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@marthamarks wrote:
QUESTION FOR MODERATOR: Should we retitle this thread to be more specific and useful, perhaps “Disappearing Menu Items” ? Others may hit this problem in the future, so perhaps this will help somebody else down the road.
Done. Could you tell us, what exactly was done?
@ajt wrote:
@marthamarks wrote:
QUESTION FOR MODERATOR: Should we retitle this thread to be more specific and useful, perhaps “Disappearing Menu Items” ? Others may hit this problem in the future, so perhaps this will help somebody else down the road.
Done. Could you tell us, what exactly was done?
I will get back to you with that info. Before too much high-fiving however, see my next note…
PROGRESS, BUT IT’S NOT PERFECT YET…
Well, the system has allowed me to add categories, but it’s also dropped off the last batch in the series.
Birds are there through Towhees, but gone are the Warblers, Woodpeckers, Wrens, plus whole long lists of Beasts and Bugs categories I just added this afternoon. Check here to see what I mean: http://bestnaturestock.com/
Stay tuned, everybody, and thanks to you all for the great help to this point. SYS is beginning to feel like a real team, which is nice.
UPDATE: Well, I decided to dedicate this afternoon/evening to photography. No work on the website. Tomorrow, I’ll contact Bluehost again and see if there’s a way more progress can be made.
Aaaargh.
REPORT FROM THE WEE HOURS
Well, I “slept on it” until about 3 AM Mountain Time. Woke up understanding what I needed to do, and I’ve just done it.
It was obvious (probably to all but me): I needed to simplify my system. And I’ve just done that. No need for so many categories in the main menu, so most of them are now gone. I can add in judiciously as need be, but now I know I have a limit (and at least I now know what that limit is).
My call to Bluehost yesterday resulted in an increase from 20 categories allowed in my menu bar to 80. I figured that out by counting how many were left when I went over that and the number then collapsed back to 80. Clever, no? 🙂
So I’ve reconfigured it to eliminate the 2nd-tier sub-categories. (I can always add a few back in, where I have a really large number of images in the sub-sub cats.)
You can see here what I’ve wound up with: http://bestnaturestock.com/
AJT, I will come back tomorrow to walk back through the steps for increasing from 20 to 80, in case somebody else wants to go over the default limit someday. Right now… I’m heading back to bed.
That looks much tidier – I expect your visitors will appreciate it more as well as there will not be so many clicks to reach the images they are looking for?
Pleased you have it sorted (and more pleased that it was nothing to do with my site 🙂 )
http://kerioakimaging.com - trying to reopen
http://nail-art-at.kerioak.com - Art and Nail Art@christine wrote:
Pleased you have it sorted (and more pleased that it was nothing to do with my site 🙂 )
Thanks, Christine. I already mentioned to you elsewhere in this process that I have a tendency to over-complicate things. My mind likes things neat and tidy. I keep my image-storage files that way. It’s how I naturally want to approach a new project like this website: try to organize the heck out of it. Sometimes that works, sometimes not.
And please know that I never did think the mess I woke up to two mornings back had anything to do with your site! Just that a whole bunch of “stuff” happened at once, including that strange string of text about your site at the bottom of mine, so sorting it out was confusing. I’ll add your new URL back into my network today.
@christine wrote:
That looks much tidier – I expect your visitors will appreciate it more as well as there will not be so many clicks to reach the images they are looking for?
Well, it may look tidier (because obviously it is), but it does mean that a visitor looking at my site for some specific kind of jay, for example, or a specific type of ground squirrel will probably have to use the search feature, rather than go directly to the page containing just that species, because there will be a large jumble of different types of subjects on most category pages. However… that’s okay. And it’s especially okay since that may lead them to other sites via our global search that could have the exact image they need, even if mine doesn’t. All in all, it’s a good thing.
As somebody else pointed out in another thread, most people will find their way to any of our sites through Google, so they’ll have done that search already before they even find my site.
