Several severe issues with Theme version 2.6.11 and Swift Framework 2.5.17

[Tekguild]

This last update has been a disaster, to put it mildly. In testing before we rolled it out on the live site, some of these issues were overlooked (the parallax ‘extra space’ problem) while others only exhibit themselves on certain posts or after editing a post. I’m really not understanding why these issues weren’t revealed to your in your testing.

This site has a LOT of traffic, contributors and over 1500 posts with translations in 6 languages. Needless to say a lot of the issues that can be fixed by editing a post simply isn’t going to happen. We need solutions from you.

In any case, on with the problems:

1. Youtube videos are now set to autoplay.
2. Post all display with a very narrow width. The ‘solution’ is to edit the post and switch it to the Swift Page Builder instead of the Default Editor (see #5 for related problem). WHY are they set to Default Editor when they were all built with the Swift Page Builder?
3. Parallax images *still* have space above them. The problem appears to be with an incorrect ‘translate’ CSS property. In my troubleshooting I’m seeing this: transform: translate3d(0px, 59px, 0px), where that 59, if changed to 0, seems to fix the issue.
4. Columns elements all now seem to have 15px of padding to the right an left, which wasn’t there before. I was able to work around this with some CSS, however my CSS then overrides any *actual* padding settings we had on specific elements’ 🙁
5. Regarding #2 above – if you edit a post and switch it to the Swift Page Builder and save it, the ‘narrow layout’ problem goes away HOWEVER if you edit *anything* else in the post, or go back to the post and edit something later, then update it all Rows in the post then lose their spacing.
6. Some elements now have to be switched to ‘full width contained’ to look like they did prior to the updates.

Obviously we need solutions and quick.

MOST URGENT is #2 and I would actually like to ‘solve’ this in the interim by finding out which post option in the database stores whether the post is using the Default Editor or the SPB. If we can bulk change that option, we can get by until these other issues are addressed – we just won’t edit any posts until then.

Thank you in advance for your prompt assistance.

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[Rui Guerreiro – SUPPORT]

Hi,

Apologize for all the trouble. Did you already updated to the version 2.5.18 that we release this morning to fix the full width issues among other fixes?

if you don’t have that last update, give it a try and let us know.

I will forward this topic to our head developer so he can help out on the current issues.

thanks

-Rui

[Tekguild]

I’m sorry, but this is not a ‘give it a try’ situation. This site is mission critical, not a playground.

Which issues did this update address, exactly?

[Tekguild]

I’m looking at the changelog notes and don’t see anything in this update that addresses:

1. The Youtube Autoplay problem (where it now autoplays all Youtube videos)
2. The space above Parallax images. The update says something about a fix for their backgrounds, but that’s it.
3. The column padding issue – columns now have 15px of padding added that wasn’t there before.
4. Referring to #5 in the list from my initial post – editing and saving a post after switching it to the SPB all text elements lose their spacing. This does not seem to be addressed in this update.

Please correct me if I’m wrong.

[Swift Ideas – Ed]

Hi @Tekguild

1) The videos should only autoplay if you have them set to autoplay in the asset settings – can you please check that?
2) What width was the content before? I see that the text blocks have 1/2 columns set? We’ll definitely resolve this so that it’s not a database or per-post change.
3a) Parallax – Can you link us to this parallax issue to check please?
3b) Column spacing – Can you link us to this too?
4) Is it spacing within the text block such as line breaks etc? If you could provide us the page code you have where you experience this so we could test locally.

Thanks,

– Ed

[Tekguild]

Hi Ed –

I have not updated to the 2.5.18 Framework because I need to know, for sure, that the issues we’re having have been addressed and that no further fallout will occur. These updates are tested on a development server before being rolled out and time=money, so no time will be spent on this until we know it’s going to be worth it. Given that we are, again, being put in a position to do deep testing to verify all is well, any updates are an even more significant time commitment for my team. Given the number of people reporting issues, it seems to me that YOU need to do more testing before rolling out updates and not relying on customers to find these bugs for you.

1. There’s no effin’ way we’re going through 1500+ posts to check if the Youtube video has autoplay enabled. PRIOR to this update, none of the videos autoplayed. AFTER the update, they did. I have worked around this by editing the Swift Framework plugin code to set autoplay to 0. What changed that made them suddenly autoplay? Was the autoplay option something new? And, if so, does it default to ‘yes’? IF it’s not new, what changed that flipped all videos to autoplay?

2. I figured out a database manipulation to fix this.

3a. I’ve attached a screenshot that shows the parallax image issue as well as the code that controls it. I have a CSS rule to override the issue causing the problem (the ‘transform’ property). That screenshot outlines the rule and the location in the DOM that it applies to. If you disable my rule, you’ll see the issue. It’s currently a tiny bit of grey above the parallax image at the top, but it changes – sometimes it’s a lot more, sometimes less. URL:http://www.avidblogs.com/get-started-fast-with-avid-media-composer-software/

3b. This is ‘fixed’ in that we had someone edit all the pages/posts that had the problem.

