Hi,

On your portfolio page you’ve used the WPBakery page builder to insert the Post Types Grid element and a filter. To remove the button you can do so by editing the element like such: https://a.cl.ly/eDupl86D

For the filter, it’s impossible to remove the “All” button because this is a filter that simply shows/hides items on the page if you were to hide the all button the user can never go back to view all items, it causes accessibility issues.

I would recommend not using this filter, and rather inserting the “Navigation Bar” element and displaying links to the categories if that’s what you really want. Like such: https://a.cl.ly/BluedY1W – this way you can link to the category archives, rather then filtering the grid below which makes more sense if you don’t want an “all” button and it’s also better for SEO and Accessibility.

Also (and I mentioned this in my response to your newer comment). I would recommend not using the Post Types Grid element but rather use the newer Post Cards element. If you just want a design for your blog entries with an image, padding and shadow you can easily do this without having to create a custom card – https://totalwptheme.com/docs/custom-card-builder/ – but by using theme utility classes – https://totalwptheme.com/css-framework/ – here is an example video: https://a.cl.ly/xQumznb9

- AJ

Hi,

Thank you for changing it back so I can look.

The problem you are having is your child theme is filled with CSS from the parent Total theme, looks like it was just copied and pasted from the parent. This causes conflicts, see here: https://a.cl.ly/yAuRKG9L

Because your child theme’s style.css loads after the parent theme style.css the child CSS file will take priority.

Now, your child theme should only contain your customizations. It looks like at someone point someone basically copied and pasted the theme’s style.css content into your child theme’s style.css file, which is a big issue (as you can see).

From what I can tell there may not even be any real customizations in the child theme’s style.css file. I would recommend making a backup of that file then erasing all the CSS from the file and refreshing the site to see if anything changed. Trying to weed through that massive child theme to locate any possible mods could take some time. But doing a quick scan, it all seems to be default theme styles so you will likely just need to remove everything and you are good to go.

- AJ

AJ, I truly appreciate your help on this. I probably should mention that I had remembered the CSS from the parent was in the child CSS before I updated to 6.3. So I was doing a test and putting the styles back in just to see if that was the cause. For me whether the child CSS is empty or contains a copy and paste from the parent… the sticky menu issue still remains. I removed the CSS from the child theme. Let me know your thoughts.

Thank you again.

When I inspect your site I still see the code in your child theme that’s causing the issue.

I see your site is using W3 Total Cache, make sure to purge this plugin’s cache because it combines, minifies and caches CSS files so even though you may have updated your child theme, the plugin is still loading the old child theme CSS.

- AJ

I hope you had a nice weekend, thank you for your patience.

Thank you for reporting the bug, I was able to recreate it myself and I will patch it for the next update.

Now, in the last Total version I added a new option at Customize > General Theme Options > Search Modal > Live Results

You can temporarily disable this setting so that the search goes to the search page instead of running AJAX. And actually not many people are aware of this new setting and for most sites going to the search results is best for usability and full control of the design. Most hosting services do not cache ajax requests so it can be much slower and more strain on the server using the live results then redirecting to the search results.

- AJ

ps: the issue with the live ajax search is I have some code in place so that the request isn’t sent unless you have at least 3 characters, this prevents searching for words under 3 characters which can be detrimental as there are likely tons of posts/pages that could have words with the matching 3 letters. My js was using the following code:

const getAlphanumericCount = ( string ) => {
    return (string.match(/[a-zA-Z0-9]/g) || []).length;
}

const isInputLongEnough = () => {
    return searchInput.value && getAlphanumericCount( searchInput.value ) >= l10n.character_threshold;
}

Hence it wouldn’t work. I’ve patched this for the upcoming update. Thank you again for reporting the issue!

Hello AJ

Glad to hear you were able to recreate the bug. Always happy to help track down those sneaky little glitches!

Also appreciate the tip about the Live Results option. Total Theme always has hidden gems tucked away!

Hi,

If I inspect the link in Chrome and apply a visited state manually it works as you would expect: https://a.cl.ly/RBu2E06q

It also appears to work correctly in Safari and Firefox but not Edge or Chrome (when I test)

This would suggest a Chromium issue, perhaps security or privacy related most likely because you are linking to other domains.

