Event Countdown not working on Events page

[Margaret Tehan]

Hello… I just noticed that my Event Countdown widget isn’t working on my events page: http://www.apkcharities.org/events/ — see the widgets below on that page. It works on my other pages. Please see the lower widgets on this page: http://www.apkcharities.org/

[Barry]

Hi pagan11460,

First thing to note is I’m going to move this out of pre-sales and across to the PRO forum – but the thread URL should remain the same and if you subscribed to email updates that should not change 🙂

So to the problem at hand: for some reason (and I’m not sure why at this point) the Javascript needed to bring the countdown widget to life is not being loaded on your homepage.

Is there anything unusual about how you are adding the widget? For instance, in the context of the homepage, is it being pulled in through something other than a regular WordPress  sidebar?

Alternatively, can you try running through our standard troubleshooting steps and see if there is a conflict at work here?

Thanks!

[Margaret Tehan]

Hi Barry, you say that “the Javascript needed to bring the countdown widget to life is not being loaded on your homepage,” but the widget *is* working on my homepage. It’s working on *all* of my pages *except* the page that holds the events calendar. Please see: http://www.apkcharities.org/ and http://www.apkcharities.org/about-apk-charities/ and http://www.apkcharities.org/donate/ and http://www.apkcharities.org/contact-us/ as examples of where the widget *is* working. But it is *not* working on the events page: http://www.apkcharities.org/events/

The Javascript is working on all pages except that page that houses the events generated by the same plugin that generates the countdown that’s not working.

Also, you asked if there is anything unusual about how I’ve added the widget. No, there isn’t. I simply added the widget to the widget area and selected “Show seconds.”

If there was a conflict with any of my other plugins, etc., the countdown wouldn’t work on all of my other pages.

Can you help me get this fixed?

[Barry]

You’re right, it’s not on your homepage and that was a mistake in my wording – sorry for the confusion. Regardless, the Javascript used to power that widget is working everywhere except that page (your main events page).

If there was a conflict with any of my other plugins, etc., the countdown wouldn’t work on all of my other pages.

I can appreciate your thinking here but that’s not necessarily true and it is well worth running through our troubleshooting steps. If I test things out with a default theme (Twenty Thirteen) and no plugins but our own, for instance, I am unable to replicate this issue with the Countdown Widget.

With that in mind, can you give those steps a shot? If you wish to avoid running through them on your live site perhaps you could do so on a test site instead (you could in fact do them backwards – quickly create a new WordPress site and start only with our plugins and a default theme – confirm there is no problem – and build up from there by adding all of the plugins and ultimately the same theme as on your live site).

Let me know how you get on!

[Margaret Tehan]

OK… I did what you asked… I used Twenty Thirteen and the Events Calendar Pro… and it worked. But then I changed the theme to Headway and it stopped working. I will write to the support team at Headway to see if they can help me fix this but I have to say that it isn’t necessarily a problem with Headway. It still could be a problem with your code that conflicts with Headway. So… is there any way that you can continue to help me figure this out? How do I get you and someone from Headway to work on this together? I’m afraid that the support team at Headway might say that the conflict lies with your plugin for the simple reason that the countdown works in Headway… in *every* other page *except* the one that houses *your* event calendar. How can I get this fixed?

[Barry]

OK… I did what you asked… I used Twenty Thirteen and the Events Calendar Pro… and it worked. But then I changed the theme to Headway and it stopped working. I will write to the support team at Headway to see if they can help me fix this but I have to say that it isn’t necessarily a problem with Headway.

Thanks for running through those steps, it’s appreciated 🙂

I’d be the first to agree this does not mean there is a categorical problem with Headway – but of course let’s also remember there is not necessarily a bug in our code (conceivably there may not be a bug in either party’s code).

What I can say is that there have definitely been challenges in the past in terms of integrating our plugins with Headway, but my understanding is that the team did a lot of work to improve things particularly with regards to “virtual pages” (such as our main events view) … can you confirm which version of Headway you are currently using?

Thanks!

[Margaret Tehan]

Hi Barry, I’ll readily admit that the code problem *could* lie with Headway. There have been plenty of times that their code has had conflicts with other programs. The only reason why I’m thinking it’s improbable is because the countdown works on all other Headway pages other than the Events page. But hey! What do I know? 🙂 It could very well be a problem with Headway’s code.

Meantime… I’m using WP 3.9.2 (haven’t upgraded to 4.0 yet.) and HT 3.7.8. I wrote to Headway support and received the following response:

From Jamie V:

Hi Margaret – We will most definitely work with Modern Tribe to work on compatibility. Get them to contact us directly: [email protected]

[Barry]

Hi Margaret,

Thanks for the update – we’re getting closer!

