Display of search_header problems

Zen Cart 1.5.8 fresh local install (not an update) with Bootstrap template added

Problems controlling the display of search_header has been noted in the ZCA Bootstrap 4 Template support thread. I observed this behavior when I did a fresh local install of Zen Cart 1.5.8 and added the bootstrap template. The only apparent control is via the Layout Boxes Controller. To get the search box to display in the header, the Status can be changed to ON. This enable search boxes in BOTH the header and a column.

The search_header sidebox is displayed in the if either layout_box_status or layout_box_status_single are set to ON. It is displayed in a column if layout_box_status is set to ON. For the bootstrap template, layout_box_status_single is OFF initially. This results in the reported behavior.

The search_header sidebox is always displayed in the header for the responsive_classic and template_default templates since layout_box_status_single is set to ON.

I was able to get the bootstrap to always display in the header by performing Reset Settings, copying from either responsive_classic or template_default.

There is no apparent way to change the layout_box_status_single setting. By default, admin/layout_controller.php doesn't enable single column settings. It looks for this information in the array returned from zen_get_catalog_template_directories() in includes/functions/functions_templated.php. That function doesn't gather the necessary information to set this element.

Possible workarounds include changing the layout_box_status_single value in the database via phpMyAdmin or submitting the appropriate SQL to the Install SQL Patches admin page, or enabling the single column settings by changing the default value for $zen_get_catalog_template_directories to true in line 34 of admin/layout_controller.php (which seems to be overkill since search_header is the only sidebox that uses layout_box_status_single).

I'll note that (@delia, on the Zen Cart forums) opened an issue surrounding this on GitHub back in September (https://github.com/zencart/zencart/issues/5262)

Zen Cart PR submitted to complete that change; v3.4.1 of the Bootstrap template will enable those settings to be displayed.