Refine Pro Theme: Replace Soliloquy home page plugin

[LW]

Hi,

On the GTMetrix score, for the site in question, I'm receiving a "Combine images using CSS sprites" with a grade of E(52), which point to Soliloquy Lite as the culprit.

I'd like to replace the plugin, while still having a full width image with the overlay.

The reason I want to remove the plugin, other than resolve the score, is because I'd like to have fewer plugins installed on the site. This plugin is only being used for the home page and nothing else.

Any recommendations for possible solutions? I purchased ACF (advanced custom fields), while I haven't dived into it yet, I thought this maybe could offer a possible solution.

Thanks in advance!

http://www.dejavucarmel.com

[Victor Font]

You're using Soliloquy to display a single image? There's no reason to do that.

Add the image you want as a background image to the .home-slider-container class in style-front.css at line 153. See this for details about using that directive: https://www.w3schools.com/cssref/pr_background-image.asp

---

Regards,

Victor
https://victorfont.com/
Call us toll free: 844-VIC-FONT (842-3668)
Have you requested your free website audit yet?

[LW]

Hey Victor,

Thank you for the help.

I went ahead and tried your advice. Unfortunately, it didn't work the first time around. I tried to add the background image to .home-slider on line 134 instead, but this didn't work either. Cached the pages as well, still nothing.

My intention is to delete Soliloquy and setup the same image as Soliloquy had it on the home page. Is this possible on this theme? Would I need to edit php code as well?

From line 140 to 149 there is code for Soliloquy, this is why I ask.

[Victor Font]

Don’t let the name of the widget area throw you. A widget area is a widget area. Any widget can be used in place of the soliloquy widget. I suggested the background image because your wanted the text over it. You place the text in a text widget or custom HTML widget.

---

Regards,

Victor
https://victorfont.com/
Call us toll free: 844-VIC-FONT (842-3668)
Have you requested your free website audit yet?

[LW]

Will you please go over what you're recommending... I'm not understanding it fully.

I deactivated the Soliloquy plugin, added the background code to line 153 on style-front.css, which didn't result in anything on the home page.

[Victor Font]

You must have content in a widget area before it will display. Adding the background image without content in the widget area won't do anything.

Add a text widget or custom HTML widget to the home-slider widget area and add the text you want to display over the image to the widget. This will enable the home-slider widget area to display on the home page. You'll have to create the CSS to get the text to display as your desire.

---

Regards,

Victor
https://victorfont.com/
Call us toll free: 844-VIC-FONT (842-3668)
Have you requested your free website audit yet?

[LW]

I wasn't able to get it right yet. Do you mind seeing if I'm missing a step...

1. de-activated Soliloquy

2. added code to line 153 on the style-front.css:
background-image: url("https://www.dejavucarmel.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Red-Dress-2.png");

3. added text widget to Home Slider Overlay
(the Home Slider Overlay only appears in the Dashboard/Appearance/Widget area and not the 'Customize' page)

Clearing the cache didn't help. I will keep trying different things as I wait to hear back from you, hopefully.

One thing I'm curious about is in the style-front.css page from line 140 to 149 includes these "elements" (are they called elements?)... "soliloquy-container", ".soliloquy-next" and more. Could this be stopping things from working?

Thank you for your time and advice so far.

[LW]

Do you mind seeing if I'm missing a step... I didn't get it to work yet.

1. de-activated Soliloquy

2. added code to line 153 on the style-front.css:
background-image: url("https://www.dejavucarmel.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Red-Dress-2.png");

3. added text widget to Home Slider Overlay
(the Home Slider Overlay only appears in the Dashboard/Appearance/Widget area and not the 'Customize' page)

Clearing the cache didn't help. I will keep trying different things as I wait to hear back from you, hopefully.

One thing I'm curious about is in the style-front.css page from line 140 to 149 includes these "elements" (are they called elements?)... "soliloquy-container", ".soliloquy-next" and more. Could this be stopping things from working?

Thank you for your time and advice so far.

[Victor Font]

I just looked at your site's source code and the image is not in style-front.css. Also, I only see the front-page and site-wide-cta widget areas are active. We can't help you unless we can see what's going on.

---

Regards,

Victor
https://victorfont.com/
Call us toll free: 844-VIC-FONT (842-3668)
Have you requested your free website audit yet?

[LW]

Hello Victor,

That's strange, I have the code there. Here is a copy and paste of the code on line 153 (Appearance/Editor/style.front.css).

.home-slider-container {
	position: relative;
	margin: 0 auto -40px;
	background-image: url("https://www.dejavucarmel.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Red-Dress-2.png");
}

I also have a text widget in the Home Slider Overlay. I updated it once again, will you see if it shows now on the source code?

[Victor Font]

This is what I see in style-front.css is multiple browsers:

.home-slider-container {
	position: relative;
	margin: 0 auto -40px;
}

I would deactivate WP Rocket while you're developing. Also, if you are using WP Rocket's critical path CSS, the changes may not be getting picked up.

Also, do you have a server cache such has you might find on WP Engine or SiteGround. I find that with SiteGround I sometimes have to purge opcache and log into cPanel to clear memcache.

---

Regards,

Victor
https://victorfont.com/
Call us toll free: 844-VIC-FONT (842-3668)
Have you requested your free website audit yet?

[LW]

I went ahead and deactivated WP-Rocket, as well as the server cache and cloudflare caching. Even deleted Soliloquy from the plugin section.

Are you able to see anything now Victor?

I think the Home Slider Overlay isn't being enabled even though there are widgets there.

[Victor Font]

I can see the background image in the style sheet, but the url is wrong.

The home-slider widget area is still not active.

Since you are using a community marketplace theme and not a Studio Press theme, I suggest you reach out the the theme developer for further assistance. I don't install community marketplace themes in my development site. Community marketplace developers support their themes directly. As the creators, they will be most familiar with the theme and be able to provide you with the best support. please contact the Restored 316 support team to receive the fastest answer to your question.

---

Regards,

Victor
https://victorfont.com/
Call us toll free: 844-VIC-FONT (842-3668)
Have you requested your free website audit yet?

[LW]

Thanks for your suggestion. I went ahead and contacted them yesterday and will see if I can get it resolved. If I do, I will post back here with the solution.

I feel I will only install StudioPress themes from now on.

Thank you for the help Victor.

[LW]

I heard back from Restored support. They weren't able to answer my question and recommended I purchase their customization service.

Will leave it as is for now.

Thank you for the support Victor.

[Author]

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