Blank page mla

ok, narrowed down as memory issue. Working on that now.

Thanks for your report and update; memory issues have come up several times before and can usually be fixed with some configuration changes. Here’s an earlier topic that moght help:

MLA stopped working after installing Themeco X theme

Good luck with your investigation. If it’s not a memory problem, post an update with any additional information you can gather.

I’ve increased php memory to 512 and wp define to 512, but it is just hanging. I did have a title on the page but no bar at the top to “edit”. I’m trying to figure out how to determine what this is and how much it could possibly need. This happened after I did some updates not too long ago. I have disabled wordfence as a possible leaker.
Not sure where else to go with this.

I regret the trouble you’re having with this.

Is this a “front end” problem or just an “admin” problem?
Is it on all screens/pages or on a particular page/screen?
Do you have access to your error log? If so, what does it show?

This is front end. one page, page that has mla code on it. It has worked fine until recently. I tried disabling the plugin or it ends up spinning so much that the entire site goes down. Then reenabled, nothing changes. is there some way i can do a simple test to see if it works with the least amount of use of memory? My error message said memory but on logs it’s just page after page of nothing really being said. I’m not even sure how to read those

Thanks for the additional information.

Are there other pages with MLA code that still work?

Can you post the source text of the page that doesn’t work, i.e., the source text of any [mla_gallery] shortcode(s) on the page?

A simple test I can think of is something like [mla_gallery post_parent=all posts_per_page=1] – that should return a single image.

Can you post the complete text of the error message?

Can you post five or ten of the most recent log messages?

Is there a link to the broken page I could access and have a look?

ok the code [mla_gallery post_parent=all posts_per_page=1] does work. So on the other code I think it is trying to pull in way too much at one time.

Hah! It works with the addition of posts_per_page=10

Thank you very much for your time.

By the way, while we are on the subject, the files are all pdf files, they show a thumbnail. Is there a way to designate a default thumb for them?

Thanks for the good news. You wrote “Hah! It works with the addition of posts_per_page=10“. Does that mean the original shortcode that was giving you the problem works with the additional parameter? If so, the problem might have been a large number of items in the gallery or it might be a particular PDF document that has been corrupted in some way. You can try adding an offset parameter to look at the next ten documents, etc. to narrow the problem down. Try something like:

[mla_gallery posts_per_page=10 offset=10 ...

with whatever other parameters you’re using.

PDF files are a topic onto themselves, and the new “native thumbnails” added in WordPress 4.7 has come up before. Have a look at this topic:

Thumbnail height in mla_gallery

You asked “Is there a way to designate a default thumb for them?” Do you mean the generic PDF icon or a default image that would replace the generated thumbnail? I’ve added an enhancement for the earlier topic to ignore the “native thumbnails” but do not have a setting to force a generic icon; it’s not a bad idea. If you’d like to help test it out, let me know.

Yes I would. Our library that I pull here consists of only pdf documents. Currently the king composer plugin took over all the thumbs and now there is a K with a crown logo on all the pdfs that show up there. I’d rather either have none or have pdf only. Since my wording goes over a background image, I’m stuck with the King unless I can either run the default or name a default myself.

I haven’t read the article you linked or done the offset yet, but I’ll let you know. What I think it is, is that there are about 5,000 docs and it was trying to pull them all up at first and then I put in a filter for them. Too many for the system. However, interesting to note this problem only came along recently.

Thanks for the additional information and your offer to test an MLA enhancement. I will work on that and post an update when I’ve made progress.

I would be very interested to see the [mla_gallery] shortcode or other process you used to “pull them all up at first and then I put in a filter for them.” I don’t quite understand what that means.

You mentioned the “king composer plugin”. Are you using:

Page Builder: KingComposer – Free Drag and Drop page builder by King-ThemePage Builder: KingComposer – Free Drag and Drop page builder by King-Theme

Or some premium version?

Yes KingComposer free version.
Here is the code I’m using now:

[mla_gallery orderby=date order=asc posts_per_page=10 post_mime_type=application/pdf post_parent=all tax_relation=AND attachment_tag="{+request:a_tag+}" attachment_category="{+request:a_category+}" link=file mla_target="_blank" mla_caption="Title:{+title+} Author: {+caption+}
{+description+}" columns=1 mla_nolink_text="No Results Found.. Please note that prior to 1967, not every year has 12 issues - " mla_markup="persarchives" my_gallery_title=" Archives Articles for {+request:a_category+} {+request:a_tag+}" ]

The issue here is that right now it pulls up every single pdf in the media library no matter if it is one of the ones I want or not. I tried to figure out how to exclude any either by having a special tag, or being in a particular category but I could not figure out how to do it. Also, I have a javascript running to respon to the selection of items, and I’m not sure if that is where I need to put those limiting filters or not. My brain can’t keep up too well with this as I did it about a year ago and having to come back to it and figure it out again uses quite a few analytical skills.

Thanks for your update and for posting the source text of your [mla_gallery] shortcode; very helpful.

You wrote “exclude any either by having a special tag, or being in a particular category“. As you’ve discovered, when the page is first displayed the request:a_category and request:a_tag parameters are empty and the default is to display all items in the Media Library. You can avoid the default behavior by change your parameters to something like:

attachment_tag="{+template:({+request:a_tag+}|a-bad-term)+}" attachment_category="{+template:({+request:a_category+}|a-bad-term)+}"

The template will select the first non-empty alternative, so if there is a_tag or a_category it will be used and if not, a-bad-term will be used. The latter does not exist so the gallery display will be empty. You could substitute a special tag and/or a particular category if you want the default to be an actual term.

I am marking this topic resolved because the original problem has been fixed, but please update it if you have any problems or further questions regarding the above suggestions.

I have made some progress on a new size=icon_only parameter that addresses your earlier question “Is there a way to designate a default thumb for them?” The new parameter will force an icon representation for [mla_gallery] items in place of the thumbnail image.

I have uploaded a new MLA Development Version dated 20170502 that contains the new parameter. You can install the Development Version by following the instructions in this earlier topic:

Thumbnail height in mla_gallery

It would be great if you can install the new version, add the size=icon_only parameter to your shortcode and let me know how the results work for you. Thanks again for your offer to help test this enhancement.