- AJ

Forgot to mention a “fix”... if you must have the feature, the only way to make it work in all browsers (that I can think of) would be to use javascript and store the clicks in localStorage. Ex:

// Ensure the script runs after the page has loaded
document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', function() {
    // Function to apply the "visited" state
    function applyVisitedState() {
        // Get all links with the specific class
        const links = document.querySelectorAll('.indcon-article-title a');

        // Loop through each link
        links.forEach(link => {
            // Check if the link is in localStorage
            if (localStorage.getItem(link.href)) {
                // Apply a "visited" class if it's in localStorage
                link.classList.add('visited');
            }

            // Add event listener to track clicks
            link.addEventListener('click', function() {
                // Store the clicked link in localStorage
                localStorage.setItem(link.href, 'visited');
            });
        });
    }

    // Apply visited state
    applyVisitedState();
});

code generated with chatGPT

Then you would target both the :visited state and the .visited class.

The JS would be added in a child theme’s js file loaded via wp_enqueue_scripts or you can insert it as an inline script via the wp_footer hook:

function add_visited_links_script() {
    // JavaScript code for tracking visited links
    ?>
    <script type="text/javascript">
       // ADD THE JS HERE
    </script>
    <?php
}
add_action('wp_footer', 'add_visited_links_script');

it’s nice to know I wasn’t overlooking something obvious and that Chromium is just doing something weird. thanks for the fast reality check and for the js tip!

Hi,

You could use the Post Terms element as a shortcode for your text input. Example:

[vcex_post_terms first_term_only="true" archive_link="false" style="inline" taxonomy="size"]

I’ve tested and it works correctly.

Having a dynamic variable for term names built into the theme would be a bit too complex for various reasons, but you could easily create your own custom dynamic variable {{size}}

add_filter( 'totaltheme/replace_vars/vars', function( $vars ) {
    // Add custom dynamic variable for size taxonomy term name
    $vars['size'] = function() {
        // Get the terms for the 'size' taxonomy for the current post
        $terms = get_the_terms( get_the_ID(), 'size' );
        if ( $terms && ! is_wp_error( $terms ) ) {
            // Assuming the post has at least one 'size' term, get the first term's name
            $term = array_shift( $terms );
            return $term->name;
        }
        return ''; // Return an empty string if no term is found
    };
    return $vars;
});

I actually just asked chatGPT to give me this code – you could do the same in the future if you want to add custom dynamic variables, just be sure chatGPT knows it’s for the Total theme using the totaltheme/replace_vars/vars filter.

Also, depending what you are doing I added a new Term Cards element in Total 6.0 – so you can create a custom card, add an icon box and use the dynamic variable {{term_name}} in your custom card. Then use the Post Cards element in your dynamic template, set it to query the size taxonomy and to display your custom term card. This method is very useful if you have multiple terms assigned to the taxonomy to create unique displays for the terms.

- AJ

Hi James,

The problem you are having is when you use the CSS tab for the button it adds a wrapper outside of the button and the auto top margin has to be added on the last direct child of the card’s inner column. So you either need to add “auto” as the top margin in the CSS tab or best, remove the padding from the CSS tab and use only utility classes for the margin “wpex-mt-auto wpex-mx-30 wpex-mb-30” – doesn’t really make sense to use “padding” and of course it won’t work as it will add the space inside the button.

- AJ

ps: An alternative to adding padding to all the inner elements, would be to give your card row/column a padding lets say 30px then add a negative -30px top/side margin to the image to push it outside of the padding.

Is it the ‘accent’ colour setting?

Hi,

Changing the accent will change the default button color, unless your site also has a custom button color which can be changed at Customize > Global Styles > Buttons.

More info here: https://totalwptheme.com/docs/button-colors/ (I will update these docs now to have newer screenshots).

- AJ

Hi,

This error happens when you try to install the “Full Package” from Themeforest because that zip file includes other non-theme related files. Make sure you download only the “Installable WordPress File” – see the first screenshot from the docs here: https://totalwptheme.com/docs/install-total-theme/

Now, rather then updating manually you can simply activate your Theme License and receive updates via the WP admin – https://totalwptheme.com/docs/update-theme/

- AJ

Thanks AJ. That sorted it.

Hi,

It was working when I added it and just tested again to ensure nothing happened when bundling the final version of the last update and it’s still working for me.

The only things I can think of is that you need to clear your cache, if your site is not using proper version control then it could be loading old JS so this code wont’ work. Or that you are using the setting for something that it’s not intended for. This setting is used to have the local scroll “stop early” so for example if you enter 40px the local scroll will stop 40px before the target element.

