My wordpress.ORG theme breaks comments functionality - php

I'm helping to develop a wordpress.ORG website (www.teloscares.org). The site is using a custom theme that I didn't develop (for the record, I know very, very little about php or css) and for some reason the theme is breaking our ability to view or leave comments. IS there any advice on how I can track down what about the themes .php files is breaking it or where I can look it up? Please feel free to point me in the right direction if it's not a quick, easy fix somehow. When I switch to the wordpress "2012" theme it works just fine, which is how I was able to determine that it was our theme. Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you.

First of all disable all your plugins, see if that fixes the problem? If not then the problem is indeed with your theme. You can track down problems by enabling WP_DEBUG, you can do that in the wp-config.php file which you can find in the root of your WordPress installation directory.
Links from the very mighty codex:
http://codex.wordpress.org/WP_DEBUG
http://codex.wordpress.org/Debugging_in_WordPress
http://codex.wordpress.org/Editing_wp-config.php#Debug
EDIT
It appears that the OP's theme didn't have any comment functionality at all, so there wasn't anything wrong it just wasn't there. You can add the comment functionality yourself using comments_template()
More in the mighty codex:
http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/comments_template
http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/comment_form
http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/wp_list_comments

You can use Disqus — it's widget is JS-based, has Wordpress integration, supports login with social network accounts and works fine

Related

How to disable core plugin "SimplePie" in WordPress 3.8.1

i've got a WordPress installation on another hoster and the hoster informs me, the site got hacked. (everything is up to date)
So i looked at the files and found a corrupted "gpzdecode.php" with an injected code in "wp-includes/SimplePie/".
The code was probably uploaded though a security breach in the core plugin "SimplePie" (know issue but i've found no solution).
We don't use the Plugin but it's a core item and i don't know how to disable it.
The FAQ, Support etc. from Wordpress and SimplePie doesn't seem helpful. If you find something, correct me :)
You know how to disable the core plugin (it's not shown in the "Plugin-Panel" and simply delete the SimplePie directory in wp-includes wont help me, i guess)
thanks in advance,
IT Meyer

Wordpress Dashboard Display error

I have a huge problem with my wordpress dashboard display. After I upgrade to wordpress 4.5 my dashboard gone crazy.... its seems like it is not displaying css correctly. Its really killing me cause I could not write any article ...which very bad for my website. My dashboard looks like:
This is what seems to be the problem:
I tried everything. First I thought that is might be chrome's problem. I deleted history/cache ...etc. Not working. Then I deleted chrome and reinstalled it. Not worked. Then I used firefox, opera,internet explorer ... not worked. I put one friend of mine to look... it seems also the same to him. Then, I deleted wordpress 4.5 core file (wp-admin, wp-include) from ftp and installed back wordpress 4.4.2 and it looks the same..... I'm really desperate. I sought help on wordpress official website.... nobody helped me.... its crucial for me to solve this problem I really live with site's help. I really don't have any idea to solve it. This is killing me :(.
I appreciate any help.....
Add below code in wp-config.php file of your WordPress.
define('CONCATENATE_SCRIPTS', false );
It should solve your problem, you can read more details on below link.
http://manovotny.com/fix-wordpress-admin-styles-not-loading/
jQuery is not defined errors usually indicate that jQuery hasn't been loaded at all, so then other scripts that depend on jQuery being present throw the error.
Where are you loading jQuery from? According to this issue someone had a problem where they were including jQuery from Google's CDN, and WordPress was trying to load a version of jQuery that wasn't present in Google's CDN.
A link to your site would be helpful - it's difficult to determine what all is going on from only that screenshot.
It also looks like your site isn't loading any of the CSS for the admin area. Have you doublechecked your WordPress address and Site Address options in the admin?
This might also be set in your wp-config.php file:
define('WP_HOME','http://example.com');
define('WP_SITEURL','http://example.com');
If your WordPress Address (which is the same as WP_HOME) setting doesn't match the URL with which you're trying to access the WP admin area, then you'll see symptoms like your site is exhibiting, where CSS doesn't load properly and some javascript may be missing.
One more suggestion: try activating a different theme temporarily (such as Twenty Fifteen) and see if that fixes up the WP admin. You may have a conflict specific to your current theme package.
Take care of adding define( 'CONCATENATE_SCRIPTS', false ); at the top of declarations, after comments.

