It should just appear when the intro_items, lead_items, link_items (and for category list only, items) fields are empty.
You can you do a quick test to see if its being triggered and if not, why not.
If you edit the file components/com_easylayouts/output/common/no_items.php - it has 2 methods:
getOutput : which determines what to output
hasOutput : which decides if anything needs to be output.
Test 1.
In hasOutput where it says
$x = 1;
precede this with
return true;
This will force the 'no items message' to be output in all circumstances.
Now put an invalid search combination in - do you now get some output?
Test 2.
If Test 1 worked then we now need to see why its not being triggered.
replace the
return true;
from Test 1.
with
echo empty($view->get("intro_items")) ? 'Intro empty' : 'Intro not empty';
echo empty($view->get("lead_items")) ? 'Lead empty' : 'Lead not empty';
echo empty($view->get("link_items")) ? 'Link empty' : 'Link not empty';
echo empty($view->get("items")) ? 'Items empty' : 'Items not empty';
Then do an invalid search again.
It would appear that one of these is not empty, we need to find out which one and why its not empty.
If you'd like me to do these tests for you then please send temporary FTP details on the private Site Details tab below