[jmrallen]

I would say it depends on what you want to use it for. Magazine Pro is really designed for publishing a lot of content and trying in part to monetize traffic through banner ads. If you're looking more for a portfolio showcase theme, I'm not sure this is the best bet.

[jmrallen]

So instead of using get_field or genesis_get_custom_field I would simply use get_post_meta ? Sorry. I fully admit to being lost on this one. I've gotten it to work for the moment, with just some styling to work through before going live on the actual URL, but if the code swap is as simple as that, I'll happily make the update before going live.

[jmrallen]

Another option, I suppose, is to upload images only in the size I want them. I'm not planning to use the same featured image in the top of the post and in this custom field, and in fact I'm not planning to use the images from the custom fields in any other way. So, uploading those images only in the thumbnail dimensions would accomplish the same basic effect, and it may be easier. Maybe I'll just do that. It won't accomplish any of the other styling I need to do for that custom field area/box, but I should be able to chip away at that. Presuming the code above will allow me to create one large div for the entire box and then separate attributes for specific elements within it.

[jmrallen]

Thanks. There are certainly ways to do this without the ACF plugin, but I don't know enough about php to feel comfortable doing all that. The actual site is slim on plugins in general, so I'm not worried about overloading it with this one. In light of my lack of php knowledge, it's unclear to me whether I use that code you linked whole-hog in the functions.php file, or whether there are parts of that I might excerpt for incorporation into my current code.

[jmrallen]

OK, I've gotten the image to display using the code below and by checking the radial button for "Image URL" rather than "Image Object."

add_action('genesis_entry_footer', 'food_pairing');
function food_pairing() {
if ( is_single() && genesis_get_custom_field('food_pairing') )
echo '<div class="food-pairing"> ' . get_field('food_pairing') . ' </div>';
if( get_field('food_pairing_image') ):
?><img src="<?php the_field('food_pairing_image'); ?>" alt="" /><?php
endif;
echo '<div class="food_pairing_description"> ' . get_field('food_pairing_description') . ' </div>';
}

However, I'm struggling with figuring out how to get the image's thumbnail version to display rather than the full size version. Any advice on how to output the thumbnail instead? I've tried a host of settings from the ACF forums and Google searches, but nothing's turned up that works for me. Once I get that in place, I think it's mostly going to be a styling exercise at that point.

[jmrallen]

Hmm, that sticky menu tutorial from Studiopress should be doing the trick. What do you mean by "that first bit of .php code"? Have you gone through and implemented the code segment by segment to see what does/doesn't white-screen your site?

[jmrallen]

Well, sort of. I ended up taking the base of eleven40 Pro and then registering widgets and doing other customizations from other themes like Daily Dish Pro to get the desired effect. I had originally been starting with Daily Dish Pro, but that wasn't working at all. Reversing the process seemed to (mostly) do the trick. I'm not fully happy with the styling, but the bulk of the work is done, so now it's just going to be an ongoing exercise in styling.

[jmrallen]

I noticed on that site that you figured out how to get a different background image on each of the pages. Nice work! I've been trying to weeks to figure that out, but to no avail. How'd you pull that off? Was it an addition or change to the functions.php file? Something in CSS tied to specific page names? If you're willing to share your trick, I would be MUCH obliged. Great work.

[jmrallen]

Great sleuthing. This just seems to affect the homepage, though. Have you managed to find any areas in CSS or the .js files where you can shorten the height of the header in all interior and/or stand-alone pages? I'm trying to have the header/background image be shorter across the board, not just on the homepage.

[jmrallen]

CoralSeaIT, you're asking questions to which I frankly don't know the answers. Sorry. I'm definitely on shared hosting at the moment, but I'm exploring moving to Synthesis hosting. I know which version of PHP my server uses, but other than that I've no idea about the other options you've asked about. Perhaps W3TC is too technical for my blood.

[jmrallen]

Thanks for the info, Bill. And thanks, Cheshire, for the congratulations. Yeah, I guess it's sort of a "first world" problem to have, huh? 🙂

I think I've got it down to one of four hosts: WP Engine, Synthesis, Pagely's Managed WordPress business plan and MediaTemple's new Premium WordPress hosting package. The first two are comparable (and high) in price, Pagely's about two-thirds the price, and Mediatemple is about one-third the price ($29/month). WPEngine and Synthesis seem relatively comparable, but the other two are unknown to me. Does anyone have experience with either of those, or have a hands-down recommendation for any of these four?

[jmrallen]

Interesting find, Victor. It doesn't sound like Autoptimize and W3 Total Cache play nicely together. I'm now trying to decide whether I stick with W3TC as an all-in-one solution or deactivate it and go instead with a combo of WP Super Cache and Autoptimize.

