Conflict Sydney-Sydney Toolbox-Elementor-Page Builder by SiteOrigin

  • vandazocca

    (@vandazocca)


    5 years, 2 months ago

    Hello Sydney team,
    More than one year ago I made a portfolio website for my daughter with the ‘Sydney’ theme, using the ‘Sydney Toolbox’ for custom-post-types (like projects/portfolio), and using the ‘Page Builder by SiteOrigin’ Plugin which was recommended by you when I started to build the website.

    Recently I tried out the ‘Elementor’ page builder for another website with another theme. I was really enthusiastic about the easy use of Elementor. So I decided to replace the ‘Page Builder by SiteOrigin’ by ‘Elementor’ in the Sydney portfolio website of my daughter. Also because I read on your website that you now recommend ‘Elementor’ instead of ‘Page Builder by SiteOrigin’.

    Then I got the following big issues:
    To use ‘Elementor’ I have to inactivate the ‘Page Builder by SiteOrigin’. But then all the custom-post-types and also the Sydney widgets like ‘Sydney FP: Portfolio’ disappear. I also read on your website that the ‘Sydney Toolbox’ is not useful anymore. How do you think to realize this functionality (like the Portfolio) in the future?

    I could create custom-post-types using ‘Custom post type UI’ Plugin, but the problem is how to display the Portfolio page like I did using the Sydney widget ‘Sydney FP: Portfolio’.

    I see that there are new Sydney widgets (elements) inside ‘Elementor’ like ‘athemes: Portfolio’. But this widget is not working like the Sydney widget ‘Sydney FP: Portfolio’: It has no category filter and the portfolio items are not set automatically when they are created.

    I could make an own archive-portfolio.php file for displaying the Portfolio page, but I am not good enough to code this. I hoped to find in the Sydney directory the archive-projects.php file, but I only saw the standard archive.php file and archive-employees.php and archive-services.php.

    I also read that this problem could be resolved by using Elemetor Pro, but this is too expensive for the little website.

    I also found the ‘Power-Ups for Elementor’ Plugin that makes custom-post-type Portfolio and also has a good option to display the Portfolio page. But this plugin is already more than 10 month not updated anymore, has a very low installation number and I don’t see any activity since more than 1 year.

    It is a long story, but it also cost me a lot of time to investigate how to solve this problem.
    My question to you: will there be a solution for this in the near future?

    Kind regards,
    Vanda Zocca

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
  • Roman Bondar

    (@romanbon)

    5 years, 2 months ago

    Hello Vanda,

    How do you think to realize this functionality (like the Portfolio) in the future?

    I see that there are new Sydney widgets (elements) inside ‘Elementor’ like ‘athemes: Portfolio’. But this widget is not working like the Sydney widget ‘Sydney FP: Portfolio’: It has no category filter and the portfolio items are not set automatically when they are created.

    aThemes: Portfolio element doesn’t need Custom Post Type, portfolio items are added in that element settings. And it has filter, just specify Filter term for each portfolio item. You can check aThemes: Portfolio element on Sydney demo site:
    https://demo.athemes.com/sydney/

    My question to you: will there be a solution for this in the near future?

    I hope that my answer above will help you to achieve what you want.

    Kind Regards, Roman.

    Thread Starter vandazocca

    (@vandazocca)

    5 years, 2 months ago

    Thank you Roman for the quick response.

    I think that the NEW solution requires a lot of rework for existing websites that use the OLD solution and have already a lot of Projects pages created in Project custom-post-type. The NEW solution is also not so flexible as the OLD one.

    With OLD and NEW solution I mean:

    OLD Solution: ‘Sydney’ theme, ‘Sydney Toolbox’ old version with widgets like ‘Sydney FP: Portfolio’, with ‘Page Builder by SiteOrigin’ and with a lot of Projects pages created in Project custom-post-type.

    NEW Solution: ‘Sydney’ theme, ‘Sydney Toolbox’ new version with elements like ‘athemes: Portfolio’ and the Page Builder ‘Elementor’.

    The first consequence of the NEW solution is that before installing Elementor you have to figure out how to save the existing Projects pages because they will disappear after installing Elementor. I still have to figure out how to do this. I hope that there is a solution other than manually rebuilding every Project page. Suggestion welcome! If I keep using ‘Page Builder by SiteOrigin’, will the old version of ‘Sydney Toolbox’ with widgets like ‘Sydney FP: Portfolio’ still work?

