Using Lifestyle Theme and no comments area is appearing

[jodieb]

This site is using a very lightly modified lifestyle theme. The only non-cosmetic change was to add a widget area below the header (visible on home page only).

However, the comment section is not appearing on any blog posts at all, nor is the comments link under the title.

I have checked under Settings/Discussion and comments are turned on. I looked at many random blog posts and comments are turned on there as well. I turned off all plugins but that didn't help either. I then downloaded a fresh copy of Genesis and replaced the one on the site but still nothing changed.

I don't know what else to try.

http://annettescustomerlove.com

[brock]

From your WordPress dashboard, you need to look under Genesis > Theme Settings > Comments and Trackbacks and make sure that you click the box to enable comments on posts.

[jodieb]

I have done that as well and comments are checked for posts but not pages.

[brock]

What happens when you enable the comments on pages as well?

Do you know if any new template files were created for your theme (based on your original post it sounds like there weren't)?

Can you post up the code in your function.php file?

If you have tried disabling your plugins and have the required boxes checked the culprit must be in your themes files somewhere. The comment template is being disabled somewhere in there. That is my opinion. The extra info will help to solve this.

[jodieb]

I did try checking the box for pages and comments appeared on pages but still not on the posts. There were no new template files created at all.

I did turn off all the plugins after making sure all the necessary boxes were checked and still the comments did not appear.

Here is the code from functions.php:

<?php
//* Start the engine
include_once( get_template_directory() . '/lib/init.php' );

//* Setup Theme
include_once( get_stylesheet_directory() . '/lib/theme-defaults.php' );

//* Set Localization (do not remove)
load_child_theme_textdomain( 'lifestyle', apply_filters( 'child_theme_textdomain', get_stylesheet_directory() . '/languages', 'lifestyle' ) );

//* Child theme (do not remove)
define( 'CHILD_THEME_NAME', __( 'Lifestyle Pro Theme', 'lifestyle' ) );
define( 'CHILD_THEME_URL', 'http://my.studiopress.com/themes/lifestyle/' );
define( 'CHILD_THEME_VERSION', '3.1' );

//* Add HTML5 markup structure
add_theme_support( 'html5', array( 'search-form', 'comment-form', 'comment-list', 'gallery', 'caption' ) );

//* Add viewport meta tag for mobile browsers
add_theme_support( 'genesis-responsive-viewport' );

//* Enqueue Scripts
add_action( 'wp_enqueue_scripts', 'lifestyle_load_scripts' );
function lifestyle_load_scripts() {

wp_enqueue_script( 'lifestyle-responsive-menu', get_bloginfo( 'stylesheet_directory' ) . '/js/responsive-menu.js', array( 'jquery' ), '1.0.0' );

wp_enqueue_style( 'dashicons' );

wp_enqueue_style( 'google-fonts', '//fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Droid+Sans:400,700|Roboto+Slab:400,300,700', array(), CHILD_THEME_VERSION );

}

//* Add new image sizes
add_image_size( 'home-large', 634, 360, TRUE );
add_image_size( 'home-small', 266, 160, TRUE );

//* Add support for custom background
add_theme_support( 'custom-background', array(
'default-image' => get_stylesheet_directory_uri() . '/images/bg.png',
'default-color' => 'efefe9',
) );

//* Add support for custom header
add_theme_support( 'custom-header', array(
'header_image' => '',
'header-selector' => '.site-title a',
'header-text' => false,
'height' => 110,
'width' => 320,
) );

//* Add support for additional color style options
add_theme_support( 'genesis-style-selector', array(
'lifestyle-pro-blue' => __( 'Lifestyle Pro Blue', 'lifestyle' ),
'lifestyle-pro-green' => __( 'Lifestyle Pro Green', 'lifestyle' ),
'lifestyle-pro-mustard' => __( 'Lifestyle Pro Mustard', 'lifestyle' ),
'lifestyle-pro-purple' => __( 'Lifestyle Pro Purple', 'lifestyle' ),
'lifestyle-pro-red' => __( 'Lifestyle Pro Red', 'lifestyle' ),
) );

//* Reposition the primary navigation
remove_action( 'genesis_after_header', 'genesis_do_nav' );
add_action( 'genesis_before_header', 'genesis_do_nav' );

//* Modify the size of the Gravatar in the author box
add_filter( 'genesis_author_box_gravatar_size', 'lifestyle_author_box_gravatar' );
function lifestyle_author_box_gravatar( $size ) {

return 96;

}

//* Modify the size of the Gravatar in the entry comments
add_filter( 'genesis_comment_list_args', 'lifestyle_comments_gravatar' );
function lifestyle_comments_gravatar( $args ) {

$args['avatar_size'] = 60;
return $args;

}

//* Remove comment form allowed tags
add_filter( 'comment_form_defaults', 'lifestyle_remove_comment_form_allowed_tags' );
function lifestyle_remove_comment_form_allowed_tags( $defaults ) {