So I don’t currently have access to the very most recent version of Headway (though we’ll certainly reach out to the Headway team on that count) but a quick test with Headway 3.6 seemed worthwhile though it didn’t get me anywhere. Here’s what I tried:

• I used the visual editor to create a layout approximating what I see on your site:
  • A header block at the top
  • A navigation block right below it
  • Below that, a large content block taking up most of the space on the left
  • A widget area on its right
  • Finally, a widget area in the “footer” region
• With that in place I placed the countdown widget in the footer widget area

When viewing the main events page – set to show upcoming events by default as I think you have done – the countdown widget worked as expected. So that raises two possibilities:

• This problem is specific to the most recent versions of Headway
• Something else is conflicting – this could be another widget, another plugin or perhaps a certain setting must be enabled

Before we go any further I’d like to check how you approached the troubleshooting process: when you re-enabled Headway did you do so with a “clean slate” or did it inherit all the same widgets etc that you had in place prior to testing? Were you also able to test Headway with our plugins but no others?

Thanks!

[Margaret Tehan]

Hi Barry, I have another website – called PaleoPeggi.com (ha, ha! I plan to write about the Paleo diet in my spare time, as if I have any spare time.) So… I had a bare shell of WordPress installed and I had only two bare bones plugins installed but not activated… Akismet and Hello Dolly. And I had Headway installed but I hadn’t created any widgets yet. So… I changed the theme to Twenty Thirteen and I uploaded the Events Calendar and The Events Calendar Pro… activated them… added a test event… then added a countdown widget to the existing widget area in Twenty Thirteen. The countdown widget worked on the events calendar page. Then I switched back to Headway, added a wrapper, added a widget area, added the countdown widget to that new widget area… the countdown did not work on the events calendar page in Headway. So… yes, I was able to test Headway with no other plugins but yours.

[Barry]

OK – thanks for confirming. Bear with me a little longer in that case and I’ll try and replicate with the very latest version of Headway.

[Margaret Tehan]

Ok. Thanks. But… just so you know… I think that a new version of Headway might be out right now. I used 3.7.8 for this site. It’s a new launch for a charity and I’m not ready to update to WordPress 4.0 and to any new versions of Headway just yet. When Headway comes out with an update, I usually give it a few weeks to let them get the kinks out. With that being said, if the solution to this problem is to update to WordPress 4.0 and a newer version of Headway, I’ll be more than willing to do it. But, for now, while everything else is playing nicely with each other, I’d like to leave well enough alone. Also, I just noticed another problem… I’m using a plugin called “Custom Facebook Feed Pro.” It’s working perfectly on all other pages of this APK Charities website… except… (drum roll please) the events calendar page. On that page, the image in the second Facebook post is wayyyyy too small. Please look at the middle widget on the homepage at http://www.apkcharities.org and compare it to the same widget on this page: http://www.apkcharities.org/event/apk-5k/ and look at the second post re: APK Charities updating their cover image. I deactivated that plugin to see if it had anything to do with this problem – even though I already knew that it didn’t because it wasn’t installed on the paleopeggi.com site. I figured better to check. It didn’t matter. This problem is between Headway and The Events Calendar Pro. Looking forward to hearing back from you.

[Barry]

Thanks for the update 🙂

I think that a new version of Headway might be out right now. I used 3.7.8 for this site. It’s a new launch for a charity and I’m not ready to update to WordPress 4.0 and to any new versions of Headway just yet. When Headway comes out with an update, I usually give it a few weeks to let them get the kinks out.

I do appreciate your position here, but it still makes sense from our point of view to test with the latest stable Headway release:

• If I can replicate the problem it will probably have the same cause and solution as with your version of the theme
• If I can’t replicate then I must either be missing some piece of information such as a critical setting and we can try and figure out what that might be, or, the problem may be specific to the version you are using (that being the case we may not be able to do much but at least we’ll know how to resolve it – ie, update the theme)

However, it’s still too early to jump to conclusions and we’ll update you again as soon as we can.

Also, I just noticed another problem… I’m using a plugin called “Custom Facebook Feed Pro.” It’s working perfectly on all other pages of this APK Charities website… except… (drum roll please) the events calendar page … This problem is between Headway and The Events Calendar Pro. Looking forward to hearing back from you.

Please bear in mind we do try hard to stick to one issue per thread.

I sense you feel this is related and it definitely could be: so, just to clarify, there’s no problem when you use Custom Facebook Feed Pro together with The Events Calendar/Events Calendar PRO without Headway (in the context of events pages)?

If so let’s wait and see if any fix for the original issue also resolves this problem. If it doesn’t, or if you think it may actually be a standalone issue, the best course of action would be to break this problem out into a new thread of its own.

Thanks!

[Margaret Tehan]

I wasn’t bringing the problem up re: the Facebook plugin for any other reason than to tell you that the problem with the Facebook plugin is a.) related to this issue and b.) that it is not the cause of any of this because I tested Headway with *just* the two Events Calendar plugins being tohe only plugins enabled.

Re: the latest “stable” version of Headway… I don’t know if there is a newer version… I said I thought possibly there might be. If there is a newer version… I think I saw something about it in their threads, then it is not necessarily a stable version… I saw posts from users who said that it had quirks and problems. So… in my opinion, 3.7.8 is the stable version… hence the reason why I’m reluctant to update right now.

[Barry]

OK – thanks for clarifying – we’re talking to the Headway team right now and we’ll update you as soon as we can 🙂

[Margaret Tehan]

Barry, you’re a gentleman and a scholar. 🙂

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