    The second consequence is that the NEW solution does not support custom-post-types whereas the OLD solution did. It is good practice to separate Projects pages from Standard WordPress pages when there are a lot of Projects that contain more information than only an single image and you want to categorize them by categories/sub-categories.

    The third consequence is that the NEW solution does not automatically updates Portfolio pages. With the OLD solution you could create one or more Portfolio pages that displays the Projects of certain categories/subcategories. You only had to add the categories to the widget ‘Sydney FP: Portfolio’ of the Projects you wanted to display. When new Projects where added, they where automatically put on the Portfolio pages with corresponding category/subcategory. With the NEW solution you have to change every time the Portfolio pages when adding a new Project: add image, url and filter term. There is no more a relation between the title, image and category/subcategory used in the Project page with the title, image, filter term used in ‘athemes: Portfolio’ element. You have to maintain all this manually.

    So, I can upgrade the website with a lot of rework and then, each time a project is added, manually update the portfolio pages. But that is very laborious. That is why I asked if there will be a better solution for this in the near future. I truly hope so.

    Kind regards,
    Vanda Zocca

    Roman Bondar

    (@romanbon)

    5 years, 2 months ago

    Hello Vanda,

    If I keep using ‘Page Builder by SiteOrigin’, will the old version of ‘Sydney Toolbox’ with widgets like ‘Sydney FP: Portfolio’ still work?

    Yes, you do can use Sydney with Page Builder by SiteOrigin and Sydney Toolbox (current plugin version still have necessary functionality). And I think that it is optimal way in your case because these two approaches are very different. We planned to keep old functionality for existing users and recommend (not force) new users to use Elementor by updating Sydney documentation and demo site.

    Please feel free to ask any other questions that you might have.

    Kind Regards, Roman.

    Thread Starter vandazocca

    (@vandazocca)

    5 years, 2 months ago

    Thank you Roman for your answer.

    I am very pleased to hear that you will continue to support the OLD solution for existing users. That gives me more time to figure out how to convert to Elementor and use of custom-post-types. I am very charmed by the usability of Elementor!

    I would like to give some suggestions for changes to Sydney that you could consider when using Elementor and custom-post-types. I think they would be a benefit for all users.

    1. To avoid confusion, change the name of the version of the ‘Sydney Toolbox’ plugin that works with Elementor, because the functionality of this plugin differs from the functionality of the original ‘Sydney Toolbox’ plugin. A suggestion: Sydney elements for Elementor.

    2. Add a new element to the new version of ‘Sydney Toolbox’ for Elementor that can handle custom-post-types. In this element add the following functionality: choose the custom-post-type to be displayed; choose which categories of this custom-post-type must be displayed (all, one or some); choose if the filter of the selected categories must be displayed and if so specify the order of the categories in the filter and give the name for All; choose number of columns for displaying the feature images; choose the format of the images; choose gridstyle (boxes or masonry); choose number of posts to be displayed, or all; display the filter, if requested, and the feature images with title of the number of posts of the selected custom-post-type and categories in the desired format and gridstyle.

    3. Making new custom-post-types can be done with ‘Custom post type UI’ plugin. For the existing custom-post-types (especially the projects pages) it would be nice if they are not lost after installing Elementor. I do not know if this is possible. I found the ‘Post Type Switcher’ Plugin which can shift a page of a post type to another post type. This is perhaps the solution to save the projects pages to a new custom-post-type before installing Elementor. I will investigate this in the future. Anyway, it would be nice for users of Sydney to see an instruction how to switch from Page Builder by SiteOrigin to Elementor.

    I hope we will see (some of) these suggestions, when feasible, realized in the future.
    Kind regards,
    Vanda Zocca

    Roman Bondar

    (@romanbon)

    5 years, 2 months ago

    Hello Vanda, thank you for extensive feedback.

    1. Sydney Toolbox works with both, Page Builder by SiteOrigin and Elementor, so there shouldn’t be confusion. It enables functionality depending on which page builder is used.

    2. I don’t think that Sydney will get such element, to be honest. But you can try to experiment with portfolio plugins, maybe you’ll find one that meets your needs. You can find some examples in this topic:
    https://forums.athemes.com/t/want-to-use-sydney-portfolio-in-airi/30246

    3. I don’t think that there is an easy way to achieve what you described, that’s why I think that it’s better to keep using Page Builder by SiteOrigin in your case.

    Kind Regards, Roman.

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
  • The topic ‘Conflict Sydney-Sydney Toolbox-Elementor-Page Builder by SiteOrigin’ is closed to new replies.