4. It is spacing between rows/elements. I have attached a second screenshot with a reference for the element and CSS rule that I created to mostly get around the problem. If you disable my rule (.spb_content_element.col-sm-6.spb_text_column) you’ll see what I mean. All the content becomes very squished. This was definitely NOT the way it looked previously and the ONLY thing that was done after the update was:

1. Edit the post and switch it to the Swift Page Builder to get around the ‘too narrow’ (width) issue. <– If we didn’t do this, the posts would look like the ‘too narrow’ screenshot attached.
2. Edit the post to correct some text – after saving, THEN we lose the spacing between elements.

I’m angry and frustrated that we have had to spend so much time dealing with the fallout from these updates. We put our trust in you as the theme developer and we’re incredibly let down. We’re apparently not the only ones that feel this way. I hope I don’t have to reiterate that not all of your customers are running personal blogs where a few issues aren’t a big deal. That is definitely not the case with us and we rely on updates being solid.

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[Swift Ideas – Ed]

1) Of course not, we’d never suggest that as an option. The autoplay was added, but it’s default is off, so I’m unsure as to why this is happening for you. If you could provide us an admin login we’ll happily take a look for you.

3a) Looking at this now.

4) Hmm that’s odd, do you have any instances where the existing spacing is in place for us to reference?

We completely understand, and apologise for any inconvenience. This update was a substantial one in terms of moving away from dependency between theme and plugin, and while it was tested thoroughly, there are millions of potential uses with different settings etc, and the issues present were ones that unfortunately were not discovered. We have been very active with bug reports and releasing fixes asap for those.

Thanks for your patience.

– Ed

[Swift Ideas – Ed]

A quick fix for 1 to remove autoplay no matter what is to add this code to a child theme, or the functions.php file:

function custom_spb_functions() {
function custom_spb_youtube_embed_params() {
return '?showinfo=0&controls=1&modestbranding=1';
}
add_filter('spb_youtube_embed_params', 'custom_spb_youtube_embed_params');
}
add_action('init', 'custom_spb_functions');

– Ed

[Tekguild]

The Autoplay problem is back after the latest updates and the code you provided no longer works.

Can I get updated code to fix this issue again?

At what date/version was the autoplay parameter added to SPB video block? From what we can see all posts with video elements that were created and published before the feature (autoplay) was added all default to autoplay on.

[David Martin – Support]

Hi,

These settings are now default in the latest SF plugin. Can you confirm your version number of the plugin Swift Framework and the theme?

Did you place your code within a child theme as instructed?

[Tekguild]

Hi David –

We’re on Swift Framework version 2.5.23 and theme version 2.6.11.

Yes, the code is in the child theme functions file.

From what I can tell, either there’s been a change to the function or the js that appends those parameters. I may be wrong as I didn’t have much time to dig very deep, but I’ve used 3 different functions to disable autoplay for this theme since autoplay was added – I’m over trying to keep this thing working properly.

Here are the 3 functions I’ve used, all in my functions.php file in the child theme folder:

add_filter('sf_youtube_embed_params','sf_youtube_param');
	
	function sf_youtube_param($param){
	$param = '?showinfo=0&controls=1&modestbranding=1&rel=0&autoplay=0';
	return $param;
	}
	
	add_filter('sf_youtube_embed_src_params', 'sf_youtube_param_new');
	
	function sf_youtube_param_new($param){
	$param = '?showinfo=0&controls=1&modestbranding=1&rel=0&autoplay=0';
	return $param;
	}
	
	function custom_spb_functions() {
	function custom_spb_youtube_embed_params() {
	return '?showinfo=0&controls=1&modestbranding=1&rel=0&autoplay=0';
	}
	add_filter('spb_youtube_embed_params', 'custom_spb_youtube_embed_params');
	}
	add_action('init', 'custom_spb_functions');

For now I’ve written a quick js snippet to override any embedded YT parameters.

[Swift Ideas – Ed]

Hi @Tekguild

Autoplay in the video asset is defaulted to off, and in instances where the video asset doesn’t have the parameter it shouldn’t autoplay. We’ve tested this here and are unable to replicate. If you have any steps to replicate we’ll happily investigate!

– Ed

[Tekguild]

If I had a way to replicate, I would have provided it already.

I know, for a fact, that Autoplay is enabled ‘by default’ for older posts – ones that were created prior to the feature being added. How do I know? We have 1500+ posts going back 4 years and it’s always been old posts that suddenly have autoplay problems, which occur after a theme or Swift Framework update, and no one has touched the posts.

I guess the best chance to reproduce is start out with Flexform, make some old posts, then update to a version of Cardinal that did NOT have the Autoplay feature, maybe make a few more posts (with videos, obviously), update to a newer version of Cardinal *with* the Autoplay feature and see what happens. No guarantee, but that’s about as close as I can get.

[Swift Ideas – Ed]

Thanks @Tekguild – we’ll set aside some time soon to investigate. The code you are using is fine to use in a child theme if that works for you?

– Ed