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John Fineberg
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July 18, 2013 at 9:10 pm
Before upgrading, I did a complete backup on Bluehost with Site Backup Pro. Also did a backup with phpMyAdmin. I’m assuming that my custom registration stylesheet is in there somewhere, but I’m a website novice. So I don’t know where to look, what to look for, and what to do with it once I find it (assuming that I do, indeed, find it.) Who can give me a hand with this?
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Josh
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July 18, 2013 at 9:29 pm
Hi John,
Do you have a file name that you remember adding the custom styles to? Typically Event Espresso will look in the /wp-content/uploads/espresso/templates directory for custom files, so that would be the first place I would look.
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John Fineberg
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July 18, 2013 at 9:40 pm
Hi Josh,
Thanks for your response. As I mentioned, I am a website novice. Someone else designed my site. I’ve been doing a good job of maintaining, and even significantly improving on, what he designed. But I don’t know much of anything at the structural level of the site. So where might I find the “/wp-content/uploads/espresso/templates” directory?
John
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Josh
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July 18, 2013 at 9:55 pm
That’s a file directory path. If you go to the website’s root directory, you’ll see about a dozen or so files that are part of WordPress core. There are also a few directories, and the parts that handle the look and feel (theming) and custom functionality (plugins) of your website outside of what the core of WordPress does all live in the wp-content directory. Once inside wp-content you’ll file /uploads and inside /uploads you’ll find /espresso. This is similar to how folders work on your PC. Typically an FTP client can be used to browse and upload files.
If you’re not familiar with File Transfer Protocol (FTP), which is how most folks access the files on their website, here’s a great reference to learn about how to use it:
http://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/how-to-use-ftp-to-upload-files-to-wordpress-for-beginners/
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John Fineberg
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July 18, 2013 at 10:10 pm
And if I only knew where to find the file directory. Is that in WordPress? Is that in Event Espresso? Is that in my Bluetooth account somewhere?
I am slightly familiar with FTP, as I used to use it to upload my iWeb files. But, now that I use WordPress, I do all of my work in /wp-admin (where I access WP, my DejaVu theme and Event Espresso). Well, other than going to Bluetooth to perform daily backups (but how to access or use those backup files is beyond me).
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Josh
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July 18, 2013 at 10:19 pm
It might help to consult with the folks that did the original design, they may have a backup of their work they can restore. We provide the software and support it, but we do not support any customizations made to it.
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John Fineberg
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July 18, 2013 at 10:56 pm
To be clear, I’m not asking for your help in customizing. I’m asking for your help in restoring my site to the way it looked before I upgraded earlier today. If I did a full backup of all of my files, I’m assuming that what was lost is already done. It just didn’t transfer as seamlessly as I was told when I purchased my license today.
Now, whether that is possible or not (and I’d be quite disappointed in Event Espresso if it’s not possible, there may be another — and possibly easier — answer to get me back to where I started.
Here’s where I started:
1) My registration page used to be formatted with two columns of classes. Now, no matter which style sheet I choose (from the Legacy styles and the Themeroller styles), I can’t get it to lay out in a more space-conscious way. Here’s what it looks like now:
http://www.cpr-twincities.com/community/combo
Each class takes up way too much room on the page.
2) My registration page used to lay out in an easy-to-read fashion. Now, not so much. the radio buttons are in the middle of nowhere. The the check boxes at the bottom are just floating around, so it doesn’t even look like they are associated with the question they’re associated with.
Here’s what it looks like now:
http://www.cpr-twincities.com/community/register?ee=166
So, maybe there’s a simpler answer than trying to locate and restore the previous style selections. I’ve spent hours looking for a solution. Am I missing something terribly obvious?
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Dean
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July 19, 2013 at 2:54 am
Hi John,
The only thing I can think that has happened here is that the developer modified the plugin without using the wp-content/uploads/templates directory.
What this means is on update all the changes were removed. Completely removed. This is a standard thing as when a plugin (any plugin) is updated, what WordPress does is to deactivate it, delete it and install the new one.
The template folder in effect “saves” the modifications as it is outside of the plugin folder so WordPress doesnt touch it when updating.
As there is nothing in the template folder (we can tell that) then that is what I am assuming has happened.
It could be that he did everything with pure CSS, in which case he would have had to have edited the espresso-default.css file or similar or the theme style.css (did you update the theme as well at the same time?)
Either way you have some choices:
1) Roll back to the previous version of your site from the back up you created. That way you can then make a copy of the files that have been modified (if you know which ones) and then update and transfer the modifications across if needed.
2) Contact the web developer that did this and ask him/her to sort it.
3) Re-do the modifications from where you are now.
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John Fineberg
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July 19, 2013 at 10:22 pm
Dean, I think you totally nailed the problem. My designer, I remember, had to dig down pretty deep to find ways to manipulate and customize DejaVu and Event Espresso to get them to do what I wanted. So, yes, I can imagine that all of that work went down the drain when I performed a major upgrade.
Of those three choices, I’d prefer the third way. I don’t want to look backwards and I don’t want to have to keep manipulating in the future. So, do you have any thoughts about tweaking the software so that customers don’t have to manipulate code to make things lay out better, and so they don’t get lost in future updates (only to have to repeat those steps over and over again)? And do you have any thoughts about what I can do — simple solutions for a non-designer/non-developer — to make the visitor’s experience a better one now?
