Deleted (lined through) associated Page in Backend Sections table

demoncleaner · 2019-07-17 14:02:35

I have a weird thing going on and I cannot find the reason or solution to this.
On two of my around 20 sections I see the associated page in the page column lined through and another page appearing beneath it. It is not possible to change the page of the section at all. It just stays like that. Which is the most annoying part.
Even when I switch all Plugins off I have that problem.

And as if that would not be weird enough…
When I am logged in I see the section in the frontend asigned to the wrong page. When I log off from the backend I suddenly see it correctly in the frontend. Can this be happening because I was working in the backend from two different computers with the same login and that messed something up?

Also the section articles which is normally associated with the page archive has a lined through “archive” and a RED (in that case) archive beneath. Which in the source code shows me that it has an error class.

What is this all about?

Bloke · 2019-07-18 12:34:57

This is a Theme feature.

It allows you to create a new Theme, perhaps cloning your current one, and tinker with it live without affecting non-logged-in users’ experience of the site. So all the while you’re logged in, you see this ‘development’ theme so you can get it working how you like. When you’re ready, visit the Sections panel and use the multi-edit tool to switch the ‘dev’ theme to ‘live’ for any sections you want to take on the new theme.

A struck-through theme name indicates, visually, which is assigned to the Section and thus which you will see compared with non-logged-in users.

Hopping onto a private browsing session will show you what everyone else sees if you want to check you haven’t broken anything while you were tinkering.

Although I’ve not seen it on any of the sites I run, I believe the red markings and Pages being struck through indicate missing Assets, perhaps compared to those on disk vs those in the database, or those in the development (work-in-progress) theme vs those in the actual theme currently in use for site visitors? It’s probably to help you avoid any nasty surprises when you switch a theme live. I’m not entirely sure, but Oleg should be able to shed some light on it.

Last edited by Bloke (2019-07-18 12:52:15)

demoncleaner · 2019-07-18 13:38:05

Thanks Stef for the detailed explanation.

But what I still don´t understand is:
So far I am not using the theme feature of textpattern.

All sections are bound to Zero(empty theme). So I do not really understand what triggered that behaviour. If I have done something, I did not do it on purpose and I do not really understand what to do to get back to the normal state of those sections. Eventhough I know now it is a feature – which is pretty cool when working with themes – I have no idea why in my case it is behaving like that.

demoncleaner · 2019-08-06 11:34:55

Sorry Stef, Now I realized that I was just too… blind to see that there is an option of setting live and dev sections on the bottom dropdown in sections. Now all makes sense. Still have not figured out why I get a red “artciles/archive” section. Will post if I found the reason.

demoncleaner · 2019-08-07 08:10:10

Wouldn´t it make sense to have the section changed by default in live AND developer mode? Because if people like me are not aware of that feature they might bump into the same problem. And I guess that playing around with the sections will more likely happen when you are setting up a website. When setting up, there is no need to differantiate between live and developer. Does that make sense?

Bloke · 2019-08-07 10:07:41

demoncleaner wrote #318981:

Wouldn´t it make sense to have the section changed by default in live AND developer mode?

Perhaps if there’s only one theme in use, then yes. I thought it did that already, but maybe not. The split dev/live thing should only be available if there’s more than one theme installed, imo. Otherwise it should be business as usual.

If this is not the case, I’d be tempted to consider it a bug, but we’ll have to do some tests to find out, on brand new and upgraded installations.

The theory is:

Clone your current theme. Bump its version number in the manifest.
Tinker with the Pages/Forms/Styles in this theme.
You (as a logged-in user) see the in-development theme while browsing, while nobody else is affected. This is reflected in the struck-out stuff on the Sections panel.
If you wish to test a different Page/Style with a Section, reassign it from the Sections panel, only as dev.
When you’re happy, switch Sections live, to point to the new theme so that all users get to see it.
(optionally) Delete the old theme if it’s served its purpose and is no longer used.
Repeat next time you want to change the site.

For this workflow, it makes sense to always consider dev and live separate and allow you to update them independently. It’s a powerful feature because you then don’t need a staging server and therefore don’t have to worry about syncing the databases on go-live. Just assign Theme assets to a Section as ‘live’. Done. Also means you can give live previews of changes to clients by just logging them in as an account with suitable privs so their dev environment matches yours.

But, again, this should only happen (imo) if there’s more than one Theme installed. Single theme = same behaviour as pre-4.7.

demoncleaner · 2019-08-07 10:20:07

Hey Stef,
thanks for pointing out this nice workflow so precisely. Eventhough I have not used it like that I was already thinking that this is really a cool feature and it will come handy also for me in the future. Maybe when a relaunch is scheduled or when I need to show something to the client. So definately two thumbs up for that dev/live thing.

I only kept on writing about it because I found the behaviour weird and – in my case only in this situation – not helpful.

When setting up a fresh new website (zero theme by installation of txp) I have this behaviour like described. It still would be needed to confirm but it was a fresh setup of textpattern and I had this issue on all my latest setups.

So when I try to change a section during my setup process, it does not matter if I am doing it via the dropdown on the section overview page or in sections detail page, it will only change the section for dev and not for live.

Maybe I have to get more into the theme feature in general. I thought it was handy for reusing themes for multiple installations. But as I normaly set up everything pretty unique I did not give too much attention to it so far. Eventhough I can see that it is also powerful and a big thing for textpattern.

Last edited by demoncleaner (2019-08-07 10:21:04)

colak · 2019-08-07 18:20:29

Bloke wrote #318982:

Perhaps if there’s only one theme in use, then yes. I thought it did that already, but maybe not. The split dev/live thing should only be available if there’s more than one theme installed, imo. Otherwise it should be business as usual.

If this is not the case, I’d be tempted to consider it a bug, but we’ll have to do some tests to find out, on brand new and upgraded installations.

The theory is:

Clone your current theme. Bump its version number in the manifest.

Tinker with the Pages/Forms/Styles in this theme.

You (as a logged-in user) see the in-development theme while browsing, while nobody else is affected. This is reflected in the struck-out stuff on the Sections panel.

If you wish to test a different Page/Style with a Section, reassign it from the Sections panel, only as dev.

When you’re happy, switch Sections live, to point to the new theme so that all users get to see it.

(optionally) Delete the old theme if it’s served its purpose and is no longer used.

Repeat next time you want to change the site.

For this workflow, it makes sense to always consider dev and live separate and allow you to update them independently. It’s a powerful feature because you then don’t need a staging server and therefore don’t have to worry about syncing the databases on go-live. Just assign Theme assets to a Section as ‘live’. Done. Also means you can give live previews of changes to clients by just logging them in as an account with suitable privs so their dev environment matches yours.

But, again, this should only happen (imo) if there’s more than one Theme installed. Single theme = same behaviour as pre-4.7.

Maybe we should have this steps, either in the themes panel or, maybe more appropriately in the themes help accessible from ../../?event=skin?

I know I had to ask this when I started to experiment with the themes feature and I am certain that the question will be again asked.

Textpattern CMS

Textpattern CMS support forum

#1 2019-07-17 14:02:35