[jmrallen]

If anyone else encounters this, I unchecked the box for "database caching" and it seemed to speed things up in terms of clicking "add new post." Once I hit 'publish' on that post it still takes an inordinately long time to get back to the editing screen, though. Is this why people go with WP Supercache? Or am I still missing something else?

[jmrallen]

FYI, I just tried to remove an "Inactive widget" from the appearance-widgets area, and upon hitting "delete" it took more than four minutes to respond. So apparently it isn't just the add-new-post function that's taking forever. It appears that navigating through the admin area works fine, but making changes to anything there is taking eons. Any and all advice about how to fix this would be wonderful.

[jmrallen]

Thanks, Victor. I've heard of some people using W3 Total Cache along with Autoptimize. Have you experienced whether you can use both at once? If so, are there any special configurations necessary?

[jmrallen]

Thanks, David. That visitors per day thing is what's so frustrating. Some days I can actually see upwards of 10,000 visitors per day, where on others it's closer to 1,000. I don't want to sign-up for a hosting package that's more than I need on an ongoing basis, but I also don't want to sign-up for something that's going to gouge me with overages on those high-traffic days. Am I just at the point where I'll need to bite the bullet and buy the 'big boy' hosting package?

[jmrallen]

Just to close the loop here, the reason it required 48% rather than 50 was because the one-half reference in the CSS called for 48.71 bla bla bla percent. So, as long as I keep the reference 48.7% or lower it displays just fine. I'll consider this case closed.

[jmrallen]

I took a shot in the dark and changed the CSS width to 48% and got the desired effect. It "breaks" again at 49%, but I've at least found a clooged-together solution. If anyone here has a more-glamorous and/or better-coded way to accomplish this, I'm still open to any and all suggestions. However, I may just call it good for now if I don't hear from anyone in the next couple of days.

[jmrallen]

OK, I've gone ahead and made all those widgets and their associated CSS. I am completely stumped about one item, though, and I'm positive it's just me being stupid and going "code blind" after staring at it for so long.

As you can see on my development site, I've got all four category widgets registered and displaying content. The content's not real, nor is the styling -- I'm just using those hideous colors so I can tell the different sections apart. Anyway... I'm struggling mightily to get the left and right halves of each section to slip-in next to one another. Here's how I created the widgets in the functions.php file (reproduced accordingly for each widget):

//* Display Left and Right Category Subsections only on homepage
add_action( 'genesis_loop', 'home_subfeatures' );
function home_subfeatures() {

if ( ! ( is_home() || is_front_page() ) )
return;

genesis_widget_area( 'home-sub-games-left', array(
'before'	=> '<div class="home-sub-games"><div class="wrap"><div class="home-sub-games-left widget-area one-half first">',
'after'	=> '</div>',
) );

genesis_widget_area( 'home-sub-games-right', array(
'before'	=> '<div class="home-sub-games-right widget-area one-half">',
'after'	=> '</div></div></div>',
) );

genesis_widget_area( 'home-sub-sports-left', array(
'before'	=> '<div class="home-sub-sports"><div class="wrap"><div class="home-sub-sports-left widget-area one-half first">',
'after'	=> '</div>',
) );

genesis_widget_area( 'home-sub-sports-right', array(
'before'	=> '<div class="home-sub-sports-right widget-area one-half">',
'after'	=> '</div></div></div>',
) );

}

In my CSS file, I have the following (reproduced accordingly for each widget):

.home-sub-games {
	border-top: 1px solid #ff0000;
	background: url(images/test-sublabel.jpg) no-repeat left top;
	background-color: #e3e3e3;
	clear: both;
	margin: 0 20px 10px 20px;
	padding: 23px 0 0 0;
}

.home-sub-games-left {
	float: left;
	padding: 5px 5px 0 10px;
	width: 50%;
}

.home-sub-games-right {
	float: right;
	padding: 5px 5px 0 10px;
	width: 50%;
}

What am I missing, be it in the functions.php code or the CSS, that's not making those left and right areas not slip-in alongside one another rather than stack-up awkwardly like they are? Any and all help would be greatly appreciated.

[jmrallen]

I'm fairly comfortable with PHP and CSS, as well as functions.php manipulation. I think you're right in saying the visual effect could be reproduced with a new sidebar area and one widget area for each "side." If you have some ideas, I'd love the suggestion.

Ultimately I'm hoping to create four of those box-like areas on my homepage, each focused on showcasing entries from a different category. That would of course lead to a LOT of sidebar areas and widgets. Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't such an increase in sidebars and widgets slow down the overall performance of the page? Or, does the number of widgets and sidebars really not have a negative impact on page load times?

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