mla_gallery blog layout issue

Thanks for your question, the link to your site and the details of your shortcodes; very helpful. Thanks as well for your MLA review; I agree that the complexity of the shortcodes can be “rather techy”. They have grown quite a bit over the years as MLA users posed application questions and suggestions for enhancement.

The answer to your problem is a good example. It has come up before in these earlier topics:

Pagination pages all galleries displayed on page

Pagination

The older “Pagination” topic was the inspiration for a new [mla_gallery] parameter:

mla_page_parameter – the name of the parameter containing the current page number; default “mla_paginate_current”. You can change the name if you need multiple paginated galleries on one post/page. If you use this parameter, make sure you add it to the gallery shortcode and all pagination shortcodes for that gallery, and use the same unique value in all shortcodes for the specific gallery.

For your application I suggest you use the tag slug or your mla_page_parameter values, e.g.:

[mla_gallery]
  tag=recuerdos-del-ayer-la-litera-en-blanco-y-negro
  post_parent=current
  posts_per_page=1
  mla_page_parameter=recuerdos-del-ayer-la-litera-en-blanco-y-negro
  mla_markup=cool
  mla_style=cool-left
  size=large
[/mla_gallery]
[mla_gallery]
  tag=recuerdos-del-ayer-la-litera-en-blanco-y-negro
  post_parent=current
  posts_per_page=1
  mla_page_parameter=recuerdos-del-ayer-la-litera-en-blanco-y-negro
  mla_output='paginate_links,prev_next'
  mla_prev_text='◁'
  mla_next_text='▷'
[/mla_gallery]

and

[mla_gallery]
  tag=cuadernos-de-viaje-la-litera
  posts_per_page=1
  mla_page_parameter=cuadernos-de-viaje-la-litera
  mla_markup=cool
  mla_style=cool-left
  size=medium
[/mla_gallery]
[mla_gallery]
  tag=cuadernos-de-viaje-la-litera
  posts_per_page=1
  mla_page_parameter=cuadernos-de-viaje-la-litera
  mla_output='paginate_links,prev_next'
  mla_prev_text='◁'
  mla_next_text='▷'
[/mla_gallery]

That seems to be the easiest way to guarantee a unique pagination name for each gallery no matter how many appear on the same page.

I hope that gives you the results you are seeking. I am marking this topic resolved, but please update it if you have any problems or further questions regarding multi-gallery pagination. Thanks for your interest in the plugin.

Thanks for your update with the good news.

You wrote “To my surprise, ‘p-{+page_ID+}’ does not work as value for mla_page_parameter …“. That is correct. The mla_page_parameter is a simple, literal, value. It does not pass through the parameter expansion logic that would replace things like {+page_ID+}. I will see if there is a way to improve that, but the order and timing of when everything is processed can be tricky.

You wrote “As far as I can see, the values of mla_page_parameter, also in pagination shortcodes, are the same either way …“. I am not exactly sure what you mean, but here is a possible answer. Your example has two pairs of [mla_gallery] shortcodes. In each pair, one shortcode (the first) displays the gallery and the other (second) displays the pagination controls. These two shortcodes must agree on what the current page is, so they need to have the same value for mla_page_parameter. Does that answer your question?

Ah, that makes sense; thanks for clarifying.

When you set the mla_rollover_text, it becomes part of the template evaluation process that generates the gallery display. The results are correct because there is a two-step evaluation that happens as the gallery is generated:

1. The mla_rollover_text is set to the value of mla_page_parameter, which is p-{+page_ID+}
2. The {+page_ID+} is expanded to be p-971 as part of evaluating the markup template to generate the HTML for the gallery display.

It works because the mla_rollover_text is part of the template process. In the current MLA version the use of mla_page_parameter to find the “current page” for pagination purposes happens outside the template process and so {+page_ID+} does not get processed/expanded. I will look at changing that in the next MLA version.

I have uploaded a new MLA Development Version dated 20160930 that contains the mla_page_parameter enhancement. To get the Development Version, follow the instructions in this earlier topic:

Shortcode not working in (special) widget

With the new version you can use any of the “page-level” substitution parameters, e.g., your mla_page_parameter="p-{+page_ID+}" example. It would be great if you can install the Development Version and let me know if it works for you.

Thanks for inspiring this MLA enhancement.

Thanks for taking the time to install and test the new Development Version. I am happy that the new mla_page_parameter is working for you.

You wrote “every gallery pagination refreshes the whole page …“. That is true, and is a limitation of the [mla_gallery] shortcode processing. To refresh just the content of one gallery on a multi-gallery page (or any other pagination-related refresh) would require a substantial development effort to add Ajax support to the shortcode. I have not found the time required to put the effort in to that development task.

Thank you for your comments on the new Shortcodes tab implementation; it replaces one of the earliest parts of the plugin that has long been due for improvement. The mla_description comment is used because earlier MLA versions did not support a separate Description section and I wanted to preserve the ability to go back to an earlier MLA version after updating to the latest version.

The comment is created when a style template is stored and is supposed to be separated out and removed when the template is re-loaded later. If that’s not happening for you it is a defect I want to fix. I haven’t been able to recreate it on my system. Is there anything else you can tell me about the steps you took that makes it happen for you? Does it always happen to all your style templates or is it intermittent? Any additional details you can provide would be very helpful; thank you!

Thanks for taking the time to go back and test out the “Description” issue. I am not entirely surprised that the problem corrected itself when you renamed the template, since the mla_description comment is re-processed every time the template is saved or loaded.

If it happens again, let me know.