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Category Archives: Website Administration
Internal Server error 500 issue in WordPress 2.5
Anyone who is getting an internal server error 500 when trying to activate or use plugins in WordPress 2.5: This is likely due to a memory issue in PHP. I’m not sure why, but I’ve noticed that the new version of WordPress seems to push much harder on the memory of a server, especially during plugin activation. It appears that this internal error 500 situation may be related to a PHP setting that by default limits PHP to using only 8MB per instance. The way to resolve this issue is to up the amount of memory usable by PHP to 16MB in the php.ini config file. In most cases you won’t be able to do this yourself but will need to request your server admin do this for you.
AWSOM Plugins updated for WordPress 2.5 compatibility
I have just released new versions of the AWSOM Pixgallery(4.5.3), AWSOM News Announcement(1.4.2), and AWSOM Uninstaller (1.0.2) plugins for WordPress that have been made specifically compatible with the upcoming WordPress 2.5 release (the AWSOM Archive plugin was already fully 2.5 compatible with version 1.4.0). This means that they will install properly and work as they currently do. AWSOM plugin versions previous to these new releases will NOT install properly on WordPress 2.5 due to a major change in their plugin protocol (though I believe that already installed plugins will not stop working, I can’t guarantee that–especially if you deactivate/reactivate them during the WordPress upgrade process).
I will probably come out with another minor release of the plugins after WordPress 2.5 is officially released that does some cosmetic changes to my admin pages for the plugins, but this will have to wait until they finalize the CSS they are using for their admin pages (right now they all look fine, but don’t really match the new look of the admin area in 2.5). For the moment though everything will work properly, so you at least have one less worry if you plan on upgrading to WordPress 2.5 :)
The Coming Flamestorm of WordPress 2.5
Hi everyone, A preview version of WordPress 2.5 has been posted at the WordPress.org website and from what I see after trying it out I expect to see a major flameup of epic proportions on their forum after it gets released. The most obvious and major issue is any plugin that adds fields to the database will almost certainly fail to work right in the new version unless updated specifically for it. They have altered the way plugin activation works–developers, you will need to specifically declare any global variables used in your activation function during table activation and creation to be global outside of the function (not just within it). This is not normally required and I highly doubt any current plugins do this–so they will all most likely fail to install their tables properly.
This points to one major issue I see with the WordPress development team–they have a very limited acceptance of the idea of backward compatibility. Starting with version 2.2 they have released new major versions that actively break backward compatibility on a wide range of plugins and themes. While I understand that this is sometimes needed for security reasons, in these cases it was simply because they redesigned the way something worked. This is where a “compatibility mode” or some other backward compatibility mode is really required.
In my plugin AWSOM Pixgallery I recently released a new version (4.5.x) that also saw a redesign of the way something works: image and gallery captions. What did I do? I added in a new setting called “Legacy Mode” that can be turned on to display captions in the old manner. It’s a crutch until people who are upgrading have time to update their captions to the new system. Actually, you don’t HAVE to ever update your captions, but in some cases some new features will require the new system to be operating to work–but that’s an option for the admin, not a requirement.
The real problem with this system of forced change is that it actively pushes people to NOT upgrade. Many WordPress users are not technical people. They don’t know, and don’t have time or want to know, how to go in and edit their theme files or plugins. In a perfect world every plugin writer would upgrade their stuff immediately, but in some cases plugins are no longer being developed, so they won’t get upgrades. This becomes a major issue when security upgrades are also involved, since many users who won’t upgrade now get left with insecure older versions of WordPress in place. If your site works now, but you try to upgrade and it bombs and you don’t know how to fix it, you are stuck and will probably just revert to the older one.
A “you should learn how to code” response to people will not work. A “Find another plugin/theme” response will not work. People like what they have and just want it to work.
I really like WordPress. I’m pretty much unaffected by these changes because I know how to program and make the changes necessary to get things to work right. But I also expect to get a huge amount of support requests because of changes to the way plugins now work. I’ll be updating my plugins to work, and will release new versions in the next day or so. But I suggest any developers out there get ready for the storm, cause it’s on the way.
MAMP testing environment for OS X
Hey everyone, I’ve recently moved most of my development systems over to OS X (since I have a brand new Macbook that my company gave me), so I’ve been looking into the options that are available for website development when using OS X. OS X comes by default with a great deal of things built in, one of which is the ability to run a local version of a LAMP webserver (LAMP stands for Linux Apache MySQL PHP and is a description of the most common webserver setup to run sites like WordPress). Well, you actually need to install MySQL yourself, but it’s pretty easy. The problem is that this built in server actually does take some configuration to get working, and it’s different depending on if you have Panther (10.3), Tiger (10.4), or Leopard (10.5) installed. For someone who is new to the whole webserver/website dev thing, it can be a bit too much to do right off to get this all working.
That’s why MAMP is such an great thing. Mamp is an all in one package that will install the entire webserver set up for you using a standard OS X installer. Oncde installed it basically just requires you to start it up just like any other program. The basic free version gives you very few options to change from the GUI, so it’s probably the best choice for new people. The only change you will probably want to immediately make is to go to the preferences–>Ports settings page and click the option to “set to default Apache and MySQL ports” button. The rest is pretty straight forward and explained on the “start page” that you can open MAMP. Just note that to get to your site you need to place “localhost” in your web browser as the url.
So now both Windows and OS X have really easy ways of setting up a basic local test server for WordPress–so there’s no reason for you not to test new plugins or theme changes there first so as to not blow up your live site, right?
WordPress 2.5 coming soon, get ready
WordPress 2.5 should be released soon (it was actually scheduled to be out already, but has been slightly delayed), so it’s time to get ready for upgrading. One major change to expect is the admin menu system in WordPress is getting a major overhaul. The direct result may be issues with how some plugins display their admin area pages. I believe that my plugins should be most unaffected, but since they are still making changes to the final look and feel, I won’t know until the release if I have to make any updates to the AWSOM series. If so I will try to get the corrected versions out as soon as possible after the release of 2.5.
As is typical with most WordPress upgrades, disable all of your plugins and switch to the default theme before doing the upgrade. Then turn on your plugins and theme one at a time and confirm they still work properly. With a major release there is a greater than average chance that older plugins will break–so I suggest doing this process slowly and really checking around your site after turning on each plugin and theme.
If you notice any issues with my plugins PLEASE send me an email or use my contact form as soon as possible so I can get things working again. Thanks.