[tjd]

Hello Anita,

I hope you get this message. I have experienced the 1st real, really real, problem with my website. I’m putting the blame on my Host, and they’re denying any culpability and frankly I’m in a pickle. The site is not loading properly since about Sept 10th, that’s Tokyo time. I attempted to open the site and received a message from Safari that said the site couldn’t be opened because of lack of Resources. Well this last week has been awful, frustrating and now just plain disheartening. Site was looking the best ever, and loading the fastest ever(pingdom) and then this happened. The last thing I worked on was configuring the enews box and I do appreciate your help with that, but maybe I went too far.

Yesterday I deactivated the enews widget because it was taking over 7 seconds to load, (as was the Header curiously) and I’ve never seen that on the pingdom report. OK, so my site load time has gone from 2.5 secs to over 11 secs, and after it loads, the site navigation stutters, is slow or simply stops working even from the Dashboard if I can get in.

As I’ve mentioned, I only touch css, nothing else, and until last nite I’ve never deactivated a plugin. So the result is this: with the enews deactivated, the load-time drops to about 7 secs but site still is not working properly. So I’ve gained nothing. I’ve been up since 4am looking for answers… this is really my “Official face” here in Japan and I need this working. OK,

Now that I’ve dropped all of that here, I am including the enews code from the css editor. Do you see anything there that might account for the site to not load properly, or somehow cease functioning? Essentially, in nice words I’m accusing my Host of ….whatever, and they’re saying the problem is my website and “they don’t fix websites!”

Sorry to drop this on you, but this was the last item I worked on prior to this happening so I thought I’d begin there. Can you help out at all? Here’s the code:

.enews-widget {
background-color: #F6F6F6;
border: 8px solid #a80202;
box-shadow: 6px 6px 5px #000;
}

.enews {
background: none;
margin: -18px;
overflow: hidden;
padding: 35px 25px 0px;
font: arial;
text-align: center;
text-shadow: none;
}

.sidebar .enews-widget {
width: 235px;
margin-bottom: 55px;
}

.enews #subbox {
background: #fff url(images/enews-subbox.png) no-repeat center;
-moz-box-shadow: 2px 2px 1px #000;
-webkit-box-shadow: 2px 2px 1px #000;
box-shadow: 2px 2px 1px #000;
color: #000;
text-align: center;
margin: 10px;
padding: 10px;
width: 80%;
border: 2px solid #000;
}

BTW, I haven't touched the subbox for about 2+ years, just saying. I simply don’t know what to do because I don’t understand what’s happening.

Any ideas, suggestions, anything??

Thanx Anita,
Tom

[tjd]

Anita….perfect!

I increased by increments of 5px and stopped at 55px eliminating the widget title which I thought added visual clutter in this case.

Wonderful Anita…Thankyou. Tom

[tjd]

Hi again Tom,

I hit the reply button too soon previously. I’m working on 2 issues simultaneously and I momentarily confused them. So, please disregard the whole part about the eNews box. Gees, I’m multi-tasking multi-tasking and it’s a bit out of control. Sorry. Tom

[tjd]

Hi Tom

My stupid! Of course you wouldn’t know the missing code as it’s not Genesis but Legacy. So later tonite I’ll email them to see if they can provide the missing, read that tossed-out, code. But as far as the widget settings goes, the setting was on Align Right, and I changed it to Center after your suggestion where it still is.

I went in to the setting just now, yes it was Center, changed it to Left, checked, no difference so reset it to Center. I have a feeling that the missing code had a setting I obviously didn’t care about and that setting may still be controlling some things. As I write this, I remember sometime in the past receiving a notice about the eNews box being replaced or unsupported or some such thing and that might have been the encouragement for my foolish decision. No matter, if/when I resolve this I’ll drop you a note to let you know what I find. Thank you so much for your follow-up:)

Tom

[tjd]

Hello Anita…again,

I added your code as you sent it. Interesting results with this eNews widget, which if you remember, I didn’t build it, it was a paste-n-copy of something I found here probably 2-3 years back. So anyway,

Added the code, then adjusted a couple of the values to see whatever. Changing the 5px value to 1px, then 0px had no effect on the spacing, so I have it set now at 5px. I then reset the first 25px to 30px, then to 35px where I left it. The number dropped the top line of text and gave me a more balanced look. I never touched the second 25px.

