[SOLVED] Widget Category drop down menu won't work
 

I've been searching the Internet all morning for an answer to this and no luck. So I'm posting to the forum in hopes of resolving this problem:

I'm trying to show a list of categories in the sidebar of ATA. To do so, I'm using a category widget.
I've used the regular category widget that comes with wordpress as well as The AVH Extended Category widget and the dynamic widget. All have the same problem.

If I display the categories as a LIST. They work fine and clicking on any category item will display posts relative to that category. But as soon as I make it a DROP DOWN MENU, it no longer works. When you open the drop-down menu and click on any category item, the posts do not change.

I have another website with the same material and it works as a drop down menu. I have opened both sites in two different browser windows and compared all settings. Still, it works on one site but not on the other.

I've reinstalled wordpress 3.2.1 and am using ATA 3.7.1 on both sites.

Any advice greatly appreciated. :)

Have you tried disabling all your plugins t see if there is a conflict?

Hi JD. Yes, with all plugins disabled, it still does the same thing.

Hmmm, this is interesting: I thought I would export and download the ATA settings file from the working site and try uploading it to the non-working site, but since both sites are different, I thought I would first export and download the ATA settings from the NON-working site so I could restore easily.

The minute I click the Export & download Ata settings file button, it just goes to the home page.

I think I might just delete ATA and reinstall. I'll rename the present ata folder and then just install again. When I put ATA on this domain (the non-working one) I just ftp'd the ata folder from the working site to the new site. Perhaps that's the problem????

Even more hmmm! That didn't work either.:confused:

I have tried everything to no avail. I'm deleting everything and starting over. :(:(

Well, now I'm stuck. No Idea what to do.

With my ftp program, I deleted all the files on the domain, at Hostgator, I deleted the pertinent MySql database. Then I re-installed Wordpress and Ata. I still have the same problem. As soon as I change the category from a list to a dropdown menu, it no longer works properly. As a list, I can click on any category and the posts change to those in that category. As a drop down menu, I can click on any category and the posts don't change.

I can't think of anything else to do with this. I'm absolutely baffled. Help. :confused:

what is the url?

The URL is: BestSelectedGamesForSeniors.com

Perhaps I should set you up as administrator tomorrow.

Right now, I'm going to shut down for the day. It's been a llll--ooo-nnn---gggg day.

Let me know if you're interested in admin priv. If you are, I'll send you a private message tomorrow.


OK.

:):):)

Try setting your permalinks to the default, then back to what you have now

No change with or without permalinks defaults.

Here's another interesting observation: I have installed WP & ATA twice. Both installations, I noticed a peculiarity. In the dashboard/Users/Your Profile, there is a setting where you can show the admin bar when viewing site. On both sites, the working site and the non-working site, I have this checked.

On the site that works, when viewing the home page, if I click on the Dashboard tab, it takes me right into the dashboard of wordpress -- exactly what it's supposed to do.

On the non-working site, again when viewing the home page, if I click on the Dashboard tab, it doesn't take me to the dashboard, instead, I am left on the home page which displays a "Page not found" error message.

I noticed the same problem for both installations of the NON-WORKING site. I never had a problem with that on the site that works.

Right now, the non-working site is just the basic wp & ata installation. It only has one plugin and disabling that does nothing to correct the problem. Interesting, eh?

If you want me to take a look, send me a PM with an admin ID/pw

That is strange. My guess at this point is that it has something to do with the environment or possible the database. It is not theme related because I installed (on your site) twenty-eleven and the same issue shows there.

It's possible that something is broken in the database since I tried it on my test site and it works fine. I installed wp-dbmanager which you can set to make an automatic backup) and optimized and did a repair, but the issue still exists.

If you would like, I could download a copy of your DB and try it on a test location to see if it has something to do with the DB.

Anything you can do is appreciated. However, when I deleted the old installation the mysql database was _wrdp6 Now, with the new installation, it is _wrdp7. So the new installation created new mysql databases. The problem existed on both installations (different databases). That seems to indicate that the db is not the problem unless you are talking about another db. let me know.

Hi JD.
I just thought I would compare the source code for the drop down list on the working site and the non working site.

On the working site, the class is mostly level-1 or level-2, there are only two level-0

On the non working site, the class is only level-0

That's a solid clue. What do you think?

I have to go out for an hour, I'll take a look as soon as I come back.

OK. In the meantime, I just found that setting it to "Show Hierarchy" changed the classes to the same as the other site.

Like the new plugin. I think I'll keep that one. :)

Well I just installed WP 321 and wp 371 and imported your DB and guess what, it works.

so when you rebuilt it, did you import the SQL to make a fresh copy of the db?

JD, I also am using WP 321 And ATA 371. When I installed them I didn't import any databases, I just let WP do the deed. Then I imported the posts via RSS syndication. So what would you suggest at this point? Are you saying that in the drop down menu it works on your test site?

Yes, when I imported the sql and then went to the site, the drop down works. I'm guessing something might be messed up in the internal links in the DB

JD, Can you tell me how to import the sql dbs? I've never done that. And, what db's did you import? If the db's you imported are the ones from my non-working site, then shouldn't I just do a repair?

Well, I repaired them and optimized them. Still doesn't work.

I used phpMyAdmin and the file that was created by wp-dbmanager.

While I'd love to be able to give you a step by step, different hosts do different things with phpMyAdmin so what I might have will most likely be different. The basic step is
1) put the site into maintenance mode
2) do a backup
3) get into phpMyAdmin
4) get into the database (the database is the one you name in the wp-config.php)
5) drop the tables from the database
6) select the import function and point at the file that contains the export

If everything works, your database will be populated with what was in the export.
NOTE: sometimes phpMyAdmin can run very slowly (depending on the host) and can end up timing out before the import in done. In cases like that, I prefer to use the command line mysql t import the file or you have to break the file up into parts and import them seperately.

JD. I did this step by step as you outlined. However, it still doesn't work.

I exported the Mysql database from the NON-WORKING site. Then went into MySql and dropped the tables, then imported the previously exported sql file. Cpanel indicates that all went well, saying, "Import has been successfully finished, 151 queries executed (Names the file and table).

But, it still doesn't work. Perhaps I should export the tables from the WORKING SITE and then import them to the MySql of the NON-WORKING site?????

Also, when importing, should I set the SQL compatibility mode? I left it at "NONE".