Resolved pagelines customize not updating

[wedesignstudios 1]

I have had no issues with the Pagelines Cutomize plugin until tonight. When I attempt to add a new batch of CSS the plugin will not update the file. Any ideas on what could be the problem? Please advise.

I added new CSS to the customize plugin all throughout the day today without a problem. But now the thing craps out. Really weird.

[James B 436]

Hi there, please check through the css to check all closing brackets/quotes/ etc are entered correctly. Are you getting any LESS parse errors in the WP dash admin bar?

[wedesignstudios 1]

Hi James --

The brackets/quotes/etc. appear to be written correctly. I am not getting any errors in the WP dash admin bar. I can successfully paste the CSS in the Custom Code area of the Pagelines Site Options tab and update it there. But the issue with the Pagelines Customize plugin persists and I would much rather place all custom CSS there. Here's what I am attempting to add:

.page-id-5530 .masthead {

margin-bottom: 0px;

position: relative;

}

.page-id-5530 .masthead .inner {

background-color: #FFFFFF;

border-radius: 5px 5px 5px 5px;

border-color: #F4EED7;

border-style: solid;

border-width: 1px;

padding: 20px 16px 0;

margin: 8px 0;

box-shadow: 1px 1px 1px #969187;

}

.page-id-5530 .masthead .masthead-title {

font-size: 68px;

letter-spacing: 1px;

line-height: 1;

margin-bottom: 10px;

}

.page-id-5530 .masthead .masthead-tag {

font-family: "Merriweather",sans-serif;

font-size: 29px;

line-height: 23px;

}

.page-id-5530 .mastlinks {

margin: 0;

}

.page-id-5530 hr.soften {

display: none;

}

.page-id-5530 #boxes {

padding: 30px 22px 10px 25px;

}

[catrina 103]

Did you install any other plugins recently? Did you upgrade to 2.3?

[Simon 248]

But now the thing craps out. Really weird.

What exactly craps out?

The plugin has no editor or anything to crap out! Its just a style file and a functions file.

[wedesignstudios 1]

@catrina: I installed Gravity Forms on Sunday, after upgrading to 2.3. But I was able to add new CSS rules after installing it. The plugin stopped working last night (Monday).

@Simon Prosser: The plugin will not save the new CSS rules. I click on the "Update File" button and am left with a blank screen. I was attempting to add some new CSS earlier today and the plugin updated once. But then I tried to add some more lines and got the blank screen again.

[Simon 248]

Well, the customize plugin has no editor, so im assuming you are using the wordpress plugin editor to edit the files?

A blank screen is usually a PHP error, but they are suppressed by wordpress. You need to open wp-config.php and uncomment the WP_DEBUG line and set it to true not false.

[wedesignstudios 1]

Hi Simon --

I changed the WP_DEBUG from false to true. Several lines of error messages appears on the top of the screen. Not knowing what to make of it I changed the WP_DEBUG back to false.

I haven't a clue how to address PHP errors at all. HTML and CSS are the extent of my web building abilities at this time. Can you offer a bit more guidance to what I should be looking for when figuring out what the issue is with the Pagelines Customize plugin? Seems like this could be a issue with the recent upgrade to 2.3 or the Gravity Forms add-on since I had no issues inserting CSS prior to the upgrade and add-on.

Best,

David

[Simon 248]

Well what were the errors when you saved?

Just to hammer home a point, the customize plugins has NO options and NO editor.

[wedesignstudios 1]

After changing the WP_DEBUG to true I was unable to reach the WP dashboard after logging in, so I was not able to reach the Pagelines Customize plugin.

I understand that the plugin has no options and no editor. In the past I have typed in CSS into it, clicked the update file button and it worked. Now it doesn't work.

[Simon 248]

You are using the wordpress plugin editor. If it does not work, its either a plugin adding errors to the page, or a wordpress problem.

You enabled debug, did you see any errors in the page? like php warnings etc?

[wedesignstudios 1]

I've attached a ZIP file of screenshots which capture all of the errors I receive when logging in.

