2.5 template/css issues: article links not working in Chrome, link colors locked globally to white and email cloaking

Question

I'm a Joomla, CSS and php newbie. I was tasked with creating a site for the school I just started working for based on its already hacked-up Joomla 2.5 template. I hacked it some more to get the general required layout, but now have some frustrating bugs I can't fix. I'm not allowed to go to a Joomla 3 template -- that's out of my hands.

Here is the site: http://www.novaschool.org/index.php/nova-home

Here are the issues:

1. I cannot get links to work in the article, such as the blue "value proposition" image under that main splash graphic. It should be like clicking the "About Nova" left menu item, but you can't even see a link on Chrome. It works in IE 9 on my computer. I even put in a basic tag, and Chrome won't recognize it.

2. I got the text links white for the menu, but no matter how/where I seem to try making the link colors dark for the article and that gray side news module, I can't get them to be any other color than white.

3. I am getting the dreaded "you need javascript" to see the text mailto links. Of course, they are white right now, so you can't see them. I've tried to deal with the cloaking, but to no avail. Must be doing it wrong.

Any help would be appreciated. Please understand that I am a novice, so I need the code syntax as well as specific location to paste it in.

Answer 1

1. This is because your sidebar is overlapping the whole content area as it's width has been set to 90%. Go to line 180 of your main.css file and change the width to 18%

2. The white links on the right sidebar are coming from line 104 of your template.css file. Somewhere in this file, simply add in #right a { color: #000; } which will target all links on the right sidebar.

3. I don't see any mailto links so no idea what the issue is here.

Before getting the site live, I would strongly suggest you do some research for HTML and CSS. The template structure is written rather badly, which is fine as I understand that you're new to this

Not sure why you're using Joomla for such a small site, but I rest my case about hacking into core files. Never a good idea, never, ever, ever ever.

Answer 2

Regarding your issue #3:
Joomla has a built-in email cloaking system. It works automatically, but you can turn it off by disabling the "Content - Email Cloaking" plugin (Extensions -> Plugin Manager).

I think in your case it has nothing to do with the plugin, but rather an error in the email link format. You should take a look at the source code of your article, it looks like your email link has a <span id=" code inside (the " creates a conflict in your code). Your HTML output looks like this:

<a style="color: #3c87de; text-decoration: none;" href="mailto:<span id=" cloak36205"="">This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.</a>

Right-click your mailto: link and make sure it's correctly formatted (<a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a>), or click the "Source Code" (<>) button in the Tiny MCE editor toolbar.