"Force render" doesn't seem to be working

I am running into this problem as well. It won't render the content region even though it is set to force rendering.

Just to clarify, we would rename this file to "region.tpl_regionnamegoeshere.php" or "regionnamegoeshere.tpl_.php"?

Thanks is advance.

The region.tpl.php published in #2 solved my problem.

I want to stress, however, that the force-rendering was ok *when logged in*. The region would collapse only for anonymous users.

After using the provided region.tpl.php I still seem to be struggling with this issue: the forced rendering of a region works for the admin, but not for anonymous users.

The Sidebar First in my theme contains a submenu (rendered by the menu block module), but some main menu items don't have a submenu, so that region becomes empty. In my layout configuration both the Content zone and the Sidebar First region are forced to be rendered (see attachment).

This works for the admin, but once I'm logged out the regions that should be forced to render do collapse after all. Is this a bug?

Found a workaround for this problem: set this css-attribute for the region that should be forced to render: min-height: 1px.

Once this is done, there's no longer need for the region.tpl.php file provided above.

Still, I consider this as some kind of minor bug though.

I think the "Force this zone to be rendered" and the "Force this region to be rendered" options works well, but some improvements is advised.
The attached patch add new classes and template suggestions to the empty zones and regions.
With this classes you can write a well aimed CSS selector, as recommended in this issue #1218436: Dynamically set height in Omega UI when forcing region to be rendered..
Or you can use different *.tpl.php file for those elements.

Also any user role that has either the "Enable the debugging (placeholder) blocks for the selected roles " or "Enable the grid overlay for the selected roles" option selected for it on the debugging page in appearances will see a force rendering of zones and regions. User roles without debugging options will not. Not sure it this fact was referenced by post #6.

I ran into this but had a nicer workaround than modifying the template file. Just create an empty block or box and place in the region you want to always render. Since empty divs take 0 space, this works out fine and won't break layout until this issue gets resolved.

The region.tpl.php published in #2 solved my problem since there was nothing to be rendered in the div container of User Bar First (view source in browser window) and I wanteted the search to be less prominent in the second user bar, or in the menu zone at the most right, but that is the next I will have to find out).
(I've just started using Drupal and this Omega theme and this was my first 'bug' !)

Hi I am having the same problem. My first page has no breadcrumb which I have ascertained lies within the preface - zone. Consequently the content of the home page runs flush with the menu. I thought by forcing the preface zone (and its region) to be rendered would force the same space to appear in the home page as well as the others but it doesn't seem to work. I have taken the advice of #8 and given it a fixed height - however it would be good if this could be fixed ... my site: ctis.bruceclark.eu
thanks
Bruce

+++ b/omega/template.phpundefined
@@ -87,6 +87,12 @@ function omega_alpha_preprocess_zone(&$vars) {
+  if (empty($vars['content']) && !empty($vars['elements']['#data']['force'])) {
+    $vars['attributes_array']['class'][] = 'zone--empty';
+    $vars['attributes_array']['class'][] = drupal_html_class("zone-{$vars['zone']}--empty");

Please make these classes use only one dash. Other than that the patch is fine.

Thanks for response.

If we declare the 'empty' word as reserved word, then the double dash is not necessary. (Of course the 'empty' is a stupid name for a zone or region)

My suggestion is:

zone--empty
zone-header-empty

from
drupal_html_class("zone-{$vars['zone']}--empty");
to
drupal_html_class("zone-{$vars['zone']}-empty");

What you think?

Is this issue still happening? I am not able to force a region to show.

#8 isn't working for me. Anyone else having that problem?

This is still not working. My workaround is to create a "dummy" block, place it in the not-rendering reagion and give it the custom css class:
.block-dummy {visibility: hidden;} (I can't create empty blocks)

#8 works for me. Thanks.
Maybe it would be a good idea to add a class to regions that are empty but should be rendered,...

What about including the one liner: .region {min-height: 1px;} into the base CSS for omega. Shouldn't cause any breaks since any customization done in the subtheme files would override it.

Thoughts?

This issue has been alive for 10 months with only workarounds provided. Is there a solution that will be committed so that we don't have to rely on a workaround?

I have userbar1 configured with logintoboggin and userbar 2 to its right, configured to hold the search. I just noticed that on the homepage (delta), userbar1 was collapsing to the left. I guessed I must have changed something.

I opened the Appearances / settings for the regular pages then the Delta / settings page next to it to compare. The only difference was that "Force equal heights" was unchecked for Delta, which is the page where the block was collapsing.

I checked this (now having all four boxes checked under USER ZONE / CONFIGURATION) and then after loggin, the search box stayed in its place.

Don't know if this solves anyone's problem, but am posting in case it helps someone.

Dan

Still just workarounds. Can anyone provide an actual patch, or else an explanation that it cannot/will not be fixed? Thanks.

Thanks to a session at CapitalCamp in DC today, I just learned that this may not be a bug after all. I had regions set as Primary Region, which causes them to expand across a non-primary region if it happens to be empty. When I changed my Primary regions to -None-, the forced regions reappeared.

So in fact, the "force render" option seems to be a conflicting function to the "Primary Region" option. Perhaps the module owners can decide which should option take precedence and resolve the issue accordingly.

The work-around in #8 just resolved this for me, and #33 didn't seem to be effective for me.

Though I didn't test the dev version, just 3.1.

I managed to get around this problem (since the force render did not seem to work) by just adding the missing columns through the prefix options in the region's setup. This may not work for every situation but it worked for mine.

Example : I was using the content to the User bar second region(defualt for omega) but nothing to user bar first. User bar first is set default to 8 columns and user bar second to four. By adding a prefix it consumed the whole zone.

This obviously wont work if you add content to the user bar first region.

The min-height workaround works for me. This appears to be a standards-compliance bug (a div with no content and no padding or other attributes will be collapsed). It's easy enough to add one line of CSS as described in #8.

The way it is now I don't think there's really any way to "fix" this in Omega, since the problem is in fact a "div content" and browser-related issue. In reality the div is rendered - there's just nothing in it, which is the actual problem.