Downloads Shortcode

  • Resolved Type Historian

    (@type-historian)


    9 years, 7 months ago

    Hello,

    My EDD site (building stage) is about fonts. Each download page is topped by a full-width type specimen followed by a “more” tag. In query results, the EDD Features widget* and other plugins display only the specimen.

    Vendors are organized as EDD categories. On standard WP pages about each vendor, I need to display specimens of all their fonts. I tried this shortcode:

    [downloads category="XYZ Revival Fonts,xyz" number="999" columns="1"]

    1) I entered both the full category title and its slug because the EDD documentation doesn’t specify which way is correct.
    2) Only one set of results is displayed, so I still don’t know which one was recognized.
    3) I chose “999” to include ALL downloads available from this (hypothetical) vendor.
    4) A single column allows full-width type specimens expected by font customers.

    This is the result:
    https://bazaar.typeheritage.com/edd-download-shortcode/

    It displays a scrambled version of the entire (tabbed) download page, *omiting* the specimen.

    A typical download page looks like this:
    https://bazaar.typeheritage.com/downloads/xyz-001/

    The Downloads Shortcode output should look more like this:
    https://bazaar.typeheritage.com/downloads/feature/xyz/

    What am I doing wrong? Can someone help with specific parameters and precise syntax for entering them in the shortcode?

    Many thanks, Anna

    *I urge EDD developers to read the tutorial I developed to promote the EDD Features Plugin. This wonder has POWERFUL Muscle that should be a core component of Easy Digital Downloads:

    https://bazaar.typeheritage.com/plug-in-demos/edd-features/

    https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/easy-digital-downloads/

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

  • Hi there,

    So it’s really hard to tell what’s going on from the outside looking in but I think I have a general idea of what is happening. I’ll explain the best I can.

    So, the first thing to note is that the downloads shortcode behaves in a similar fashion to a blog post excerpt/summary on a blog home or post archive. What I mean by that is the truncated content that outputs as an excerpt comes from the exact content that is being output on the single page (in this case, the single download page).

    The problem is depending on what modifications have been made to the output of a single download page, it may display broken when just a portion of it is taken and displayed through the downloads shortcode.

    For example, on this page here, I can see the “Revival History” tab is started but none of the other tabs are present. I can also see from looking at the source code that your downloads are displaying excerpts instead of full content (or no content at all). The problem with that is excerpts (whether it’s a download excerpt, a post excerpt, or any other post type) will count out a certain number of words and stop… no matter what. It’s basically taking a chunk of your tabbed interface based on word count and then truncating. That’s why you only get a portion of the content.

    Again, because I’m looking from the outside, I can only speculate here. But based on my experience, what you need to do if you intend to have your download content tabbed that way is either include the full content from your downloads shortcode or no content at all. However, if you intend to have your downloads display like this, all you should be showing from your downloads shortcode is the download title and its thumbnail.

    That said, it appears that you aren’t actually using post/download featured image functionality to display your product image. It appears that you have added the image directly to the content. If that’s the case, EDD has no way of knowing that the image in the content is intended to be the product thumbnail. Likewise, excerpts do not show images at all. They strip all HTML and just output text (that’s default WordPress functionality).

    So, considering everything I’ve mentioned, it seems to me like what you’d need to do to mimic this layout is:

    1. Verify that your theme supports Featured Images. If it does, use that setting to add your font image. Do not just add the image to the content.

    2. Do not display download excerpts (or content) from your downloads shortcode. Just the title and the thumbnail (which, again, can only read the Featured Image setting).

    You’d use the downloads shortcode doc to adjust the output. Also note that you can override downloads shortcode template files from your theme to customizer the output even further. See this doc for more information.

    I’m sorry this is such a long reply but it should provide some clarity and get you pointed in the right direction. Let me know what happens after making some adjustments.

    Thread Starter Type Historian

    (@type-historian)

    Thanks SO much for your offer to help. Whew! This stuff is very hard for me…

    Maybe one thing is not clear: In the example context (one of dozens), I want to display ONLY the captioned specimen.

    In the WP media settings, specimen images are captioned and linked to the tabbed download page:
    https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/78278455/Bazaar/Plugins/EDD/MediaView.jpg

    When developing download pages, the images are placed at the top and followed by the MORE tag:
    https://bazaar.typeheritage.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/EDD-Product-Page.jpg

    I have experimented with thumbnails and featured images. They do not work well for displaying *full-width* type specimens expected by my partners and their patrons. I understand that text-only excerpts are not appropriate for this purpose.

    I need a way to *recycle* work already invested. What I have done so far is built around the above strategy and powered by the EDD Features Widget. This undeservedly obscure widget is bundled as “The B Side” of the EDD Download Info plugin:

    https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/edd-download-info/
    https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/overjoyed-1?replies=1

    Unfortunately, the author has not developed a shortcode for it–only for the EDD Info Widget. So I must seek help from others in the EDD team.

    With the information flagged in the screenshots below, is there a way to display the same content generated “on the fly” by the widget?

    Menu assembled by the widget
    https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/78278455/Bazaar/Plugins/EDD/EDD%20Features%20Widget.jpg

    Result of clicking “All XYZ Revival Fonts” (revealing metadata)
    https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/78278455/Bazaar/Plugins/EDD/Edd%20Features%20XYZ%20Page.jpg

    https://bazaar.typeheritage.com/downloads/feature/xyz/ (“live” page)

    More about how I use the EDD Features Widget:
    https://bazaar.typeheritage.com/plug-in-demos/edd-features/

    Thank you again, Anna

    Hi Anna,

    I’m sorry again for the long delay here. Unfortunately, the creator of EDD Download Info is not part of the EDD team, though he is a valued community member. I will not be able to provide support for his extension. You will need to request support on his extension page.

    If he is unable or unwilling to help, you may need to hire a developer to help with custom work. EDD maintain’s a list of recommended consultants that may be of some assistance.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
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