I like the look so much more now, I decided to move the widget up under the welcome widget. That moved the microphone down. As soon as I checked the results, I remembered why I moved the eNews box down the sidebar in the very beginning.

For some reason, the widget below the eNews box will always be too close to it…as it is now. But now I know, which I didn’t know 2-3 years ago, that I can use the widget title as a spacer which is why I just put in the “*” as the title of the Mic widget. No one will know why or even notice it and yet it gives me the separation I can’t get otherwise.

OK, I learn as I go, and as usual you always are a great helper. Thank you Anita. This the best it’s been since I 1st started on my website. Take a bow…you’re the MD I was hoping for.

Tom

[tjd]

Mornin’ Anita

Well I actually added Firefox in to my Mac about a year ago just to be able to use Firebug which I also added…but I’m not sure how to use it and so I haven’t. Thanx for the explanation on the eNews box width. Makes sense to me. Any ideas how I might adjust the height as there is no height code for the box. I'll take a chance adjusting code if I have a place to begin but I don’t want to corrupt what I have. Any suggestions on a code to begin with?

You’ve been great as usual…Thanx Anita.

[tjd]

Mornin’ Tom

Welcome to another grey, overcast Seattle-type day in Tokyo.

Thanx for your response/suggestion.
#1. when I went to the Editor to locate the Social Icon location, I discovered a note I wrote to myself a couple of years back: Simple Social Icons - <<code removed. I have no idea why I removed it, but there it wasn't.

#2. So I went to the area where it used to live, re-created the title-line, then below it I added in the code you sent. And I “centered” the icons in the widget. Upon checking the icons, I didn’t get a new result. I then changed the mid-value of 2, to 1, but no change in appearance. So,

I don’t know what code I removed, but if you think I should have it, could you send the entire code over…please. If it’s not important, then let’s pass on it. The result I have is acceptable and I don’t want to ask too much of you. In any event, Thanx for your assistance…one point, I did create a running list of all my changes to the css which I have immortalized in a site-folder, but haven’t looked at it for a long time. OK, I just dusted it off and in checking my list, which I’m surprised how detailed it is, but alas, no mention of Social Icon removal…albeit, it was a troublesome time at the computer.

Thank you Tom.

[tjd]

Hi Anita

Thank you for your suggestion. It worked perfectly. I am always in awe when you or someone like you answers a request for help and quickly offers the solution. It worked fine and I did get the full shadow effect…but what I don’t understand is how did you know the eNews box was too wide? When I look at the css code for the enews box, I don’t see any dimensions. And that is the difficulty in adjusting the top-to-bottom length…I don’t see any height control.

Today I played around with margin values. Changing them affected the content of the box but not the size of the box. But I can live with it ….Thank you so much:) Tom

[tjd]

Hi Tony,

Great suggestion and yes it did clear things up for me. Since the upgrade, I’ve been re-invigorated to exam the site and I’ve discovered, much to my distress, a severe case of ‘tunnel-vision’ on my part. I’ve been less clear than I thought I was being with Menu’s and logic. Seems I’ve been making the site for me, not my visitors. Thanx for the article and too, your interest.

Tom

[tjd]

Hi lisaleague,

Thanx for your comments. I do backup my site in 2 ways although I’ve never had to use either so who knows if they are adequate. I use Time Machine exporting to an xternal drive and I pull a Backup from my Host about once a month. What do you think…seem adequate? And actually I changed out the “admin” as soon as I set up the site. But while I have you here, I remember reading somewhere that some of the plugins for the ver 1.9.2 were not in the 2.0 version. Know anything about that?