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Dean
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July 20, 2013 at 1:45 am
Hi John,
Yes I was afraid that might be the case, the developer should have warned you of that possibility – modifying a theme or plugin should be done in certain ways to reduce or stop updates from doing this.
We have the templates folder for instance as mentioned previously that helps stop the modifications from being over written but it does only work with certain files so it depends on what he changed.
Going forward, well, we try to make EventEspresso in such a way that it works with the theme in a neutral setting. The point of plugins is to have as blank a canvas as possible (in my opinion) so that the site owner/web developer can make it fit into the sites style.
Right now you have the ThemeRoller settings turned on (Template Settings under the Event Espresso menu). You could turn these off. What will happen then is the Theme will style the events.
OR you could use a different Themeroller style.
If neither of those are suitable then unfortunately you would need to use CSS and potentially template modifications to get the desired results.
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John Fineberg
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July 22, 2013 at 2:06 pm
I now have the Legacy themes turned off, and the Theme Roller turned on (with the “start” style chosen), and I’m pretty happy with the results. I did do one thing with my DejaVu theme to eliminate a lot of the white space on the page, by choosing a two-column setting:
http://www.cpr-twincities.com/community/combo
As for the following page, I made every adjustment I could think of (as a novice). It’s not horrible, but some of the layout is still “wonky.” As long as it’s readable by the registrants, I guess I can live with it.
Thank you for all of your help, Dean.
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John Fineberg
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July 22, 2013 at 2:07 pm
I forgot to add a link to the second page I was referring to:
http://www.cpr-twincities.com/community/register?ee=166
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Sidney Harrell
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July 30, 2013 at 3:47 pm
You might want to try adding something like this for your “agree and accept” questions:
.event_espresso_form_wrapper .multi-checkbox label {
width: auto;
}
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John Fineberg
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July 30, 2013 at 4:28 pm
Thanks, Sidney. Should the line numbers be in the code I insert? And is this something I can insert using My Custom CSS?
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John Fineberg
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July 30, 2013 at 4:35 pm
I gave it a try (without waiting for a response) and it does look better. Thanks, Sydney.
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Sidney Harrell
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July 30, 2013 at 8:43 pm
I tried a couple more to try to get the “Mr Mrs” question to look better:
.event_espresso_form_wrapper .single-radio ul {
display: inline;
}
.event_espresso_form_wrapper .single-radio label {
width: auto;
display: inline;
}
.event_espresso_form_wrapper .single-radio li {
display: inline;
}
.event_espresso_form_wrapper .single-radio label {
width: auto;
display: inline;
}
.event_espresso_form_wrapper .single-radio br {
display: none;
}
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John Fineberg
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July 31, 2013 at 8:27 am
Sidney, thank you again. I really like the final version:
.event_espresso_form_wrapper .single-radio br {
display: none;
}
Now, can you tell me what to do with this …
.event_espresso_form_wrapper .multi-checkbox label {
width: auto;
}
… to make it match, so that the check boxes (at the bottom of the page) have “Yes” *beside* them, rather than *under* them? I think that would be more attractive and easier to comprehend.
And if I could have the radio buttons and check boxes all left justified with the rest of the text, that would be even better. Is there a simple edit to make that happen?
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Sidney Harrell
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July 31, 2013 at 9:47 pm
To get the “Yes” next to the checkbox, try:
.event_espresso_form_wrapper .multi-checkbox br {
display: none;
}
For the left justification, try:
.event_espresso_form_wrapper .event_questions ul li {
margin-left: 0px;
}
.event_espresso_form_wrapper .event_questions ul {
margin-left: 0px;
padding-left: 0px;
}
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John Fineberg
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July 31, 2013 at 10:02 pm
The “Yes” next to the checkboxes looks good. As for the left justification, maybe I didn’t express myself clearly. What I meant was to have the radio buttons and the checkboxes hug the left side, in line with First Name, Last Name, etc., but not to confine the questions themselves (“I understand …” and “I further understand …” to that narrow area. Does that make sense?
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John Fineberg
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July 31, 2013 at 10:49 pm
I now have some of the old code and some of the new, and everything is very nicely left justified. Now if I can just get the “I understand …” and “I further understand …” statements to spread out and not be confined to that narrow area, which will make it easier to read, I’ll be done with this page.
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Dean
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July 31, 2013 at 11:58 pm
You could add the following CSS:
.multi-checkbox label {
width: 100% !important;
}
Which will result in http://d.pr/i/bNlT
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John Fineberg
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August 1, 2013 at 7:37 am
Yes, that’s what I was looking for. Thanks, Dean. Sorry, one more thing about this page. Is it possible to add a little space between the “Cell Phone” box and the first question (“I understand…”)? Something similar to the space between the two questions, or similar to the space between the Mr./Ms. radio buttons and the “First Name” box.
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Sidney Harrell
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August 7, 2013 at 3:49 pm
That spacing is controlled by plugins/event-espresso/templates/css/themeroller/themeroller-base.css line 379:
.event_espresso_form_wrapper form fieldset div {
padding: 0.25em 0;
}
You might try playing with it by increasing the top / bottom padding from 0.25em to 0.28 or so.
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John Fineberg
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August 9, 2013 at 11:58 am
I didn’t see much of a difference in the 0.25-0.28 range, but pretty much got the results I was looking for once I reached 0.50. Thanks, Sydney.
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