Hi IOANNIS,

I am not able to reproduce this issue in my local instance.

Can you provide your backend and ftp access at http://stackideas.com/dashboard/site so I can investigate this on your site?

Let us know once you have done so. Thanks.

I have done so, I think on 19 March.
I thought that you have been aware, but I realize now that this may not be the case.
At any case, you now have access to my site as you asked for.
Please let me know if you can replicate the issue.
Regards
Ioannis

Hey IOANNIS,

After checking your site, it seems the plugin System - Page Cache is causing the page to not load correctly.

Can you try disabling this plugin then try loading the page on both desktop and mobile and see if their respective layouts are loaded correctly? (desktop 2 columns, mobile 1 column)

Hi,
I am a bit confused.
what do you mean by "it seems"?
Have you tried to disable the mentioned plugin and worked properly at your side?
When I try, I get terrible layouts, with or without the plugin.
For example, it may happen that the top three posts align themselves in one column, but a) their width takes only half of the available space and b) the remaining posts are still organized in 2 columns.
Can you replicate this weird behavior, with or without the plugin?

Perhaps a different topic, but the featured post looks with a black background, without the image.
Is it normal? Isn't it possible to NOT have a featured post so that all posts look the same, meaning WITH the image and the text underneath the image?

You realize I hope that the existing state makes the Grid option unusable for me.
Best regards,
Ioannis

Hey IOANNIS,

I did perform tests with the plugin enabled/disabled. My apologies for not presenting my test results.

What I did was disabling the plugin and then clear the existing cache produced by the plugin here(http://take.ms/J6RkK). The following are the results after doing so:

layout in mobile view: http://take.ms/ZS6ej

layout on desktop view: http://take.ms/8Uc0u

By the way, I have helped you disable that cache plugin and clear your existing cache. You can try load the page again after clearing your browser cache and see how it goes.

When I try, I get terrible layouts, with or without the plugin.

Perhaps you can trying clearing the site cache after disabling the plugin at System>Clear Cache. I did as described above and was able to view the correct layout.

but the featured post looks with a black background, without the image.
Is it normal? Isn't it possible to NOT have a featured post so that all posts look the same, meaning WITH the image and the text underneath the image?

I have helped you enable this setting in the grid menu item settings so you should see post cover images.

If you do not have post cover images, unfortunately there is no setting to remove the showcase. You would have to template override the following theme file to remove the showcase portion.

Hi Raymond,
I have no mobile, so I do the screen tests with my windows browser by dragging the window size to being small enough.
I have tried it with chrome, firefox and opera and all results are still the same bad. I have of course kept the said plugin disabled and flushed the cache prior to dragging the window to a smaller size. I have even done a pc restart this morning.

Question: I have seen your screenshot with the mobile test, but have you tried changing the windows size on a pc? Do you at least replicate there the behavior I witness?

I will check the proper mobile version as soon as I get access to a mobile and let you know.

Regarding your statement:

I have helped you enable this setting in the grid menu item settings so you should see post cover images.

I feel confused as I have cover images and obviously want to display cover images. Why would I want to do all the effort of creating cover images if I do not display them?

The problem with the featured article is that the first few lines of text are displayed on top of the cover image!!!!
Isn't it crazy? I am very much sorry for expressing myself like that and accept my apologies but who could possibly come with such an idea and not at least make it optional? The text should be displayed below the cover image and not on top of it!!!!

The solution that you provided was to remove the cover image completely so that the text appears on top of a black background.

But I want to keep my cover image, albeit in such a way that the text appears below the image.

If I understand you correctly, the only way to do this is by editing the source file.
The problem is that I cannot find the blogs/grid/default.php file you show at your screenshot.
Please see the attached screenshots that show a completely different environment of what your screenshots display.

Could you please send me the path of the file that I need to edit so that I can access it through my cpanel?

Best regards,
Ioannis

Hi Raymond,
I have just tested my page with a mobile and it looks good, just like your screenshot.
But the pc test with the modified window size still fails, even when I tried it on another pc.

If the rendering works correctly with all devices, I have no issue. But I can obviously not test all devices. This is why I usually test it with modifying the window size of my pc internet browser.

I am sure you have by now replicated this issue yourself.

What do you think? Is it normal or is it something you would need to address in the future?

The issue with the featured post in the Grid view remains.
I am waiting for you to send me the path to the template file that I need to manually edit in order to get rid of the featured post all together.

My "advice" as user would be that you completely remove the "featured post" option as nobody in his right mind would like to have a featured post displayed either with a) a cover image overlapped with text or b) with the cover image replaced by black background.

