Post previews with incorrect text mystery!

[fogonthetyne]

This is how this should look, with correct text for the posts.

This set of posts (and indeed months afterwards) have the recurring incorrect preview text. This text only features inside the post (I think) and is correct when clicked on/edited.

Hi Guys,

This may or may not be X-related, but I felt this was a wise place to ask.

I used to edit my posts with Cornerstone. Since earlier this year (Maybe April?) that hasn’t seemingly been an option I can see on my site.

It hasn’t mattered. I’ve cloned old posts and changed the contents. This is always simply a video embed and a line of text explaining who the guests are in the video.

I’ve just noticed, that when I look at the list of posts on the site - the videos all change as they should, but the text is wrong. It’s somehow got cloned old text in the preview? If I click to see a post, it shows the correct text.

There’s going to be masses of these for me to alter, which I’m prepared to do - but at the minute I have no idea what to even look at?

Any thoughts or advice?

Thanks!

P.S.
Site is at productionposse.com - but it’s a membership site so I can’t actually pull up a proper link.

[paul.r]

Hi @fogonthetyne,

You could try testing for a plugin conflict. You can do this by deactivating all third party plugins, and seeing if the problem remains. If it’s fixed, you’ll know a plugin caused the problem, and you can narrow down which one by reactivating them one at a time.

If that doesn’t help, please provide us the exact url of the page where we can see the issue.

Thanks

[fogonthetyne]

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the reply.

I’ve tried it with each plugin deactivated, and indeed with all plugins deactivated.
The issue remains.

I have just tried the page with a different theme though (Twenty Fifteen) and the issue does vanish.
The text that appears in the previews suddenly is correct.

There are several category/index pages with this issue, but an example would be:
https://productionposse.com/category/pro-possecasts/

Unfortunately, it’s a membership site so I’d need to sort you guys with a login?

Thanks,

Andy

[Prasant]

Hello @fogonthetyne,

Thanks for updating the thread.

I am getting Unauthorized Access message upon opening the URL you have shared. Can you please share website login details in secure note for us to take a closer look?

Thanks.

[fogonthetyne]

Hi Prasant,

Thanks for the reply. I’ll add a login via a secure note below.

[Prasant]

Hello @fogonthetyne,

Thanks for updating the thread.

1. You can edit the posts by activating/Selecting posts from X > Settings > Permissions > General > Posts. You can learn more about Permission Manager in following article.

Configure User Permissions | Themeco Docs

2. I checked the URL you have shared and I don’t see any issues with the text and they are showing up as they are supposed too. Maybe you can try to clear site and browser cache? After that try loading the website and see how it goes.

Thanks.

[fogonthetyne]

Hi Prasant,

Thanks for the reply.
I’ll look into the editing of posts from your “1.” above - though I’m not sure if that will help here.
The posts are fine, the content within is fine… it’s the previews of them in the category list…

So, on the following links, Posts from May onwards (or the interview with Mathias Noschis) we have the incorrect text/logline in preview. On my computers and browsers, these are all incorrect, but correct when one clicks on a post.
https://productionposse.com/category/pro-possecasts/
https://productionposse.com/category/possecasts/
https://productionposse.com/category/pro-masterclasses/
https://productionposse.com/category/masterclasses/

If we click on the post, it has the correct writing, but the preview has old cloned info from an earlier post.

I’ve tried this on several browsers, cache cleared and it’s an issue for me.
The issue doesn’t seem to appear when I switch to a different template.

In my original post on here there’s some screenshots of the problem which I think illustrate it.

Thanks.

[christian]

Hey @fogonthetyne,

I’m sorry but I’m not sure what the cause is but you should be using the Manual Excerpt because the area you’re referring to displays the excerpt. It’s also not recommended to display Cornerstone built content in the excerpt.

In case you don’t know where it can be found, please read this: https://www.wpbeginner.com/plugins/how-to-customize-wordpress-excerpts-no-coding-required/

Thanks.

[fogonthetyne]

Hi Christian,

Thanks for the reply.

I’ll look at what you’re referring to, but there’s been no amendment to whatever the standard is. Whatever is occurring is just the default, as far as I know/can see.

This worked fine up until an Xtheme update a while back, presumably in May, looking at the issues. It’s an issue with Xtheme as this simply isn’t an issue if I change the theme to something else.

I will have a look at the excerpts link you’ve provided and see if that helps.

[fogonthetyne]

Hi Christian,

I had a read of your article about excerpts…

I can see that one option is that I go back and add custom excerpts to each post?
That’s going to be in the region of 140 posts I think…

I’ve looked at the plugin they suggest in the article; “Advanced Excerpt”
When installing this and using it, it’s creating the same issue as I currently have.

I feel reluctant to manually edit 140 odd posts when there’s obviously some underlying issue?
I don’t understand why there’s an excerpt for text on a post, that doesn’t exist with that post…
It feels like this underlying issue has the potential to give me on-going headaches?

The issue isn’t occurring when the theme is changed.

[rad]

Hi @fogonthetyne,

It’s been like that since the beginning and it’s Wordpress standard. Wordpress strips out code, shortcodes, HTML, and scripts when it generates plain text excerpt. Now, the builders are consist of shortcodes, hence, it will be removed so the content you’ll be seeing on the actual page will be different or sometimes empty of excerpts area. For that reason, Wordpress implemented a manual excerpt feature and it’s not a bug. That’s just how it works depending on the content added.

Plus, the theme only displays the content that Wordpress supplied to it. And when you switch to another theme, the builder and its shortcodes are deactivated as well, hence, making the text appears. But you’ll need the shortcodes for the builder to work and it’s the same how other builders works.

I recommend adding the excerpt manually or contact a developer to create a custom code that will override the Wordpress excerpt generation. But the code should have the capability to discern which text is correct, and I’m not sure if it’ possible. As you said, you already use a plugin but still the same.

Thanks!