Skt full width basic slideshow problem

Question

Background:

I am making a photography website and thought that skt full width is a good theme for the landing page. It worked out all right. Then I started to get fancy. I wanted my client to be able to select whether they could have six random pictures selected for the front page slideshow. This is done through an extra option in the media editor, where they could select if they want a specific image to be part of the slideshow.

I edited their theme functions file and in theory the code should work, however now instead the code does not work. I kept all their code and just added on to the file, and when I select either option in the customizer for the random photos or the preselected photos, both of them do not work.

Question:

Is their a fix to the code (shown below), that would make the slideshow work?

Also since I want to use this theme only as my landing/home page, should I copy the code for the home page into my site plugin, and then select a different theme?

Code:

<?php
if (is_front_page() || is_home()) {
    if (get_theme_mod('rand_slide') == 'static') {
        for ($i = 1; $i < 6; $i++) {
            if (of_get_option('slide' . $i, true) != "") {
                $imgUrl = esc_url(of_get_option('slide' . $i, true));
                $imgTitle = esc_html(of_get_option('slidetitle' . $i, true));
                $imgDesc = esc_html(of_get_option('slidedesc' . $i, true));
                $imgHref = esc_html(of_get_option('slideurl' . $i, true));
                if ($imgUrl != '') {
                    echo '{image : \'' . $imgUrl . '\', title : \'<div class="slide-title"><span>' . ( ($imgHref != '' && $imgTitle != '') ? '<a href="' . $imgHref . '">' : '') . $imgTitle . ( ($imgHref != '' && $imgTitle != '') ? '</a>' : '') . '</span></div><div class="slide-description"><span>' . $imgDesc . '</span></div>' . ( ($imgHref != '') ? '<div class="slide-description"><span><a href="' . $imgHref . '">Read More &rsaquo;</a></span></div>' : '') . '\', thumb : \'' . $imgUrl . '\', url : \'\'},' . "\n";
                }
            }
        }
    } elseif (get_theme_mod('rand_slide') == 'random') {
        $args = array(
            'post_type' => 'attachment',
            'meta_key' => 'on_front_page',
            'meta_value' => '1',
            'orderby' => 'rand',
            'posts_per_page' => 6,
            'max_num_pages' => 1,
        );

        $slides = new WP_Query($args);

        if ($slides->have_posts()) {
            while ($slides->have_posts()) {
                $img = $slides->next_post();
                $imgId = $img->ID;
                $imgTitle = $img->post_title;
                $imgHref = get_permalink($img);
                $imgDesc = $img->post_content;
                $imgData = wp_get_attachment_image_src($imgId, 'thumbnail');
                $imgUrl = $imgData[0];
                if ($imgUrl != '') {
                    echo '{image : \'' . $imgUrl . '\', title : \'<div class="slide-title"><span>' . ( ($imgHref != '' && $imgTitle != '') ? '<a href="' . $imgHref . '">' : '') . $imgTitle . ( ($imgHref != '' && $imgTitle != '') ? '</a>' : '') . '</span></div><div class="slide-description"><span>' . $imgDesc . '</span></div>' . ( ($imgHref != '') ? '<div class="slide-description"><span><a href="' . $imgHref . '">Read More &rsaquo;</a></span></div>' : '') . '\', thumb : \'' . $imgUrl . '\', url : \'\'},' . "\n";
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

The original code started at line 170 in their theme function file.

Answer 1

Try this... it should at least point you in the right direction. Note that without knowing what your functions / options are, it is very hard to give a good answer.

