Default Page Template is broken with Genesis themes

[surbma]

I’m not asking you for Genesis support. I know Genesis well, I can hide all the blocks if I want to do that. I’m reporting a bug, that you should fix! I am reporting, that you are not using the WordPress standard codes, so the code is a mess! I am helping you! I have paid, but I’m doing the research and take time to report you a bug, which affects a lot of WordPress sites.

I have switched to Twenty Twelve and it is using a singular page also for your events page. So it is not an archive page, which it should be!

So the point is, that the plugin needs some fix to work fine. It is not my problem, it is not Genesis’ problem, it is your plugin’s problem. I’m not a professional WP programmer, but I could find out, that the problem is, that your “archive” page is not an archive page.

My previous problem with your “default page template” is the same: you are not using THE default page template. It seems you don’t understand how WordPress’ templates are working.

And the fact that you are using h2 for a page’s title shows, that you don’t understand SEO also. I see, that you are very good at php programming and the plugin is really great in functionality, I can say it is the best event plugin for WordPress right now.

I just don’t understand these simple facts, why don’t you want to use the WP standards. If you do so, your plugin could be compatible not only with Genesis, but with all themes for WordPress. Why don’t you want it? Please tell me, what is the benefit to mess with the codes, when there are built in tools in WP to show content.

[Barry]

Surbma: I just want you to know that we’re taking this feedback seriously and are actively discussing it – and I’ll get back to you with a more substantive reply as quickly as I can.

[surbma]

Thank you Berry!

[twentwatchers]

Thank you for your comment Surbma, that’s what I was trying to communicate all along.
Especially about the “Default page template”. I didn’t even get to testing the archive pages yet..

I’m keeping a really close eye on the reactions to this thread.

[Gould]

I’m on pins and needles over here. This has got to be fixed. There is no question about it.

[Barry]

So, after discussing this what we’re going to do going forward is ensure the query (for all non-singular views such as individual events or venues) is set as being an archive type.

It’s important to note though that this doesn’t necessarily mean an archive template from your theme will be used to display the result of that query – especially if Default Events Template or Default Page Template is in use – as the nature of the query and the template used to deliver the content are two distinct things.

My previous problem with your “default page template” is the same: you are not using THE default page template. It seems you don’t understand how WordPress’ templates are working.

That’s possible or it could simply be I’m misunderstanding you. Can you clarify what you mean by this in respect to a default theme such as Twenty Twelve?

[Gould]

“what we’re going to do going forward”—that’s really not great. can i go back to the previous iteration, 2 point whatever it is, and use the community events from that iteration, as well? i was up ’til 5 a.m. messing w the new version and it really is not looking feasible.

[surbma]

A custom post type’s archive page should use the theme’s archive template, if it has. There is a hierarchy in using the template files in WordPress. Every page rendering defaults to index.php if there is no other specified template file for that view. So the events archive page should use the theme’s archive template file also.

You have two options (and other theme specific templates) in Events -> Settings -> Display:
1. Default Events template
2. Default page template

So the Default page template means that I can use my theme’s DEFAULT page template. But it is not true, because this option is still a custom template with your codes everywhere.

As I have written a lot of times, there is a content filter for WordPress to add custom content: the_content

So we really need an option, where a real default page template can be set, where your extra content is just an extra content added to the content without any code and structure modification.

Twenty Twelve’s default page template is content-page.php. There you can see, that the page’s title is in h1 tags, where your default page template uses h2.

This is an event page with Twenty Twelve and your default page template:
http://ungarischertourismus-at.premiumwp.staging.wpengine.com/event/the-island-of-freedom-is-born/

Even the post id is a mess here if you take a look at the html:

It means your code to generate the content is not standard with WordPress. The way you insert it in a page is not good. You should fix it, because it won’t be compatible with a lot of themes and plugins.

[surbma]

Sorry, the html is not showing for the Twenty Twelve’s single event page:
article id=”post–9999″ class=”post–9999 page type-page status-draft hentry”

[twentwatchers]

Come on!
You’ve got to be kidding us. You’re still creating content in WordPress like what used to be done in earlier years of WP. We have filters and hooks nowadays.

Please take a look at:
http://codex.wordpress.org/Plugin_API/Filter_Reference/the_content
http://codex.wordpress.org/Template_Hierarchy

Please use built-in WordPress functionality and there won’t be any plugin, theme nor theme framework complaining.

[Gould]

I’m using Genesis 2.0 and the way TEC 3 is rendering, in all of the views, is an unbelievable mess. I’ve got 15 hours into trying to make it work, and it is not possible.

[Barry]

Thanks guys, there are a lot of voices in here covering a lot of ground – but I’ll try and address some of the key points and questions you have all raised.

can i go back to the previous iteration, 2 point whatever it is, and use the community events from that iteration, as well?

Indeed you can – please see our FAQ on this very topic: https://theeventscalendar.com/faqs/help-i-upgraded-but-its-causing-me-problems-how-can-i-downgrade-to-a-pre-3-0-version/ … do note that the amount of support we can offer for 2.x going forward will be limited, however.

A custom post type’s archive page should use the theme’s archive template, if it has.

I’m not sure I agree.

That may work in some cases, but the paradigm begins to break down when presenting event data in useful ways. As always we’re open to discussion on the topic – but what we’ve basically done here is contrive a way to reliably deliver visually useful views such as month and week view in a consistent manner across themes.

Does it breakdown with Genesis? To some extent perhaps, but as far as I can see with a number of tweaks the ship can be righted quite easily and, indeed, some amount of fine tuning is often required with many themes for a truly snug fit.

Twenty Twelve’s default page template is content-page.php.

Well, to my mind the default page template, if it exists, is page.php. If it does not exist it becomes index.php by default.

As it happens, for better and clearer organization Twenty Twelve breaks things up further and uses an additional template called content-page.php (not actually a part of the de facto template hierarchy) however I’m not sure what you are getting at with this point – if you enable Default Page Template then content-page.php is indeed loaded and is used to display the page – you can verify that for yourself by placing a breakpoint inside that very template.

Your confusion on this point probably arises from the fact that you are not seeing a title inside an <h1> element as you perhaps expect – however that is by design and again comes back to delivering a consistent experience across a wide spectrum of themes.

Even the post id is a mess here if you take a look at the html

Like many other plugins we use ‘virtual pages’ and a true post ID is not applicable. It is for that reason set to -9999 to distinguish it from ‘real’ posts.

You’re still creating content in WordPress like what used to be done in earlier years of WP … We have filters and hooks nowadays.

We are well aware of the existence of actions and filters and are making extensive use of them. I don’t really get your point here.

All in all, though we’re open to critique of the architecture and processes used behind the scenes in The Events Calendar our primary interest here on the support forum is in A) helping people to get up and running with The Events Calendar and B) collating and where possible resolving bug reports.

Right now I’m concerned this thread has veered of course and we’re not achieving that, so I am going to close it.

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