Blog pages with two sidebars

Hi fiberlyone. We should be able to fix this without too much trouble. I can’t look at it until tomorrow, but a couple of questions:
1. You said, “I have selected the corresponding layout”. Does that mean, on the Chapter Blog page, in the Page Options section, you selected the layout with two sidebars and content in the middle?
2. You mentioned, “and chosen the primary and secondary menus”. Are you referring to actual menus, or the sidebars in the Page Options section? If it’s sidebars, what did you select for these options/
3. I notice that your Home and Calendar pages also have only one sidebar, and they both have the same content. Did you select the two-sidebar layout on those pages also?
4. What is the difference between the configuration of the Community Service and Meetings pages, both of which have two sidebars, and the Chapter Blog page?
Thanks.

Bdbrown,

Thanks for replying.

1. Yes. The layout I selected has a left and right sidebar, with content in the center.

2. Sorry. I should have said primary and secondary sidebars. Primary/Left sidebar should be “public menu”–same as on other pages (home, community service, meetings). The right sidebar should be links and desriptions of blog posts. The actual blog posts have both sidebars–it’s just the main blog page that’s not working as expected.

3. This is a test site. I just started converting existing content to work in the new theme and I haven’t decided what I’m going to do with the calendar page (among others). The home page is purposely left sidebar only.

4. The difference between the Community Service page layout and the Chapter Blog page is what I don’t understand. The Page Options are the same.

Thanks again for looking at this.

The actual blog posts have both sidebars

I just checked several of the posts on the blog page you linked. All of them have a blank sidebar on the right side.
In Theme Options > Layout, what do you have selected for the various page types?
In Theme Options > Sidebars, do you have any sidebars selected for any of the page types?

I looked a the first blog post (What’s Out There) and it’s correct, so I assumed the rest were…bad assumption.

Here’s an image of Theme Options > Layout
https://thehudsons.com/theme_options/Theme_options_layout.png

Here’s an image of Theme Options > Sidebars
https://thehudsons.com/theme_options/Theme_options_sidebars.png

Thanks.

Thanks for the screenshots. Now it appears that all the blog pages have a blank left sidebar, which I’m assuming is a change you just made. What happens if you reset all the Page Options settings to the defaults on the Chapter Blog page? Also, on that page, what is the Page Template that is selected?

The problem now is with only the Chapter Blog page, since i figured out that I had set page template on the first blog post to left sidebar/content/right sidebar. I did this with some additional blog posts and they are as formatted.

However, resetting the page template and sidebars on the Chapter Blog page to defaults, left me with an empty left sidebar. So in Theme Options/Layout; the Global Layout was set for left sidebar/content. I set that to full page, and all the other layouts to “x”. The left sidebar went away.

Next, in Theme Options/Layout, I set the Global Layout to left sidebar/content/right sidebar and the Chapter Blog page had an empty left and right sidebar. Various combinations of layout selections, and I’m pretty sure Global Layout is what is setting the Chapter Blog’s layout, so currently it’s set on left sidebar/content/right sidebar.

In post editing and I set the Primary and Secondary sidebars to Public and Blogroll; saved. With or without the page layout set on left sidebar/content/right sidebar, the sidebars are empty.

In Settings > Reading, do you have a static Front page defined, and the Posts Page is “Chapter Blog”? And the “Chapter Blog” page is just a blank page with no content?

In Settings > Reading, do you have a static Front page defined, and the Posts Page is “Chapter Blog”? And the “Chapter Blog” page is just a blank page with no content?

Yes and Yes

OK, this is a bit confusing but bear with me. The issue is related to how WP interprets the “home” page. If you have a static page set for the Front Page, WP sees that as the “front page”. If the Posts Page is also set, that is the “home page”. So, in Theme Options, the “Home” page actually refers to the blog index page or Posts Page which, in your case, is set to Chapter Blog. As far as the actual Chapter Blog page is concerned, the theme does not recognize that page as anything but the Home page. It’s not a separate page type like “archive” or “single” so setting the layout and sidebars on the actual page doesn’t make any difference. To summarize:

Page Layout Hierarchy
Individual page layout -> Page type layout -> Global Layout
The exception is the static Posts Page. It inherits its layout from Theme Options > Layout > Home; any layout selected on the individual page is ignored.

Sidebar Hierarchy
Individual page sidebars -> Page type sidebars -> Default sidebars based on layout
The exception is the static Posts Page. It inherits its sidebars from Theme Options > Sidebars > Home sidebars; sidebars selected on the individual page are ignored.

The page set as the static Front Page is just a default page in the theme so it uses the following:
Individual page layout -> Default Page type layout -> Global Layout
Individual page sidebars -> Default Page type sidebars -> Default sidebars based on layout

Here’s a reference from the Codex.
Hopefully that will help you get the Chapter Blog page configured the way you want.

Apparently it comes down to semantics. Knowing that the static posts page = home did the trick.

I set the Home Page Layout to the left sidebar/content/right sidebar. Then I set the Home primary and secondary sidebars to the sidebars I wanted and all is well. Now I can get down to fixing the content to work with the theme.

Thank you so much bdbrown!

You’re welcome. Glad you were able to get it fixed. If you don’t need any further assistance with this topic please mark it as Resolved. Thanks.

Thanks.