<?php
try {
  $do_echo = true;
  if (is_front_page() || is_home()) {
    if ( $do_echo ) { echo "<p>Is front page or blog</p>"; }
    $test = get_theme_mod('rand_slide');
    if ( $do_echo ) { echo "<p>get theme mode: {$test}</p>"; }
    if (get_theme_mod('rand_slide') == 'static') {
      if ( $do_echo ) { echo "<p>Random slide is static</p>"; }
      for ($i = 1; $i < 6; $i++) {
        $test_two = of_get_option('slide' . $i, true);
        if ( $do_echo ) { echo "<p>of_get_option( slide{$i}, true ) is {$test_two}</p>"; }
        if (of_get_option('slide' . $i, true) != "") {
            if ( $do_echo ) { echo "<p>In inner loop for {$i}</p>"; }
            $imgUrl = esc_url(of_get_option('slide' . $i, true));
            if ( $do_echo ) { echo "<p>imgUrl is now {$imgUrl}</p>"; }
            $imgTitle = esc_html(of_get_option('slidetitle' . $i, true));
            $imgDesc = esc_html(of_get_option('slidedesc' . $i, true));
            $imgHref = esc_html(of_get_option('slideurl' . $i, true));
            if ($imgUrl != '') {
                if ( $do_echo ) { echo "<p>Going to echo slide...</p>"; }
                $to_echo = '{image : \'' . $imgUrl . '\', title : \'<div class="slide-title"><span>' . ( ($imgHref != '' && $imgTitle != '') ? '<a href="' . $imgHref . '">' : '') . $imgTitle . ( ($imgHref != '' && $imgTitle != '') ? '</a>' : '') . '</span></div><div class="slide-description"><span>' . $imgDesc . '</span></div>' . ( ($imgHref != '') ? '<div class="slide-description"><span><a href="' . $imgHref . '">Read More &rsaquo;</a></span></div>' : '') . '\', thumb : \'' . $imgUrl . '\', url : \'\'},' . "\n";
               if ( $do_echo ) { echo "<p>Would now echo " . html_attributes($to_echo) . "</p>";
               echo $to_echo;
            } else if ( $do_echo ) {
               echo "<p>imgUrl empty, not displaying slide</p>";
            }
        } else if ( $do_echo ) {
            echo "<p>of_get_option returned empty string. not echoing slide.</p>";
        }
      }
    } elseif (get_theme_mod('rand_slide') == 'random') {
      $args = array(
        'post_type' => 'attachment',
        'meta_key' => 'on_front_page',
        'meta_value' => '1',
        'orderby' => 'rand',
        'posts_per_page' => 6,
        'max_num_pages' => 1,
      );

      $slides = new WP_Query($args);

      if ($slides->have_posts()) {
        while ($slides->have_posts()) {
            $img = $slides->next_post();
            $imgId = $img->ID;
            $imgTitle = $img->post_title;
            $imgHref = get_permalink($img);
            $imgDesc = $img->post_content;
            $imgData = wp_get_attachment_image_src($imgId, 'thumbnail');
            $imgUrl = $imgData[0];
            if ($imgUrl != '') {
                echo '{image : \'' . $imgUrl . '\', title : \'<div class="slide-title"><span>' . ( ($imgHref != '' && $imgTitle != '') ? '<a href="' . $imgHref . '">' : '') . $imgTitle . ( ($imgHref != '' && $imgTitle != '') ? '</a>' : '') . '</span></div><div class="slide-description"><span>' . $imgDesc . '</span></div>' . ( ($imgHref != '') ? '<div class="slide-description"><span><a href="' . $imgHref . '">Read More &rsaquo;</a></span></div>' : '') . '\', thumb : \'' . $imgUrl . '\', url : \'\'},' . "\n";
            }
        }
      }
    }
  }
} catch ( Exception $e ) {
    echo "<p>A fatal error has occurred...</p><pre>" . print_r($e, true) . "</pre>";
}

Yes, this is hackish... but by doing a bunch of echo statements, you should see exactly where what you are expecting is not happening.

And as noted by Howdy, be sure to turn your debug flags on and check for problems that way as well.

If you are not running at least PHP 5, then remove the surrounding try / catch block.

Personally, if you are having troubles with your code, I'd recommend the following:

• Make sure that the various WP_DEBUG flags are set to true.
• Make sure to check that things are as you expect them to be. Don't just do things, make sure that the variables are as expected ... or throw an exception or at least log a notification to the server.

For example, in your code, you do:

if ( $imgUrl != '' ) {
   # do stuff
}

You really should consider

if ( !empty( $imgUrl ) ) {
   # do stuff
} else {
   # unexpected! Maybe throw and handle an exception, add to the server error log, etc.
}

That will save you tons of headaches in the long run.