Two problems with Luminescence

[Clifford Crump]

Hi,

I have the Pro version of Luminescence and have run into two problems.

1) The sidebar is too wide for my liking. I think it used to be narrower, but I can’t think of anything I’ve modified to result in that. Maybe it’s my imagination. Anyway, is it possible to decrease its width.

2) I cannot get an image into the header at all. I’ve had to place an image in the banner widget. I’m using the customise header menu. The image shows up in the preview, but not on the page itself.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

[Sushil Adhikari]

There is a way to change the widths, but it means modifying the core theme files….when this has to be done, it’s recommended to use a child theme to override core theme files (as suggested by WordPress). This allows you to keep the parent theme up to date. In doing so, you would copy the necessary files over into the child theme (has to be active) and then you can make the modifications. If you are using the left layout, you will need to do this for these:

1. index.php
2. sidebar-blog-left.php

The widths are in relation to the “responsive” framework and uses a class called a span, followed by a number. Basically this framework is based on a 12 column layout, so a span8 on the main content container means it takes up 8 columns in width. The sidebar uses a span4, so together they add up to 12 columns in width.

In the source code of the above files, you need to change the span8 to a span9, then the sidebar from span4 to span3. When you take away from one, you have to add it to the other and vice versa. So for you, span9 + span3 = 12 column width in total.

You will have to do this same process for the page files as well:

1. page.php
2. sidebar-page-left.php

As for your second item, are you referring to the WordPress header function under the Appearance menu? I just tried this on my local test site and was able to get it to show on the front page. You may want to try once again but it it’s not working, I may need access to your admin (and site) to see what is happening.

[Clifford Crump]

Hi again,

I tried the span modifications. Nothing happened – I’m hitting F5 by the way. Below is what I have in my child theme – I wasn’t sure how much I had to paste so I did…most of it.

What am I doing wrong?

/* Add your theme overrides from style.css below */

<?php $bloglayout = get_theme_mod( 'blog_layout', 'leftcolumn' );
   
       
    switch ($bloglayout) {
        case "leftcolumn" :
            echo '
';
            get_template_part( 'partials/mobile-logo' );
            get_template_part( 'partials/social-bar' );
            get_template_part( 'partials/horizontal-menu' );
            get_template_part( 'sidebar', 'header' );
            get_template_part( 'sidebar', 'cta' );
            echo '
';
                       
            get_template_part( 'sidebar', 'inset-top' );

     ......
   
    

[Sushil Adhikari]

I have to step out for a short bit but once I come back in, I will check this out and try it on my local site setup. It should work, but will look into it. This also gave me an idea to add a theme option to let the person adjust column widths.

[Clifford Crump]

OK thanks. It’s not a big problem, so there is no hurry.

[Sushil Adhikari]

Hi Clifford…I’m back. What I did was installed Luminescence on my local test site, followed by installing the child theme for it (activate it). I then copied (uploaded) the index.php and sidebar-blog-left.php files to the child theme (where you find the style.css for it). Made the edits of the two files, and it worked.

So to follow up, where did you put the files?

Make sure they go in this location:

/wp-content/themes/luminescence-child/

Basically with child themes, any file you plan to edit, you are duplicating the location of the file(s) as they are in the parent theme.

[Clifford Crump]

Yes, as far as I can see, that’s what I’ve done, as well as altering the page files you mentioned in your first reply.

The changes are sitting underneath one other small change I made (see below). As this change does show up on my site, the child theme does seem to be active:

/* Add your theme overrides from style.css below */

#left-column ul, #left-column ol, #right-column ul, #right-column ol {
    font-size: 1.3em;
    list-style: none outside none;
    padding-left: 0;
}

All a bit puzzling.

[Sushil Adhikari]

if you could, please provide a link to your site and I will check this out. Thanks.

[Clifford Crump]

Thanks

[Sushil Adhikari]

Thanks for the link…I looked and sure enough your child theme is not active. When using a child theme, you have to activate the child theme while at the same time that the parent theme (the original theme) is installed, but not active. This means also that when you activate the child theme, you will have to redo your theme options because WP sees it as a new theme activation….some of the “joys” of using WP. B)

Generally a good idea if one thinks at some time down the road they will modify the theme, it’s best to install and use the child theme right away.

[Clifford Crump]

Ah, OK, thanks

This is why I thought the child theme already be active: when I made some minor changes to the CSS of the side-bar titles and pasted into the child theme CSS, sure enough the titles changed.And when I take that modification back out again, the titles change back. So I thought this meant the child theme was definitely active.

Also my dashboard says that the child theme is active and gives me an option for activating Luminescence.

So, I’m sorry to be dumb, but what do I have to do now?

[Sushil Adhikari]

something is not going right for you then somewhere….contact me via email with a login to your dashboard and I will check this out. It still works for me on my test site so I will see if what you have matches.

[Clifford Crump]

Thanks Andre, the sidebar issue is now resolved. 🙂

[Sushil Adhikari]

Awesome… so I am assuming you got it to work and now have the width you want?

[Clifford Crump]

Yes – works fine.

I still have the header issue mentioned in the first post.

[Author]

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