Not sure what you mean by “negative margin + padding trick” that sounds strange, can you share the example site to see what you are doing it. Because using negative margin plus a padding would essentially cancel each other out so not sure what you mean.

Additionally, the theme has a new CSS variable as well “—wpex-local-scroll-padding” you can use to set custom offset paddings for specific elements. For example the theme adds this CSS by default:

#comments {
    --wpex-local-scroll-padding: 20px
}

This way when local scrolling to the comments there will be a 20px padding between the top of the window or sticky header and the comments.

So depending on what you are doing you may want to use CSS to target elements independently, because the setting in the customizer is used globally for all local scroll elements. Just wanted to mention this incase you were not aware of this feature.

- AJ

If it’s coded directly in the style.css file, it means someone has modified the theme to include it, because it’s not part of the theme. Feel free to inspect the theme’s landing page or any demo to confirm: https://totalwptheme.com/

The only mention of Helvetica Neue in the style.css file would be for this custom property:

--wpex-font-sans: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji";

This is a standard system ui font definition. It doesn’t mean the font is actually loaded on the site, it means if the browser supports it, then it could be used as a fallback. So if this is the CSS you are referring to, you can ignore it. Fonts are only loaded via @font-face or @import declarations.

- AJ

ps: Your client has access to theme support, so if they need assistance, they’re welcome to contact me directly. It’s not reasonable for your client to pay you for support, and then for you to expect free help from me. I’m sure you’d feel the same if the roles were reversed. If you’re offering maintenance services to clients using this theme, it would be best to either purchase your own license or have your client cover the cost of one. Just as you likely don’t provide free WordPress maintenance, I can’t offer free theme support to non-customers.

Thank you for the support. I thought this comment section was for the free support? As per this line in the Support tab:

“Submitting a private ticket requires an active support license, if you don’t have one then leave a comment on ThemeForest.”

I’m not asking questions for free use. There is a paid license for the product. You’ve been compensated, so not only am I using a free forum, but you’ve gotten compensation for the license. I don’t see the issue here.

Of course, I’m happy to help.

I just want to make things clear to avoid any misunderstandings and ensure fair use of support.

When providing website maintenance, it’s important to keep this in mind:

Your client has purchased the product, and regardless of whether their support license is active, the access to the product and its support is tied to them.

If your client hires you for maintenance, it’s your responsibility to either resolve issues independently or acquire the appropriate support, which may include purchasing a support license if needed.

Many sellers in this marketplace either ignore comments from non-buyers or provide generic responses like, “Support is only available to verified buyers with an active support license.”

That said, I make it a point to respond to all inquiries and even assist buyers without active support licenses.

If your client needs assistance, they don’t necessarily need to go through you. They can contact me directly for help with the theme. It might be worth letting them know, in case they weren’t aware.

- AJ

Hi,

WPBakery updates are provided via the theme and Total has code to prevent the errors you mention, which are triggered when the plugin tries to auto update.

It sounds like perhaps you’ve disabled “WPBakery Theme Mode” in the Theme Panel, can you please double check?

The error can also happen if Total was temporarily disabled so the code the theme has to prevent the plugin from making update checks isn’t on the site thus it runs and caches responses with WordPress. If this is the case, simply disable WPBakery – update via the normal theme methods then re-enable it – https://totalwptheme.com/docs/updating-visual-composer/

- AJ

There appears to be a bug in Polylang that causes this core WordPress check:

get_query_var( 'taxonomy' )

To return “language” instead of the actual taxonomy name for the archive.

I’m trying to read through the Polylang code to see where the issue is so I can report it to the plugin developers.

But I have tweaked my code a bit which will also fix the issue.

I will be releasing Total 6.4 later this week and it has the fix, if you want to fix your site manually for the meantime it’s very easy! Here are the steps:

1. Log into WordPress and go to Plugins > Plugin File Editor. 2. Select the Total Theme Core plugin on the top right. 3. Browse to inc > term-thumbnails.php – https://a.cl.ly/wbugjdYG 4. Scroll to the bottom of the file and locate this code:

private static function get_current_taxonomy(): string {
    $taxonomy = \get_query_var( 'taxonomy' );
    if ( ! $taxonomy ) {
        if ( \is_category() ) {
            $taxonomy = 'category';
        } elseif ( \is_tag() ) {
            $taxonomy = 'post_tag';
        }
    }
    return $taxonomy;
}

Change to:

private static function get_current_taxonomy(): string {
    if ( \is_category() ) {
        $taxonomy = 'category';
    } elseif ( \is_tag() ) {
        $taxonomy = 'post_tag';
    } else {
        $taxonomy = \get_query_var( 'taxonomy' );
    }
    return $taxonomy;
}

Like this: https://a.cl.ly/OAuy0165 (file editing is disabled on my server so it shows an error, but as long as it’s not disabled on your site it should work).

