Mbrsolution

Troubleshooting CataBlog post will help you resolve some of the most common troubleshooting questions asked about CataBlog. Most of the answers can be found at catablog.illproductions.com website.

This list will grow as I come across more questions and answers.

1 ) How to change the lightbox title font?

Change the following CSS class for lightbox.

html body #catablog-lightbox-meta .catablog-lightbox-title { 
font-family: helvetica, sans-serif; 
font-size: 10pt; 
line-height: 1; 
}

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2 ) Permalink and navigation not working:

Check the following on your website:

CataBlog >> Options >> Public = Enable Individual Pages and Category Archives: make sure it is checked.

Also check the following Options:

CataBlog >> Options >> Navigation = Show Extra Navigation Info: make sure it is checked

Also check to make sure your permalink in WordPress is set correctly:

Settings >> Permalinks = check these settings and make sure they are set correctly

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3 ) How to increase the width and height for the thumbnail?

CataBlog >> Options >> Thumbnails and edit the settings in this section.

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4 ) How to add shortcode to description?

First have a read at this link , pay attention to the description tab information.

Make sure you have enable the following under WordPress Admin panel >> CataBlog >> Description >> Enable WordPress Filters ?

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5 ) How to link thumbnails to a URL or file

Go to CataBlog >> Library and edit an image. Under Fields >> Link enter a relative or absolute web address to create a hyperlink to the item. This can also be a link to a file. For example you want to link a pdf file and it is located under . You would enter that URL in the Link to create an absolute link to the pdf file.

When you click on the image from your website it will link to the above URL, which is the pdf file using the following shortcode template.

[catablog template="gallery"]

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6 ) How to add price to Catablog when using lightbox?

All you have to do is enter the price token inside the catablog-description div in which ever template you use. I have added the token %PRICE% to the default template.

<div class=”catablog-row %CATEGORY-SLUGS%”>
    <div>
        %MAIN-IMAGE%
        %SUB-IMAGES%
    </div>
    <h3 class=”catablog-title”>%TITLE-LINK%</h3>
    <div class=”catablog-description”>
        <p>%PRICE%</p>
    <p>%DESCRIPTION%</p>
        %BUY-NOW-BUTTON%
    </div>
</div>

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7 ) How to Customize  Catablog Gallery?

This is quoted by Zach on a WordPress post.

You only want to override the specific CSS properties that you need to change, not all of them. Try putting this code into your theme’s styles.css file or create a catablog.css file in your theme’s folder. Never ever directly modify the plugin’s catablog.css file, as your changes will be overwritten the next time you upgrade. The following code will create a 1 px black colour border around each gallery.

Hint: Always work with a child theme.

.catablog-gallery.catablog-row {
  border: 1px #000 solid !important;
}

.catablog-gallery.catablog-row .catablog-title {
  height: 100px !important;
  background: purple;
  opacity: 0.1;
}

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8 ) How to add alt to images to improve SEO

In some cases you want to make sure that all your images have an alt description to improve your SEO. CataBlog has a few tokens that will permit this by adding them to your template. Have a look at the default template below:

<div class='catablog-row %CATEGORY-SLUGS%'>
	<div>
		%MAIN-IMAGE%
		%SUB-IMAGES%
	</div>

	<h3 class='catablog-title'>%TITLE-LINK%</h3>

	<div>
		<p>%DESCRIPTION%</p>
		%BUY-NOW-BUTTON%
	</div>

</div>

I want to add the alt tag to the image thumbnail so I will create a custom template and add the following

<img src="%IMAGE-THUMBNAIL%" alt="%TITLE%" />

 What if you wanted to add extra information because you wanted to add a category plus the title of the image? 

<img src="%IMAGE-THUMBNAIL%" alt="add category name here %TITLE%" />

Remember there are numerous ways to achieve this by using tokens. If you want to read more about it, have a look at Zach’s making custom templates page.

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9 ) After updating the plugin, I am getting the following error, “Warning: mb_substr() expects parameter 3 to be long, string given in /home/mattabou/public_html/wp-content/plugins/catablog/lib/CataBlog.class.php on line 3615″

macguru2000, one possible solution to the problem above is:  

If you are still able to load the CataBlog Options in Admin, make sure you have the excerpt length set to a number in the Description section of CataBlog Options.