Right Column Won't Display

12 May 2010, 7:07 PM

#1

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Right Column Won't Display

Not sure why, but my right column on the homepage will not display! I did a view source and the navColumnTwo does not even come up!

As far as I know, I don't have any css mods that 'display: none' for navColumnTwo EXCEPT on my product_info.css

I've checked tpl_main_page.php and it seems to be fine. I even ran the debug utility from Free Addons but since there really isn't any error, no debug file is written.

Its ONLY doing this on the homepage, what would cause that?

12 May 2010, 7:34 PM

#2

kuroi

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Re: Right Column Won't Display

Does the footer display?

12 May 2010, 8:06 PM

#3

autoace

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Re: Right Column Won't Display

kuroi:

Does the footer display?

Yes it does, any ideas?

12 May 2010, 8:10 PM

#4

kuroi

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Re: Right Column Won't Display

In that case it's not possible to recommend much without seeing the site and knowing what should be displayed in the right hand column.

12 May 2010, 8:15 PM

#5

autoace

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Re: Right Column Won't Display

kuroi:

In that case it's not possible to recommend much without seeing the site and knowing what should be displayed in the right hand column.

Sure thing, a utomotiveace.com

and Testimonials (Testimonials Manager Addon) Sidebox should display! Thanks so much for looking at it!

NOTE: I've not yet OFFICIALLY launched

12 May 2010, 8:22 PM

#6

kuroi

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Re: Right Column Won't Display

There's no right hand column there. Though it does appear for other pages.

What happens if you switch back to the classic template for a moment. Does it appear then?

12 May 2010, 8:25 PM

#7

autoace

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Re: Right Column Won't Display

kuroi:

There's no right hand column there. Though it does appear for other pages.

What happens if you switch back to the classic template for a moment. Does it appear then?

Yes, exactly, the right hand column SHOULD display on the home page but does NOT.

Yes, if I switch back to 'Classic' the right hand column appears.

I'm not sure why this is happening ONLY on the homepage :(

12 May 2010, 8:28 PM

#8

kuroi

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Re: Right Column Won't Display

Have a look in your includes/templates/2009AA/common/tpl_main_page.php file.

Is there any programming at the top that inhibits the display of the right column?

12 May 2010, 8:31 PM

#9

autoace

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Re: Right Column Won't Display

Not that I can see, but if you would please have a look:

//list_pages_to_skip_all_right_sideboxes_on_here,separated_by_commas,and_no_spaces 
//the following IF statement can be duplicated/modified as needed to set additional flags
//from line 44 below btween '' contact_us,discount_coupon,gv_faq,shopping_cart,checkout_shipping,checkout_payment,checkout_confirmation,checkout_success
  if (in_array($current_page_base,explode(",",'')) ) {
    $flag_disable_right = true;
	$flag_disable_left = true;//added code
  }
//turns off right column on category listing pages
//code below can be duplicated here for left column, for any page
  if (in_array($cPath,explode(",",'')) ) {
    $flag_disable_right = true;
  }


  $header_template = 'tpl_header.php';
  $footer_template = 'tpl_footer.php';
  $left_column_file = 'column_left.php';
  $right_column_file = 'column_right.php';
  $body_id = ($this_is_home_page) ? 'indexHome' : str_replace('_', '', $_GET['main_page']);
?>

That is all the code before the <body> tag
The first comments are just things that I decided to do via css instead

12 May 2010, 8:37 PM

#10

autoace

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Re: Right Column Won't Display

Any ideas?

12 May 2010, 8:38 PM

#11

kuroi

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Re: Right Column Won't Display

That is the right piece of code. And you're right nothing is being turned off there.

That's rather worrying, since your left column is being turned off for product pages. So this is being done in a none standard place / way, which will make it more difficult that usual to find.

However, the purpose of trying classic earlier was to see if it was confined to your template. So whatever is turning off the left columns for products and the right one on the home page must be within your template files.

12 May 2010, 8:40 PM

#12

autoace

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Re: Right Column Won't Display

The left column on the product info pages is SUPPOSED to be turned off, sorry I should have mentioned that. Did that via css.

12 May 2010, 8:41 PM

#13

autoace

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Re: Right Column Won't Display

kuroi:

That is the right piece of code. And you're right nothing is being turned off there.

That's rather worrying, since your left column is being turned off for product pages. So this is being done in a none standard place / way, which will make it more difficult that usual to find.

However, the purpose of trying classic earlier was to see if it was confined to your template. So whatever is turning off the left columns for products and the right one on the home page must be within your template files.

Now when you say template files, you mean all files in my custom template folder, right?

So that means, a file in any one of the MY TEMPLATE folders is what is causing this?

12 May 2010, 8:43 PM

#14

kuroi

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Re: Right Column Won't Display

autoace:

Did that via css.Not a good idea. You risk it being treated as hidden text by the search engines. Better to use the mechanism discussed above.

autoace:

So that means, a file in any one of the MY TEMPLATE folders is what is causing this?Yes, though it would need to be relevant in some way to the home page.

12 May 2010, 8:44 PM

#15

autoace

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Re: Right Column Won't Display

I guess my next question then is, how is the homepage assembled? What folders and files are required?

12 May 2010, 8:45 PM

#16

autoace

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Re: Right Column Won't Display

kuroi:

Not a good idea. You risk it being treated as hidden text by the search engines. Better to use the mechanism discussed above.

Yes, though it would need to be relevant in some way to the home page.

Really, I didn't know that. Guess I better change that then - ty for the heads up.

12 May 2010, 8:47 PM

#17

autoace

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Re: Right Column Won't Display

kuroi:

Not a good idea. You risk it being treated as hidden text by the search engines. Better to use the mechanism discussed above.

Yes, though it would need to be relevant in some way to the home page.

Do you know which file in which folders are required to assemble the home page - I'm sure I will find the problem once I know where to look.

12 May 2010, 11:27 PM

#18

ajeh

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Re: Right Column Won't Display

Could you turn on the currency box for the right column as a test ... :unsure:

13 May 2010, 1:27 PM

#19

autoace

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Re: Right Column Won't Display

Ajeh, did as you suggested BUT no luck. I've done that for a few other boxes and the right column still does not show up AND this is still happening ONLY on the homepage, I don't get this - talk about frustrating!

I'm thinking that since this is only happening on the homepage and only on my custom template, that the problem has to be in one of the files in my includes/templates/MY_TEMPLATE/folders.

I've checked tpl_main_page.php and there doesn't seem to be anything there that would cause this. Is that how the homepage is assembled - via that file?

One last thing, in my admin > config > layout settings > column right status - global - I have it set to 1. I ran the debug utility, thinking that would cause an error to appear BUT it did not, why?

Any other suggestions?

13 May 2010, 1:49 PM

#20

ajeh

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Re: Right Column Won't Display

Turning on the right column globally is just to turn on the right column ... it is not going to cause an error if you have nothing in the right column it is just going to take up space, depending on the design ...

If this problem is limited to your template then get something like Beyond Compare from scootersoftware.com and compare the template_default to your template and see what differences there are that might account for this issue ...