DEBUGGING WORDPRESS

OR

HOW TO RELIEVE YOUR WORDPRESS FRUSTRATIONS

THE WORDPRESS CODEX – WELCOME TO GEEKDOM

From my experience most major problems occur during updates – especially plug-in updates

The most common cause of a 500 Internal Server Error message is

a corrupt .htaccess file. Additional causes can be a conflicting

plugin or theme, or even a corrupt WordPress installation.

The easiest way to figure out where the problem lies is to check

your website’s error_log.

To find out more, you can enable WP_DEBUG and check for error

logs. Open up your wp-config.php file, and locate the following line

of code:

define(‘WP_DEBUG’, false);

And change it to:

define(‘WP_DEBUG’, true);

IMPORTANT

You will need FTP access on your server, or log into your domain

host’s site to access your files.

Navigate to the root directory of your WordPress installation, and

locate the .htaccess file. Rename the file to, let us say, something

like .htaccess_old

Now reload your website. If it works, congratulations! You can now

generate a new .htaccess file simply by navigating to Settings–

>Permalinks in your WP admin panel and re-saving the settings.

MAINTENANCE MODE ERROR

Each time you update WordPress to a newer version, it makes a

temporary .maintenance file. Problem occurs when

the .maintenance file is not removed properly after the upgrade (in

many cases, this happens when the upgrade process itself fails to

complete successfully).

You will need to login to your WP root directory via FTP, Or login

into your domain hosts website. Thereafter, you can locate

the .maintenance file and delete it. This will resolve the error.

What a correct update should look like

The error message that completely had me baffled!!!!

Content/03/13120403/html/traveller/.maintenance) [function.include]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/content/03/13120403/html/traveller/wp-includes/load.php on line 182

Warning: include() [function.include]: Failed opening '/home/content/03/13120403/html/traveller/.maintenance' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/local/php5_3/lib/php') in /home/content/03/13120403/html/traveller/wp-includes/load.php on line 182

What does this mean??

Usually you see this message after an update – it’s an error message with a lot of gobbledygook.

It simply means that you need to go into your uploaded files, either by using your FTP or by accessing your hosting account.

The hard way to fix this is to find the obscure line in the file that is listed and change the sense, if you know what to do.

The easy way to fix it is to thank whichever deity you follow for giving you the common sense to backup your files and just install the backup that you did before the error occurred.

WordPress admin dashboard is not displaying properly

Check if your Internet connection is behind a proxy connection or

firewall. Some of these tools are blocking CSS files making CSS files to

not load properly. Try to clear your proxy or firewall cookies and cache, and press  Ctrl  +  F5  to refresh your page.

TOP TIPS

NEVER BE AFRAID OF WORDPRESS AND EXPERIMENT AS MUCH AS YOU LIKE – JUST KEEP SCREENSHOTS, OR COPY AND SAVE BEFORE YOU MAKE CHANGES SO THAT YOU CAN EASILY GO BACK TO THE ORIGINAL

ALWAYS BACKUP – AND KEEP THE BACKUP FILES IN A PLACE THAT IS EASY TO FIND AND ACCESS

WHEN STARTING A SITE BUILD YOUR FRONT PAGE AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE AND TRY OUT AS MANY THEMES AS YOU LIKE UNTIL YOU SEE ONE YOU REALLY LIKE – THEN PURCHASE THE PRO VERSION AS YOU USUALLY GET GOOD HELP AND MORE DESIGN OPTIONS

UPDATES CAN BE FRAUGHT WITH DANGER – LEARN WHAT TO DO WHEN THINGS GO WRONG, OTHERWISE YOU’LL SPEND HOURS BEING FRUSTRATED

WHEN YOU’VE GOT YOUR WEBSITE LOOKING AND BEHAVING AS YOU WANT IT TO BE – DON’T KEEP TINKERING, USE IT FOR A WHILE THEN, WHEN YOU’RE USED TO IT, MAKE ANY CHANGES YOU LIKE

ENSURE YOU HAVE A GOOD HOSTING SERVICE, ONE WHICH HAS A GOOD HELP CENTRE, IT IS WORTH PAYING SLIGHTLY MORE FOR THAT RELIABLE ASSISTANCE

WHEN WRITING YOUR POSTS OR PAGES WRITE THEM ON PROCESSING SOFTWARE SUCH AS WORD AND ALWAYS RUN A GRAMMAR AND SPELLCHECK BEFORE COPYING AND PASTING – THIS ACTUALLY SAVES HEAPS OF TIME AND HELPS WITH YOUR ACCURACY

FOR IMAGES ALWAYS FORMAT WITH A RELIABLE IMAGE MANIPULATION SOFTWARE (SUCH AS PAINT.NET OR LIGHTROOM) TO GIVE YOUR IMAGES OOMPH