I’ll get back later with the info on how to increase the number of permitted categories. But for now… I’ve got a bunch of new images shot last evening I’m dying to start work on!
your symbiocard.xml shows you currently have 56 categories – is that correct? a few of us have over 100 categories and I’ve not seen any problems like you reported, so it may be something to do with your host rather than the sym theme itself.
[those not interested in techy details can skip next paragraph] categories have been giving me trouble with my global database collection, since they’re not stored consistently – at least the xml file isolates them, but sometimes they contain ‘<' and other times '<' so parsing is a hassle. however, they are stored as 'long text' which means there should be no limit to total length.
OK, folks, here’s my report on how the Bluehost techie was able to increase the number of Menu items I’m allowed. Please note that he did this. I didn’t, and since I don’t have a clue about any of this this, nobody could pay me to touch my php settings on my own. 🙂
He told me he was “working on the php code max input vars and adding code” to my file. Then he walked me through what he had done, this way:
In my Bluehost Control Panel:
1. I went to File Manager.
2. I selected the Home Directory and in the same dialog box clicked “show hidden files”.
That opened up a 2-column page.
3. On the left-hand side, I clicked the globe beside public_html, which opened up a new set of files on the right.
4. On the right-hard side, I selected .htaccess.
5. With that selected, I clicked Code Editor in the menu bar at the top.
6. On the dialogue box that opened up, I left everything set as it was, then clicked Edit.
7. That opened up a snippet of code that included the following, whose date & time stamp showed it had just been edited.
# File modified on Wed Sep 18 13:57:13 2013 by server
# For security reasons, mod_php is not used on this server. Use a php.ini file for php directives
# php_value max_input_vars 9000
It was that last line “input_vars 9000” that had been changed from the default number (I think he said it was 2000) to 9000.
And that process seemed to quadruple the number of menu items I’m allowed, from 20 to 80. I can live with that!
@cascoly wrote:
your symbiocard.xml shows you currently have 56 categories – is that correct? a few of us have over 100 categories and I’ve not seen any problems like you reported, so it may be something to do with your host rather than the sym theme itself.
[those not interested in techy details can skip next paragraph] categories have been giving me trouble with my global database collection, since they’re not stored consistently – at least the xml file isolates them, but sometimes they contain ‘< ' and other times '<' so parsing is a hassle. however, they are stored as 'long text' which means there should be no limit to total length.
I haven’t counted my current categories, post-downsizing, but 56 sounds about right.
My host is Bluehost. I signed up 3-4 months ago (el cheapo $4.95/mo setup) and about 2 months ago upgraded to the “premium” package ($19.95/mo I think). It doesn’t seem like there should be any artificial limitations on that, but there were.
Steve, I read your techy last paragraph, didn’t understand it a bit. Others surely will. So glad we have you tech-types on the team!
One more follow-up comment, which should tie this 2-day-old thread up nice and neat.
I’ve reactivated the SYXtra plugin (1.9.8) , because before this problem happened I had been using several of its features and really liked them. All those nice features are back now in full working order on my site.
I’ve restored Christine’s new URL to my network, without difficulty. That curious string of text at the bottom of my website did not return.
All’s well with my site at this point. Hooray!!!
And again, thanks to all who contributed to solving my quandary. Special thanks to jsnover for her first-rate sleuthing to turn up the known WP issue of disappearing menu items.
I appreciate everything you guys did to help me, and now I hope this thread will enlighten somebody else who encounters this problem in the future.
Can we change the title to include RESOLVED: at the beginning?
@jsnover wrote:
Can we change the title to include RESOLVED: at the beginning?
Fine with me if a Moderator agrees.
Leo was insane enough to make me a moderator, so I agree with my suggestion 🙂 Just wanted to be sure you were OK with it
@jsnover wrote:
Leo was insane enough to make me a moderator, so I agree with my suggestion 🙂 Just wanted to be sure you were OK with it
Yep! Great suggestion, O Fine Moderator. 🙂
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