PHP_Errors.zip

[Simon 248]

Those errors are caused by poorly coded plugins. Deactivate them and the errors will go away.

[wedesignstudios 1]

Can you be a bit more specific? Which plugins?

There also still remains the original issue of the Pagelines Customize plugin no longer functioning as it once did prior to upgrading to 2.3 and prior to my adding Gravity Forms. Is there someone else in the forum that can lend some assistance? This thread is leaving more frustrated. Pagelines is at risk of losing a customer here.

[Simon 248]

This thread is leaving more frustrated. Pagelines is at risk of losing a customer here.

Please accept my apologies.

One of your plugins is stopping you use the WordPress plugin editor. This is not a WordPress theme issue.

All I can suggest is disabling the plugins.

[wedesignstudios 1]

Your suggestion to disable the plugins is incomplete and furthermore does not fix the issue. I just disabled ALL of the plugins running on my site. Then I activated ONLY the Pagelines Customize plugin. When I attempted to add new CSS to the customize plugin the customize file did not update. In light of this there appears to be something else causing the issue I am experiencing and not "poorly coded" plugins.

Just a thought here, could this possibly have anything to do with Pagelines' recent transition to LESS? Maybe the LESS preprocessor is interfering with the CSS being entered into the customize plugin? Again, I am not an experienced programmer or coder, so what I am suggesting is just a hunch.

In future responses can you please offer more detailed suggestions and instructions? Pageline's is advertised as being made for non-programmers who want to easily create great websites. I fit into this category. However, I am spending more hours than I can count fixing problems that each Pagelines Framework updates creates.

[Simon 248]

Well we do not suggest to use the wordpress editor for editing the style.css in the customize plugin, and if your only adding css id suggest adding it to the customcss area in the pagelines admin.

What about if you switch theme? Does the wordpress plugin editor save then? Also are you sure you have permissions to write to the file?

[wedesignstudios 1]

Well we do not suggest to use the wordpress editor for editing the style.css in the customize plugin, and if your only adding css id suggest adding it to the customcss area in the pagelines admin.

This is simply not true. Pagelines has clearly stated that the proper way to add custom CSS is through its Pagelines Customize plugin. I am trying to add CSS through the Pagelines Customize plugin, but it no longer will update with new CSS rules I enter.

Your advice to add CSS to the Custom Code area is explicitly frowned upon by Pagelines. Right above the area to input new CSS/LESS rules in Custom Code area it is written:

“Note: The professional way to customize your site is using a child theme, or customization plugin”

I have been using, with great success prior to upgrading to 2.3, the Pagelines Customize plugin. This is made by you guys and is suppose to work with Pagelines Framework, but now it doesn't.

Why are you not addressing my concerns with this plugin? Is there any validity to this being an issue with LESS as I suggested before? Could it be a possibility that the culprit for a "poorly coded" plugin is actually Pagelines?

I am even more frustrated now than I was before. What needs to happen to resolve this issue? Framework certainly is not the easy and trouble-free theme I shelled over my hard earned money for and I need some resolution here.

[Simon 248]

OK, we suggest using the plugin YES, we also suggest using a child theme, both have style.css which we suggest to edit via FTP, not the useless WordPress editor.

The customize plugin actually contains absolutely no code at all, its just a holder for you to add css to if you wish using FTP.

If you like you can send me a private message here on the forums and I will log in and track down whatever is causing you issues, make sure WP_DEBUG is still enabled though.

Just to reiterate, the customize plugin contains NO code to break your site, at all.

Anyway just click my name then send a private message.

[wedesignstudios 1]

Your last comment pointed me to the solution: use FTP to upload an updated style.css to the customize plugin. I now know NOT to use the WordPress editor, which, to be fair, had given me no problems until a couple days ago but now is useless. So it was useful for a time, if only to me.

Good news is I was able to add the new CSS to the style.css file and upload it via FTP. I'll be using this method to make any future updates.

[Simon 248]

Im so glad, seriously lol.

So were resolved?

[Simon 248]

The topic was marked as resolved.