$defaults['comment_notes_after'] = '';
return $defaults;

}

//* Add support for 3-column footer widgets
add_theme_support( 'genesis-footer-widgets', 3 );

//* Add support for after entry widget
add_theme_support( 'genesis-after-entry-widget-area' );

//* Relocate after entry widget
remove_action( 'genesis_after_entry', 'genesis_after_entry_widget_area' );
add_action( 'genesis_after_entry', 'genesis_after_entry_widget_area', 5 );

//* Register widget areas
genesis_register_sidebar( array(
'id' => 'home-top',
'name' => __( 'Home - Top', 'lifestyle' ),
'description' => __( 'This is the top section of the homepage.', 'lifestyle' ),
) );
genesis_register_sidebar( array(
'id' => 'home-middle',
'name' => __( 'Home - Middle', 'lifestyle' ),
'description' => __( 'This is the middle section of the homepage.', 'lifestyle' ),
) );
genesis_register_sidebar( array(
'id' => 'home-bottom-left',
'name' => __( 'Home - Bottom Left', 'lifestyle' ),
'description' => __( 'This is the bottom left section of the homepage.', 'lifestyle' ),
) );
genesis_register_sidebar( array(
'id' => 'home-bottom-right',
'name' => __( 'Home - Bottom Right', 'lifestyle' ),
'description' => __( 'This is the bottom right section of the homepage.', 'lifestyle' ),
) );

//* Add the Page Title section
add_action( 'genesis_after_header', 'cegg_pagetitle' );
function cegg_pagetitle() {

if (is_active_sidebar( 'pagetitle' )) {
genesis_widget_area( 'pagetitle', array(
'before' => '<div class="pagetitle widget-area"><div class="wrap"',
'after' => '</div></div>'
) );
}
}

//* Register widget areas
genesis_register_sidebar( array(
'id' => 'pagetitle',
'name' => __( 'Page Title', 'cegg' ),
'description' => __( 'This is the page title section.', 'cegg' ),
) );

[brock]

If you go to edit an individual blog post and click on screen options > discussion does the comments box it show up as checked on the individual posts?

[jodieb]

It shows up and is checked. I did mention that I had checked on this in my initial post.

[Erik D. Slater]

Can you please provide a list of all the plugins you are using?

---

Erik D. Slater: Digital Platform Consultant • LinkedIn

[jodieb]

Here is what is installed and active there are no disabled plugins:
Akismet
Analytics360
BackUpWordPress Backup Plugin
Contact Form by ContactMe.com
Genesis Simple Edits
Genesis Simple Hooks
Genesis Title Toggle
Google Analytics Dashboard for WP
Growmap Anti Spambot Plugin
Image Widget
Jetpack by WordPress.com
Jetpack Module Control
MailChimp for WordPress Lite
My Page Order
Shareaholic
Thank Me Later
TinyMCE Advanced
WordPress SEO

I would also like to add that when I went in to clean up this site for the client there were literally 25+ other plugins in there both active and inactive that I uninstalled and deleted.

[Erik D. Slater]

... there were literally 25+ other plugins in there both active and inactive that I uninstalled and deleted

Was one of them Disable Comments? I ask because there is a way to disable comments in such a way that re-enabling them won't work.

Also, if you can check the wp-config.php file, is there anything in there about comments?

---

Erik D. Slater: Digital Platform Consultant • LinkedIn

[Erik D. Slater]

Also ... check what's going on in Jetpack ...

---

Erik D. Slater: Digital Platform Consultant • LinkedIn

[jodieb]

No that was not one of the plugins. There is nothing in the wp-config regarding comments.

Thinking about the past plugins, I decided to check out the database for this site. It seem that the column in the Posts table the relates to comments has a problem (comment_status). All I get when I try to view this column is the message below.

I tried to run the database repair tool built into WP but it didn't find any issues. I am not sure what to do next to try and fix this.

Notice in ./libraries/tbl_columns_definition_form.inc.php#55
Undefined variable: server

Backtrace

./libraries/structure.lib.php#2453: include(./libraries/tbl_columns_definition_form.inc.php)
./tbl_structure.php#45: PMA_displayHtmlForColumnChange(
string 'annette_wrdp1',
string 'wp_posts',
NULL,
string 'tbl_structure.php',
)

[jodieb]

What in Jetpack could cause this?

[jodieb]

Scratch my comment about the table column in the database. I guess you can't view single columns. Man I am so frustrated!

[Erik D. Slater]

Wow. Having to delve into the tables is desperate 🙂

In a situation like this, I would create a new WordPress installation on a test environment ... and build the site again. You don't need the real posts and pages ... just the plugins and the widget areas ... then try to add a new post and page to see if the problem can be recreated.

---

Erik D. Slater: Digital Platform Consultant • LinkedIn

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