running on? The Starter shared hosting? You might need to bump you plan up to a higher package. Maybe one of the WordPress plans.

One suggestion, try increasing memory allocated to PHP. Here’s an article that cover how:

http://ideaboxthemes.com/increase-php-memory-limit-wordpress/

The php.ini method should work on Bluehost. I recommend at least 128M.

Oh, one other method, I know Bluehost allows you to choose which PHP version is run in the Control Panel, make sure you have it set to 5.5 or 5.6. They perform faster and use less memory.

Hope that helps, let me know.

[Steven Zahm]

@ Stephan

re: I updated my connections extension but now all my pages are displayed in english instead of french.

When you say “pages“, do you mean all the admin pages or just the Connections admin pages?

re: I created the directory connections in wp-content/languages and placed connections-fr_FR.mo and .po files in it.

Connections comes with a (incomplete) French translation. Why are you adding files to this folder? Where did they come from?

[Steven Zahm]

@ reyes

re: when the main directory page is redirected (after selection in the drop down box) to a new category page, the client will be stuck on that page with no way to return (and have the option to select from) the main directory category box. How can we avoid this?

Above the shortcode on your category page, manually add a backlink to your main page. If you theme has button shortcodes, you could even make it a button.

[Steven Zahm]

@ reyes

re: When I add any new entry to my directory in cMap (manage- add new entry), every entry shows regardless of category on the directory main page. How do I add new entries but eliminate the clutter on my main directory main page?

Since you are manually creating your own category specific pages rather than letting Connections manage them (via the category select) you’re going to have manually exclude them with the exclude_category shortcode option.

One thing you really need to keep in mind… there is no way for Connections to know that you are using more than one shortcode. So there is no way for it to know that you only want specific categories on specific pages.

re: Also, what’s the point of creating individual pages…

Honestly, there is no way of answering that… that is something that you’ll have to tell me. Why are you settings up settings up separate pages for categories? Many, many users do set Connections up this way but that is because they have a specific goal they want to achieve by manually separating them. Usually the reason is to create multiple directories all managed wirth Connections.

re: I have no way of linking to those pages from my main directory page?

Connections, like other directory plugins, is designed to run from a single page with a single instance of the shortcode as its primary operation. Unlike many other plugins, Connections does have options ability to “split” apart the directory using many different types of criteria, the most popular being by categories because they offer the most flexibility. Many users use these features to create multiple directories. This is what I thought or was under the impression of what you were trying to accomplish. Honestly, with these new questions, I’m not really certain what you are trying to accomplish other than have a page redirect to another page based and the chosen category. I’ve never had anyone request such functionality before so I’m assuming you have a specific reason/goal that you’d like to accomplish.

Question for you…

Why not just manually put links at the top of the page to your other category specific directory pages? That seems like the simplest approach. Checkout this site.

http://www.aroundhermitage.com.au/

Click on the STAY, WINE, DINE, ATTRACTIONS links…

Those are all Connections managed directories manually split apart by category.

Same for this site:

http://www.brokefordwich.com.au/

Click the ACTIVITIES and ACCOMMODATION link and their sub pages. And the ABOUT BROKE / Business Directory sub page.

Both these site were done by limiting which categories are displayed on the page.

I hope this helps clear things up a bit.

[Steven Zahm]

@ reyes

re: However, I will be changing the permalinks, so would need to know how to modify the page ID to ensure the link redirects properly.

Since WP internally uses page ID/s, the redirects will work regardless of of the permalink settings you choose. So, no issue / anything to worry about there.

re: when I add new categories and associated pages will you let me know where the code needs to be changed as my directory grows?

Yep, I’ll let you know how to make the necessary changes. I’m leaning towards using the template_redirect action. I think that the be easiest for you and I especially making changes.

When you have the accesses I need setup, just send them as a reply to my email.

[Steven Zahm]

@ reyes

I did send you an email… perhaps it was sent to your junk/spam folder?

[Steven Zahm]

@ Joy

re: Is it possible to set the bio to default to open (so you don’t have to click the “Show Bio” link)?

Sorry, no. The only way this could be done is by editing the core template PHP files.

re: Is it possible to right justify the bio underneath the other directory information (name, phone, etc) and not wrap it under the photo?

Sorry, no. Basically the same reason as my previous answer.

re: If not, then we could leave it where it is in the tray, but maybe change the “Show Bio” link to header text.

Sorry, no. The link is a link and it can not be changed without editing the templates core PHP files.

Not the answers you wanted to hear I’m sure but I hope it helps!

[Steven Zahm]

@ Michael

You need to add rules to your robots.txt file to prevent Google and other search engines from crawling the ../wp-content/uploads/connections-images/ folder.

Here’s a very through tutorial/overview of the robots.txt file:

https://www.elegantthemes.com/blog/tips-tricks/how-to-create-and-configure-your-robots-txt-file

Additionally, you can add the no indexing rule to an .htaccess file. I use to do this automatically but unfortunately some hosts would return 404 errors for the images due to the way the server was configured.

That said, something like this should do the trick:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /wp-*

This should actually prevent all search engines from indexing all files and folders within any folder that begins with wp-. And the .htaccess go into your site’s root folder where the wp-config.php file is. You likely already have this file, so you would simply add this to the top of the file.

A more conservative `.htaccess rule would be:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /wp-content/uploads/connections-images/*
Options -Indexes

You would create a new .htaccess file and put it in the ../wp-content/uploads/connections-images/ folder.

After you make these changes… you need to remove the links from the Google index. You can do this by using the Google Webmaster Tools. You can opt not to do this and the images will eventually be removed by Google since they will no longer be indexable.

Hope that helps!

[Steven Zahm]

@ Katy

re: and now i have to move the descriptions to the Notes field, which i can do.

Why’s that? The bio can be displayed on the Default Entry Card too.

re: I wonder if you have time to respond to my last 2 questions above.

Apologies for the delay! The questions came after I logged off for the weekend.

re: is there a way to get rid of the title “Notes”?

Not really… but you could use CSS to hide it.

re: is there a reason the categories aren’t clickable?

They are not clickable because, well, because I didn’t make them clickable. Most users want them off (not displayed).

Hope that answers your questions.

[Steven Zahm]

@ Amanda

Apologies, but I am not really understanding the question… could you please clarify / give more details? Thanks!

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