I’ve tested and confirmed it works after making that change: https://a.cl.ly/NQuXLm5E

Thank you for reporting the issue and your extra feedback to help me fix the issue!

- AJ

This code helped me. Now the picture is displayed. I will wait for the update. Thank you very much!

Thank you for confirming it’s working for you and thank you again for reporting the bug! Hopefully the update will be out sooner than later, I’m trying hard to get it out asap.

Hi again – I also fixed the messed up feature boxes by using the “code-y” field name. So I do think there is some issue with using the ACF names in shortcodes in repeaters.

Oh yes, sorry I forgot about that!

The reason you need to use the ACF field ID and not just the name is for optimization reasons. The theme will only run it’s extra checks for ACF fields when the name uses the ACF format. This is to keep things much more efficient when getting field data for non acf fields. If I coded things differently it would have to always make extra checks for ACF event when it’s not an ACF field. So I think I will keep things as I’ve done it to ensure the theme is as efficient as possible.

The best fix would be to update the {{acf_field_name}} dynamic variable to work in this context so I will do that.

I also forgot…You could just use the ACF shortcode as well: https://www.advancedcustomfields.com/resources/shortcode/ – this should work correctly (and be more efficient) as it’s calling the acf plugin directly.

- AJ

I took another look at my code and wanted to followup.

Currently the code uses acf_is_field_key() to determine whether a field is an ACF field. It’s a very efficient function, but it only works when the input is an ACF-formatted field key (e.g., field_6826f9b83277d) — not when using a generic field name.

I reviewed the ACF plugin code and couldn’t find any built-in method to check if a custom field exists based solely on the field name.

Since ACF supports custom fields across various contexts — taxonomies, option pages, custom post types, and more — relying only on the general field name would require checking the context each time a field is requested. That would involve determining the type (taxonomy, post type, etc.), attempting to locate the ACF field definition, and, if that fails, falling back to a standard WordPress custom field lookup.

If the requested field isn’t an ACF field, all that extra logic would run needlessly. By requiring the use of the ACF field key format, the lookup process stays much more efficient and avoids unnecessary overhead.

Now, if you were not aware, you can easily display acf field keys in the dashboard: https://a.cl.ly/Wnu9DxkD

- AJ

I’ve made the improvements to the lightbox and also fixed accessibility issues with the thumbnails. There are quite a few files to update. I will likely push out an update at the end of the week or next week. But if you want I can send the beta version sooner, please share an email address I can contact you at or if you want to renew your support license you can submit a private ticket here – https://my.totalwptheme.com/

Thanks for the update AJ! If you could send the beta version to scott@sporulate.com, that would be much appreciated.

Thanks so much for everything!

Scott

I’ll shoot you an email right now.

- AJ

Did you add anything in the Sub-Menu Location field? Also make sure the Menu Position doesn’t have anything “weird”.

If you can’t get it working please open a ticket and send me the site logins so I can see – https://my.totalwptheme.com/

Hi AJ

I worked it out. It was because the auto-generated Name (post type key) exceeded 20 characters. I manually reduced it and it now appears in the menu.

Thanks

James

Ah, I will need to add a check in the JS to provide a warning if the auto generated name is too long. Good catch!

- AJ

Hi,

I don’t generally recommend adding images in the menu (for various reasons – which I can go into if you want) which is why I don’t offer the option. But technically you can insert HTML into the WordPress menu item label text, so you can add an image like such:

<img src="IMAGE_URL" />

Example: https://a.cl.ly/z8uWPq45

And if you need to display something different on mobile it would be possible, let me know if that’s something you want to do. But you’ll need to share the URL so I can see how the site is setup.

- AJ

Oh, I already had this snippet – https://totalwptheme.com/docs/snippets/dynamic-templates-prevent-editor-access/ – which is probably better as it’s slimmer.