New to WordPress - editing existing theme

Forgive me if this isn't the right environment to pose a question of this nature.
I've just been assigned a project to create a site in WordPress based off of a purchased theme of similar structure. This is my first time working with WP, so I'm a bit overwhelmed with where to start.
I'm used to only working through a text editor, but WP obviously has a dev portal online that formatting and content can be built through.
So far I only have my theme imported and activated on WP and the PSDs for the site-to-be.
Should I be doing my editing/formatting/content-building through this online portal? My text editor? A combination?
Thanks in advance for any knowledge you can shed or articles you share!
If you're talking about using the Appearance Editor, use extreme caution. If you mess up a .php file, you can blank your whole website:
Be very careful editing PHP files of your current theme. The editor does not make backup copies. If you introduce an error that crashes your site, you cannot use the editor to fix the problem.
I would strongly recommend that you only use your text editor, and upload your changes to your WP server. Also, make sure you have backups, so that you can revert to a working copy if something goes wrong.
One article that I found on the topic:
Editing your WordPress Site 101
Repeat with me: Never use the built-in WordPress file editor. I won't bore you with all the reasons the built-in editor is a bad idea, but here’s the #1 reason: If you get a white screen of death, there's no way to access your site via wp-admin anymore.
It's a bit of a paradigm shift moving from standard text editor web development into the world of WP. Here are some points to help you along:
You should download/install a plugin called Synchi. This will make the WordPress text editor much more robust. It also allows you the ability to access and modify the WP theme files directly thru the dashboard (Appearance > Editor).
You can use an external text editor and jump back and forth, but I find it easier to stay inside the WP dashboard once you have Synchi installed. I only use Visual Studio if I'm coding something more complex and I want to see Intellisense.
If you are going to be making major changes to your base WP theme, you should create a "Child Theme" and work off of that. http://codex.wordpress.org/Child_Themes
There are millions of articles on how to get started with WP, so I'll let you Bing/Google that. Just keep in mind there's a bit of a learning curve so just BE PATIENT - you'll figure it out quickly enough!
I have to agree with the above response - you should avoid using the Wordpress editor for modifying theme files. Use the editor for creating pages and posts, only.
If you truly need to understand Wordpress, you should begin by understanding how it works. Unlike a static html site, Wordpress is created by a combination of php files which create parts of the final page (displayed to the user). Understanding the basics of how wordpress loads files will really help you get started. (tons of resources online)
Find a good text editor (or a free code editor like NetBeans), then learn how to sftp or ssh into your webserver so that you can edit theme files in your code editor.
Once you have that figured out, and understand how Wordpress loads files, you can begin modifying the theme to your PSDs, or create a child theme and do the same.
The point made by the above poster is quite valid... if you miss a tag or some other php error causes a 'white screen of death', you'll not be able to load the wordpress editor (because it's broken) to fix it. Whereas with an sftp connection you can still modify the file, then push it back to the server and reaccess your admin editor.

I can't move widgets in the Wordpress sidebar

I have an issue with a wordpress theme that I'm using, where I cannot add widgets to the sidebars. The drag and drop function does not work.
I am able to move widgets around in other themes.
I was wondering what kind of code in the theme may be causing such an issue?
I have tried to fix this by adding a Google plugin, but it doesn't seem to have helped.
Are there any plusgin that allow me to edit widget without the drag and drop functionality needed by default?
This is a common problem with themes that don't correctly enqueue jQuery. Switch to the twentytwelve theme and see if widgets work; if so, it's your theme. (It could also be a plugin problem.)
You need to
use Firebug with Firefox, or use the developer tools in Chrome or Safari or IE to see what javascript is loading on your site and any errors.
Ask the theme developer if you can't debug javascript. The error you see undefined' is not an object is too vague to figure out without much more info.
I had a similar problem - found out that by deactivating the feedburner plugin it got resolved. Some kind of possible conflict there - see if disabling any plugins would help?

How to know if a wordpress plugin is safe

There are thousands of plugins and themes available at wordpress.org and many other third parties. There is every possibility of bad plugins and themes being uploaded, which once uploaded could send info about the site to its owner. It could also send the information in the wp-config.php (A high security risk).
Please tell me how to protect wordpress sites from this other than by reading the code line by line. Also tell me if plugins and themes at wordpress.org are analyzed by the wordpress developers for threats like this before making it available to public.
Thank you.
Peace to All....
As with any code you run on your own server(s), WordPress plugins are caveat emptor.
That said, popular plugins have probably had a fair number of eyes on their code, making it unlikely that they're doing something shady. You probably don't need to go over them with a fine-tooth comb before installing them.
Lesser-known/used plugins, however, should probably be looked over before you install them on a site/server that you care about.
WordPress.org does not review every bit of code that goes into plugins - the only time they even do any review at all is when the plugin is initially submitted to the plugin directory, and that's cursory at best (mostly just to avoid spam). A plugin's code can change drastically after it's initially submitted.
Typically I will look at the feedback the plugin received on wordpress.org What kind of rating does it have? What comments/questions are asked in the 'what others are saying' section.
After making the decision to install the plugin, BACKUP YOUR DATA PRIOR TO THE ACTUAL INSTALLATION.
This is just good practice in any case, whether it's a wordpress core installation, plugin installation, or theme. If something breaks, you will have something to go back to.
Also making sure to keep frequent backups is a must. If you do get infected, you will want a snapshot.
There is a good article about the safety and security of themes that best plugins for wordpress put together. Also you can go some off of the rating given by the community straight from the wordpress plugin site. If you keep with plugins that have a 4-5 star rating and lots of downloads/ratings, you will most likely be ok. However, because this is an open source project, there is really not a 100% way to keep hackers and "bad people" from putting code in a what appears to be good theme/plugin that you are describing.
In this case if you have concern of a theme or plugin, I would always look over the code very carefully and make sure that it all looks good to you. Of course this is always time consuming and if you are not comfortable with code, this may not be an option. If you have questions about a certain set of plugins/themes, im sure if you post them here, there are many people that have used the plugin and maybe the theme before that can help you out.
From "Best Plugins for Wordpress"
1 TAC (Theme Authenticity Checker) Plugin
A very simple and straight forward plugin that will scan all files within your theme to >>check for any malicious or unwanted code.
2 Theme-Check Plugin
You may notice that a lot of free themes aren’t available directly from WordPress.org, >>the main reason for this is that most free themes don’t pass the tests that WordPress.org subjects them too. This nifty plugin will provide you with all the testing tools you will need to conduct the same tests that WordPress.org does. It’s also useful for theme developers who want to make sure their theme supports the latest standards.
3 Exploit Scanner Plugin
This plugin isn’t just for themes, it’s for your entire site, so it’s worth keeping once you’ve checked out the theme you’ve decided to use on your site. It scans all files, posts and comments on your site for any possible exploits or anything that looks suspicious, please note however that this plugin will not remove any files.

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