Need to modify a Wordpress Homepage template to include ignored contents of editor field

Question

I am attempting to tweak an existing Wordpress theme called Pytheas (for a quickie video tour of its features, visit this page). It is a WP theme oriented toward displaying portfolios. The homepage features a slideshow. My aim is to replace the slideshow with an embedded Prezi presentation.

The home page elements are (moving from top to bottom): header, menu, slideshow, tagline, highlights, posts. However, the Homepage is an odd little thing. It omits any content you may have typed into the editing window (instead, using only the images that have been uploaded to another dashboard section).

I have confirmed that the Prezi-Embedder plugin works on standard style default, blog, and pages. My presumption is there’s some CSS element at work.

My gut (and a little sniffing around) says that this bit of CSS (from template-home.php) may play a role. Specifically clearfix:

<div id="home-wrap" class="clearfix">
<?php
//get template path
$template_path = get_template_directory();

//show tagline if setting isn't empty
if(of_get_option('home_tagline')) { ?>
<div id="home-tagline" class="clearfix">
    <?php
    //tagline content
    echo of_get_option('home_tagline'); ?>
</div>

This is where I turn to you, StackOverflow community members. What might I do to provide additional data and/or context?

Many thanks, in advance, for your attention.

Matt Warren

Answer 1

First step was to verify that the slideshow content was indeed being output to the final HTML. After verifying this, I moved on to the one JavaScript error being displayed:

Uncaught Error: Syntax error, unrecognized expression: a[href$=.mp3]

A quick Google on the full error seemed to confirm suspicion that this error was killing the rest of your site's JavaScript, and thus causing your slideshow to not work.

So the idea now (without being able to see all your installed plugins) was, you had some plugin that was installed to playback MP3 files. So that's where I pointed you for a possible fix. The link above provided a potential fix for an installed plugin causing this issue, but simply installing a new audio player was another valid, and less technical, solution.

I was only able to help you by actually seeing the site, that would have likely been pertinent information to provide to get additional feedback from the community.

Glad you got it resolved!

Answer 2

I reached out to a colleague of mine who's more skilled in the php/css dark arts. He was able to confirm that clearfix was not the issue. I was way off. However, his tinkering got some neurons firing and he snooped for a while.

Using Chrome's built-in developer tools, he was able to determine that I was experiencing the same javascript error (which was invisible to me) as this person.

In that thread, one zoonini offere another link to a solution she used. The money is here:

Search for href$=.mp3 and replace by href$=".mp3"

From what I can gather, this is the rub: For whatever reason, pre-HTML5 embedded-audio plugins can fluster these newfangled adaptive themes (oooh, did I use a buzzword?). I fiddled with the javascript file, couldn't resolve the problem and said "to hell with it."

My solution was to uninstall WPAudio and install Haiku Minimalist Player (which is HTML5 and doesn't interfere with such theme elements).

Not only does this make my embedded Prezi displayable, it allowed my frontpage slideshow (which didn't work to begin with) to work properly.