Thanx for your support. It’s a gloomy day in Tokyo… gloomy and I haven’t hit “update” yet. ahhh, the adventure of it all.

[tjd]

Hello again,

I did clear the Safari browser cache, and I additionally checked the results on firefox which I keep on the iMac as a backup/checker. It hadn't been opened since I put the search box into the sidebar and so I expected a true response and the search box is still right aligned.

I'm not secure enough with code to do anything with php other then add some bits of code that were sent to me by the theme designer, not StudioPress. I redesigned the theme pretty heavily from what I bought and 99% of the changes were in the CSS. Things seem ok although as I now have some distance from the protracted design experience, I will in the future have someone take a look at the code and clean it up which I suspect it needs. I do like the site though.

Thanx to both jh & Seth for your advice. It's pushing midnite here in Tokyo and I've got an early day commin'.

[tjd]

Thanx Seth for the info. I don't know how to locate a specific line#, 1842, in the style sheet, but I did find it by scrolling down. I added the 'float right' as written, but checked and no change in position. Strange I thought, so,

I deleted it and added it again... but still no position change. Looks like it should work but not this time.

BTW, scrolling down the style sheet I passed by several other sidebar entries and noticed that most of them said 'left' and I was wondering what would result if I changed them all to 'right'...

Thanx again.

[tjd]

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[tjd]

Thanx for all your help. It didn't solve the issue though, and the code that was suggested did some weird things....so, I decided this was a minor time-consuming issue that I needed to get past. Today i removed all the code which corrected the "jumping icons" then tested it on 3 browsers and the iPhone and all is well once again.

Later when the entire site is done and I'm into content-n-maintenance I'll revisit this issue. Till then, thank you.

Tom

[tjd]

Hi anitac

I did go ahead and put back in my  original code, then ADDed your code to it, but no change. So I'll leave it that way for you to see if you get a moment.   tomjdolan.com

Thanx,

Tom

 

[tjd]

Mornin' anitac,

Well working on my iMac, I added that code into the css and removed the code I had put in...it wasn't working anyway. Well interesting results.

The look of the icons didn't change. No border but, when I select one, or hover over one, they all seem very nervous and jiggle around. And too, curiously, the most right icon, the youtube, moves under the facebook icon which is on the far left.... sounds very political? When the youtube moves down and under, the sidebar contents also move down to make way for their new neighbor. Now here's the interesting result:

On the iPhone. the icons are stable, they don't jump around, nor does the youtube reposition itself. But, when I select an icon, it does turn dark grey with a black image in the center...as I set it up. But now, there is a 1px Black border around the icon. That's strange...no?

So, I will leave it that way today, so if you have the opportunity, you can check it out. If this doesn't work I can remove the code with no consequences. But thank you for your input as always.

On this sunny windy Tokyo day,

Tom

ps//I just re-read your post and my response....did you mean to ADD your code to my code... or to REPLACE my code with your code???

[tjd]

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[tjd]

Hey Brad, Thanx for you comments. I've tried so many different ways to enter the ID info but nothing I've tried seems to work. So, it's time to move on. It's a good idea, it'll sharpen-up the site,  but obviously I need more capability. I'm gonna let it go until another time.

Be well, enjoy Spring!

Tom

 

[tjd]

OK Brad, Last Post here today. The following was just received from StudioPress Support:

The icons themselves are a font and the background for them is just done in css. So, there are no graphics at all 🙂

This will produce a border with rounded corners.

.sidebar .simple-social-icons ul li {
-moz-border-radius: 3px;
-webkit-border-radius: 3px;
border-radius: 3px 3px 3px 3px;
border: 1px solid #fff;
}

So I put this into the css sheet and adjusted it a bit here and there attempting to get a result...but nothing changes. I lined up the code according to the other css code, changed the border-radius to 3px; and changed the color to #000. What i got is....nothing. Any ideas on your end?

Thanx Brad

Tom

[tjd]

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