Thanks AJ, the snippet works great. Could the same be done for Custom Cards? The reason for this is so my client, who will be adding content themselves, does not have access to any design elements at all, adding content is through ACF fields only. (To prevent them fiddling with design, which clients sometimes like to do!)

The snippet is the same just rename “register_wpex_templates_post_type_args” to “register_wpex_card_post_type_args”. But you can optimize things but bringing the function out and using it for both hooks. Ex:

function james_hide_templates_and_cards_from_editors( $args ) {
    if ( is_admin() && ! current_user_can( 'edit_theme_options' ) ) {
        $args['show_ui'] = false;
    }
    return $args;
}
add_filter( 'register_wpex_templates_post_type_args', 'james_hide_templates_and_cards_from_editors' );
add_filter( 'register_wpex_card_post_type_args', 'james_hide_templates_and_cards_from_editors' );

This is a core WordPress hook/filter – https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/hooks/register_post_type_post_type_args/

Hi AJ – it’s a dynamic template – so the option isn’t showing. If you can provide the code that would be awesome, I would prefer it not to show up completely rather than hide with CSS.

Here is a sample snippet:

add_filter( 'vcex_maybe_display_shortcode', function( $check, $shortcode_tag, $shortcode_atts ) {
    if ( 'vcex_image' === $shortcode_tag && isset( $shortcode_atts['source'] ) && 'featured' === $shortcode_atts['source'] ) {
        $meta_check = get_post_meta( get_the_ID(), 'CUSTOM_FIELD_NAME', true );
        if ( $meta_check && 'CUSTOM_FIELD_VALUE_TO_CHECK' === $meta_check ) {
            $check = false;
        }
    }
    return $check;
}, 10, 3 );

So you can see we are hooking into the ‘vcex_maybe_display_shortcode’ which controls whether a theme element should display or not. Then we check to ensure it’s set to display the featured image. Then we check if a custom field exists and if it’s a specific value and if so we return false for the display.

Be sure to edit CUSTOM_FIELD_NAME and CUSTOM_FIELD_VALUE_TO_CHECK accordingly.

- AJ

ps: I have considered adding some sort of “Conditional Display” option to the theme’s elements so you can choose when it should or shouldn’t display, but it’s not something most customers would ever need so it feels like a lot of added bloat. But I’m still open to it…just not sure the best way to implement, as customers may not want to hide items not only based on custom fields but also based on category, tag, taxonomy, post type…etc.

Lovely, thanks!

Hi Paul,

Under the Query tab for the Post Cards element you can change the “Order By” option to “random” and then of course set the number of posts to 1. But it’s not recommended for couple reasons.

1. You will need to disable all server caching on the page that displays the random entry so that the database is called every time the page is visited so it can truly be random.

2. Displaying a random post is a very resource intensive query, it’s actually disabled on many hosting companies by default such as WPEngine.

You should only do this if the website is specifically for members where all viewers are logged in.

The only “ideal” way, would be to code your own custom function that renders the post cards element on page load via ajax. This wouldn’t be to hard, but it will send a request every time someone visits the page which isn’t great plus it means the page will initially load with an empty space as it sends the ajax request to display the card. The way you would go about it is by adding the Post Cards element to your page then looking in code mode so you can copy the shortcode to insert into your custom function that renders it via ajax – I could help with the full code if needed (chatGPT can probably give it to you as well) but I wouldn’t recommend doing this unless the client absolutely requires it.

- AJ

Here is the updated version of the video element: https://a.cl.ly/llubnWdK (which will be in the next official update) – which you can extract and replace under plugins/total-theme-core/inc/vcex/shortcodes/ – this renames the “Title” field to “Video Description” and it’s available for both the iFrame and Self-hosted videos.

Let me know if you have issues with that.

Now, the “Iframe Title or Iframe Extra URL Parameters.” settings only will display when using the iFrame video type: https://a.cl.ly/Wnu9l8mJ

But again, if you update the file with the one provided above the “iFrame Title” field has been renamed to “Video Description”.

- AJ

Hi AJ,

Thank you! I changed it from YouTube to iframe video type and was able to add in a title attribute. Thank you again for your help! I really appreciate it.

You are right, I should make sure the field displays when selecting Youtube and Vimeo as well. Good catch!

If it’s a Youtube video though, you can instead use “WordPress oEmbed” and the title will be automatically pulled from YouTube so you don’t need to do extra work. The purpose of having the separate YouTube and Vimeo settings is to allow extra customization if needed.