Plugin Author
Ajay
(@ajay)
Do you have the default styling ON under Custom Styles? If so, then the above settings cannot be modified.
If you want to modify them, you’ll need to switch of the default styles.
Wow, this has seriously been driving me crazy. The same stuff happened to me: Tried saving the (checkbox-)values but they instantly reverted…
This is bad usability! Please inform us when this poses a conflict with another option that has been (pre-)selected. You could have an error / warning notice saying “could not be saved because of XYZ” or an AJAX form validation that checks for any conflicts before submitting. Doesn’t have to be fancy just needs to be clear what is going wrong.
Thanks for an otherwise superb plugin!
Regards,
Henning
Hi Henning,
I copied all the CSS and pasted it in my theme’s CSS-file. Then I deselected
“Use default style included in the plugin?”
Now I can save all settings and change the ‘default’ css in my theme’s css-file.
I agree that Ajay created a great plugin, however a bit clarity when there’s a conflict (like this) will save many people hours of searching and frustration.
Maurice
Plugin Author
Ajay
(@ajay)
Hi Hemming / Maurice.
Thanks for the suggestion. I already have some notices in the description under custom styles. Previously, I hoped that if someone enabled the default styles, they would have read the description.
Please see the screenshot below:
https://ps.w.org/contextual-related-posts/assets/screenshot-6.png?rev=1127608
However, given that from the current version the default styles are enabled by default in new installs and looking at the repeated queries, I need to make it clearer.
In the next version of the plugin when saving options, I’ll make the notice much clearer!
@maurice:
Disabling the custom styles did the trick for me. My CSS was already in a separate styling sheet so that went smoothly.
@ajay:
That sounds like a plan! A simple notice (and maybe an anchor jump to the bottom section where the default styles option resides) is sufficient.
Please bear in mind that only a few users fully read the description – I always expect them to be the dumbest users possible and make very clear what they have to do / what consequences it will have if they (de-)activate an option.
The missing notice combined with the default styles being enabled by default and blocking the checkboxes is kind of a “usability trap” I fell in to repeatedly…
Anyhow, thanks for taking care and your efforts for this really otherwise brilliant plugin. Keep it up!
This is very user-unfriendly… Most people won’t expect the default-css option to modify anything except trivial styling, like shadows on so on. To find out that you lose almost everything else in the form because you wanted to keep the styling is just weird… To not tell the user about the clash makes it worse, but it seems wrong even if you do tell the user.
Wish I had known this. The plugin seemed broken to me. I eventually gave up using the form and edited the php directly as it seemed easier than the form – despite the fact that I am not a php programmer. I’ve got it working quite well but will not be able to use any upgrades now.
Delaying the notice until the user hits ‘Save’ (as you suggest above) would also be unfriendly. Checkboxes that will be ignored should be disabled completely, with a note saying why they are disabled. Don’t leave them there as a trap.
Plugin Author
Ajay
(@ajay)
Hi,
The default option for new installs is the inbuilt default style. This is clearly not user-friendly for the various elements which aren’t clear to the user. The new version will have clear messages in red indicating what cannot be changed.
See the screenshot from another plugin with similar options:
https://ps.w.org/top-10/assets/screenshot-3.png?rev=1133251
https://ps.w.org/top-10/assets/screenshot-4.png?rev=1133251
For old installs which didn’t have the default styles enabled, there is a clear description on what is disabled when you’re turning on the default style. Not reading the description and enabling a checkbox isn’t something I expected users to do. But, I guess they do not read the description. This is why the Save options message comes into play. I’m hoping that users at least read the text in red.
On disabling the checkboxes, I’m not keen on doing this because right now, you can just deselect the default style and change the excerpt etc, without resaving twice and without any additional javascript.
I’m not sure why you needed to edit the PHP. The easier option would have been to disable the default styles and put your own styles in the custom styles box.
I don’t recommend leaving the plugin at this version and not upgrading in future versions.