Best regards,
Ioannis

Hey Ioannis,

Are you resizing your desktop browser to have it render in a mobile size? If that is the case, the layout wouldn't automatically switch to a mobile layout. EasyBlog uses proper browser user agent checks to ensure that the HTML that is delivered is the correct output dependent on the device that you are using. This allows us to not generate unnecessary codes for mobile devices since sending unnecessary codes would also mean that the page has a larger size.

Therefore, if you are using a desktop browser to test a screen size of a mobile device, you should use the "Responsive Design Mode" on your browser. Most browsers these days are equipped with such development tools.

On Firefox:

1. Enable responsive design mode, http://take.ms/dV2Rf

2. Pick a device, http://take.ms/NkOAV

Mark,
your response is just perfect! Thank you very much and forgive me for having brought this issue. I confess that I was not aware about the "responsive design mode". Now I know and understand.
I guess the only issue that still needs to be resolved is the one concerning the featured post. I hope you manage to provide me soon with a solution, basically locating the file that I need to edit manually.
Sorry for repeating this, but you understand it is quite critical for me. Right now all my visitors see a black background and I would like to have them see the cover picture instead.
Thank you again for your patience with me!
Ioannis

Hey Ioannis,

Not a problem at all and it is our duty to ensure that you understand why EasyBlog was designed this way and how one would go about testing this on a desktop. All in all, it is all in the name of speed

As for the issue with the black background, sorry but I don't really understand you here. Do you mean the black background for the featured image at http://take.ms/a0zga ? You could edit the theme file located at /components/com_easyblog/themes/wireframe/blogs/grid/default.php

Hi Mark and thank you very much for the path.
I made the change and now I feel really happy as my problem has been completely resolved.
Only 2 short questions:
1) I have noticed that the original grid/default.php file has not been modified but rather another file has been created that overwrites the original. This means that when a new EasyBlog version is installed, my solution will still work. Is that right?
2) In spite of feeling now relieved that the problem has been resolved, I cannot understand why all of us have spent time on this one. Why haven't you chosen my solution (where no featured post is displayed) as the default and simply provide the option to the EasyBlog users to choose whether they want to have a black background or not? Actually no such option would be needed as nobody in his right mind would opt to sacrifice one's own cover image for a black background!
If I am missing something important here, please let me know.

1) I have noticed that the original grid/default.php file has not been modified but rather another file has been created that overwrites the original. This means that when a new EasyBlog version is installed, my solution will still work. Is that right?

Hm, not too sure what do you mean here. Would you mind elaborating more on this please?

2) In spite of feeling now relieved that the problem has been resolved, I cannot understand why all of us have spent time on this one. Why haven't you chosen my solution (where no featured post is displayed) as the default and simply provide the option to the EasyBlog users to choose whether they want to have a black background or not? Actually no such option would be needed as nobody in his right mind would opt to sacrifice one's own cover image for a black background!

Do you mean having a settings in the menu to allow the ability to turn off featured cover?

I try to rephrase my two questions:
1) As you know, I have finally managed to solve the problem with the black background of the showcase post in grid view by editing the template source code. My question is what happens when a new EasyBog update is installed in the future. Will my edited template persist or replaced by the updated version thus causing the reappearing of the black background.

2) I will be straight on this one. I might be naive but I have no clue why do you offer the "showcase" option in the grid view. I cannot believe that there exist even a single person who would like to have the "showcase" feature, given the fact that the rendering of the showcased post in the grid view meshes up the cover image.

Hey Ioannis,

I am really sorry for the delay of this reply as it is a weekend for us here. Please find my response to your questions below:

1) As you know, I have finally managed to solve the problem with the black background of the showcase post in grid view by editing the template source code. My question is what happens when a new EasyBog update is installed in the future. Will my edited template persist or replaced by the updated version thus causing the reappearing of the black background.

If you have created a template override for this, the changes would not be overwritten. You can refer to the guide on creating template overrides at https://stackideas.com/docs/easyblog/administrators/customizations/template-overriding

2) I will be straight on this one. I might be naive but I have no clue why do you offer the "showcase" option in the grid view. I cannot believe that there exist even a single person who would like to have the "showcase" feature, given the fact that the rendering of the showcased post in the grid view meshes up the cover image.

It is actually part of the design of the "Grid" layout. As we didn't just want it to be a boring grid layout, it also offers the flexibility of generating it in a magazine-ish layout. I will add a ticket for this internally so that in the future, you can turn this off in the settings of the menu.

Perfect! This is the kind of response I would have expected!
Sorry for interfering with the weekend. I would have been actually content with an answer received next week.

Not a problem at all Ioannis and thank you for being so understanding!