loading message

[vtheme]

Is there a way in this theme to add a “loading” message and/or spinner when clicking to an external page that loads slowly?
I am having trouble with users leaving the page as they think things are stuck. It would help a lot to just be able to let them know things are moving forward.

Any help is appreciated

Topic

[Jason Bobich]

Hello,

I apologize, but there’s no feature for this; this would be a customization you’d need to make.

I don’t think there’s really a good way to do this. You might be able to do it with CSS content. Possibly something like this to get you started:

.tb-loader:before {
   content: "Loading... ";
   /* Styles here following "content" will style THIS content element */
}

http://css-tricks.com/css-content/

… That might still be kind of tricky to style it to look nicely.

=====

For CSS changes, it’s a good idea to use a tool like firebug or Google Chrome’s built-in developer tools to locate them and then put the edits either in your child theme or in the “Custom CSS” option on your theme options page.

Also, here’s a helpful tutorial on how to use Firebug – http://vimeo.com/20917974. The only thing I’d suggest not doing is actually making edits to the theme’s CSS files, as it shows at the end of that video. However, the video serves as a good introduction to Firebug and how it can be used to find what CSS is effecting certain areas of your site without ever digging around in any files.

=====

Have you looked into speeding up your site? —

You could look into using a caching plugin like W3 Total Cache combined with a CDN like Amazon S3:

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/w3-total-cache/

http://aws.amazon.com/s3/

Also keep in mind that pulling in data from a 3rd-party host can slow down your load times and give you varying results. So, for example, pulling a video from YouTube can either be instant or take an extra few seconds. You just never know because this depends on what is happening at their servers at that moment.

The next issue to looks at could be your web hosting. Are you using some sort of inexpensive, shared plan? If so, you may want to consider upgrading there. Keep in mind that if you’re on a generic, cheap shared hosting account, you’re sharing server resources with tons of customers. How much traffic their sites are getting or how much server resources they’re using at any given time can effect your site and how long it takes to load, as well.

[vtheme]

All good info and things we are considering when it comes to the server side, and accessing from afar. Had a bit of trouble with W3 Cache during deverlopment, but will be re-employing in the future.

I will look into the css links though, as that may provide enough for what we need.

Thanks for the nod in the right direction!

• This reply was modified 10 years, 1 month ago by vtheme.
• This reply was modified 10 years, 1 month ago by Jason Bobich.

[Author]

Replies