[Plugin: CataBlog] Bugs

Hi
I just found this plugin and it works perfect!
Very easy to use.
Thanks
Sam

macguru2000, thanks I will download and try out your latest updated version of the project.

I did however finally manage to get the 2 columns to display on the site I created for the client.

Here is a link to it:
https://basslows.co.za/exotic-bikes/

Not sure why but I noticed when setting prices it won’t accept decimal values. So a price of 1.50 has it’s value changed to just 1.
Other than that I love catablog!

Yes, I am aware. It was a stupid bug of mine that I made the price only accept whole numbers. If you can deal with it for just a bit longer, the next update will fix that, letting you set two decimal places. So sorry for the short sightedness with that feature, it was really a bit of an add on that I meant to expand on sooner then this…but hey I got to do the work that pays first. Hope you everyone is enjoying CataBlog for what it offers currently and hold on, some great new functionality coming with the next release. Cheers!

– Zach

Thank you Zach. Decimals would be great. And is there a way to set the currency ?

Right now the best way to change your currency is to manually edit the frontend template page, this will require some HTML knowledge. the file you want to edit is located in the catablog directory in your plugins directory. Under catablog look for a template directory and in there is a frontend-view.php file.

filepath: wp-content/plugins/catablog/template/frontend-view.php

You can also open it with the built in WordPress editor under plugins. Once you are in the frontend-view.php file, look for the line that says:

<input type='hidden' name='currency_code' value='USD'>

Change the value form ‘USD’ to any other currency that PayPal supports. I will be introducing a view editor in the next version of CataBlog. It will require basic HTML knowledge to use, but it will allow people to easily modify and create their own page elements right inside the catalog rows. Cheers!

– Zach

Thank you Zach, changing the currency to EUR was an easy task.

Now I have a really stupid question, but how do I display the catalog I just created on a new page ? Did I oversee something or do I need to create a new page template ?

Just add the shortcode [catablog] into any page or post. You may also use a tag attribute to filter your catalog, for instance [catablog tag=shirt] would only show catalog items with the word shirt in their tag field. Separate multiple tags with a space if you want an item to show up in two different lists. Hope that helps, cheers!

– Zach

Also please don’t forget to rate Catablog and mark the current version of WordPress it works with for you. Thanks.

Thank you. I feel really stupid now :S

I’ll continue to play around. For a next update, my own suggestion (I am using catablog to create a discography) would be to be able to insert an audio player in the description.

Well, for now I don’t plan to be packaging any flash audio players with the plugin. This mean you will be responsible for providing your own media playing solution. That being said there are a few ways to add an audio player to each catalog item:

1. If you are familiar with javascript it would be possible to append a audio player to each individual catalog item’s description. swfObject and jQuery would be two libraries I would use to accomplish this. Simply loop through each .catablog-row html element, read and sanitize the item’s title for the file path, and finally append a flash audio player to the description of each row using the sanitized title in the file path to load unique audio files for each row.

2. You can also just copy and paste html code into the description field, if you have a manageable number of catalog items this method will be much easier and possibly faster.

the next release is going to contain a View Editor which will have a sort of templating system that would accommodate for this. good luck, let me know if that works out for you and would be interested in seeing the final page for my examples section at https://catablog.illproductions.net/. Thanks

Sorry for my newbie questions. I do not have javascript knowledge. I am using the wp audio player using shortcode [audio]. Would not that be possible to paste it in the description to make the player available ?

I was able to import my whole catalog (in the catablog table) from a CSV file using phpmyadmin. Where shall I upload the images now ? I had quick look at the image folder inside the catablog plugin folder but it does not seem to be the right place.

Once done and running, I’ll definitely send you a link for our example section.

I am not sure about other plugin shortcodes working from within CataBlog, my guess is it does not work. You can try, I would be interested to see what happens. As far as the images, they should be uploaded into this directory:

wp-content/uploads/catablog/originals

the file names should match the corresponding image field in the database row for each item. After you upload the originals you can have catablog generate thumbnails by changing your thumbnail options and saving, which automatically regenerates all image thumbnails. This is also true for the lightbox option.

Good luck,
– Zach

I tried the shortcode [audio] but nothing happens (it reads the text in the description, but no player shows up).

Impossible to upload the images in wp-content/uploads/catablog/originals Acces is denied and I can not change the permissions of the folder.

I’m sorry that the other plugin’s shortcode does not working within item descriptions. This seems like another problem that would be fixed if I went from a custom database to using WordPress’s built in custom post types. I don’t see that being fixed anytime to soon, but probably before the end of the year.

I’m also sorry that you are unable to change your directory permissions. I am used to web service that gives me command line access and the ability to change permissions with chmod. Most likely the directories are under the control of PHP and not FTP. This could be a problem, try and delete the catablog directory in wp-content/uploads/ directory and remake it and the originals directory with your FTP client. This may solve your problems, I want CataBlog to accommodate as many people as possible, even those with limited server access. I hope you are able to accomplish this, be careful and I would not recommend deleting your uploads or wp-content folder, if you must do that then back it up on your local computer and then delete the catablog directory before replacing the version on your web server. Cheers!

– Zach