Sometimes when we make changes to our site, and we test those changes, we feel confident that everything is working right. Other times we might feel confident, but something in the back of our minds tells us that some users might be experiencing errors or problems. I’m currently having those exact thoughts.
When we include various plugins into WordPress, there is the chance that some will conflict and cause problems. Other times it might simply be a case of false-positives, and it’s not always easy to diagnose. When this happens, it’s good to take note of the issues, check them out on related forums if there are any, and see if others are also having the same issue. What I’ll normally do is take a keyword string that seems specific to the plugin, or an error message that contains the same specificity that relates to the plugin and enter it into Google and check out the results. Normally, this will get me straight into a site that is discussing the issue, and sometimes this will yield some corrective action that I can take, or let me know that it’s a current issue that the author is working on and to look for an update in the coming days.
In cases where help can’t be found through Google, it’s time to trip over to the WordPress.org forums and do a search there. If nothing comes up, it’s time to create a new post.
Read on to learn more about the specific problems that I’m currently seeing. Are they false-positives, or are they actually impacting my visitors?
I recently made a serious effort to use W3 Edge’s caching plugin to its fullest extent, and it’s currently in place now. However, from time to time I get error messages in my email like this:
“Recently an error occurred while creating the CSS / JS minify cache: Some files were unavailable, please check the settings to ensure the site is working as intended”
Now, I never experience any errors firsthand, so I’m tempted to believe that they are false-positives as is admitted as a possibility here. In fact, everything I see shows WayneJohn.com running as intended. So is there really an error?
Another plugin that I’m using is doing the same thing. I’m also running WordPress Firewall 2 and from time to time receive some errors that are, well, confusing. Here’s an example:
WordPress Firewall has detected and blocked a potential attack!
Web Page: www.waynejohn.com/
Warning: URL may contain dangerous content!Offending IP: 182.68.47.134
Offending Parameter: w3tc_referrer = http://in.search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt= *stuff*
This may be a “WordPress-Specific SQL Injection Attack.”
While there are ways to “whitelist” certain IP’s from creating these types of messages, I’m more curious about how they occur, and why. Am I experiencing a conflict between these two plugins? Or perhaps it is yet another false-positive.
I’m writing this post for feedback. Have you experienced any issues on my site, or is everything always working as intended when you visit me here? Are you experiencing something similar on your sites?
Note: I’ve been be-bopping around the planet the past week and now starting to get back into the swing of things in real-life once again. I have some fantastic stories to tell, and some great ideas for some really helpful posts that I think most of you will enjoy. Thank you for being a continuing subscriber to my blog and hanging in there while I struggle to find time to keep things fresh around here and provide you with useful information for your own sites and blogs.
Wayne John is a health coach for people that want to lose weight, gain weight, improve athletic performance, or simply maintain a healthy lifestyle. Wayne has lost over 55 pounds and improves his current health every day by using simple, straight-forward techniques that anyone can integrate into their lives to achieve the same. Contact Wayne today to realize your own health and fitness goals, or get started now by completing and submitting the free Wellness Profile. He also has been developing websites since 1995 and programming solutions for clients even longer. He'd rather be outside having fun in the sun though.
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I try to minimize the number of plugins I use, exactly to avoid these kind of problems. On top, I hate updating everything all the time.
On your site, everything works smooth for me
Susan
I don’t experience any problems or issues on your site, actually your site looks great. It’s simple, the color scheme is just right, buttons, text fields and links are perfectly working and your site is very neat.
Twitter: sticky_business
Be-bopping, eh? To where? I can’t wait to hear about it.
Anyways, yeah back here on planet Work – your site seems to work fine. I’ve never experienced any errors, anyways.
Yes, everything is running smoothly on our end. When you posted that question, I went ahead and tried it on IE and Firefox. The Tweet widget does not load in Firefox. The Google +1 does not appear in IE. The content is better than its form and design.
Twitter: waynejohn
Always something, right? Can you share which versions of those browsers you were using? Thanks for the feedback!
So far so good, my site is running smoothly… For now I haven’t experienced errors yet. Anyway, your site is pretty cool…
Twitter: waynejohn
Here’s a test comment…
I did two changes that made my site run much better.
1. Started using the Thesis Framework. (Fast and SEO friendly)
2. Deleted a lot of plugins.
It´s easy to think that you need a plugin for everything, but to much slows down you loadingtime AND they tend to not work to good togheter.
Twitter: waynejohn
Just another test…
Twitter: blackhawkweb
I think your site is well laid out and infomative and i don’t experience any issues at all, i lnow what you mean though i have had the same thoughts epsecially when doing a site for a client and they want specific functions and you are weary if the plugin will work as expected. website design
Twitter: waynejohn
Thanks for the feedback, Jonathan. Being a team of one makes it hard to be confident in your testing doesn’t it!
Twitter: blackhawkweb
Yes quite sometimes we think all is ok but then find an irate customer expriencing problems and such and your made to feel a fool if you have not spotted it first.
A very good post indeed. It’s a shame about some of the responses. A very good post and an excellent blog. I am now a follower. Thanks, Steve
I have recently made few changes and found that my CTR has gone a little bit and the download time as well has come down.
Twitter: easyPblog
Hi Wayne
No problems with your site oh PHP man but those SEO egghead firewall messages frighten me to death. LOL
Perhaps I can throw a small problem at you…
I’m setting up a Genesis website and have put the callendar widget in the footer.
Problem is, the widget only shows on the home page if I publish a post and on this site there won’t be any posts.
Widget shows on all other pages but not the home page!
I’m told by those wo know about these things that the calendar should show on all pages even without posts.
I’ve come up with a non techie fix but I would love to have a “proper” fix.
Leave that one with you oh PHP man.
Twitter: waynejohn
I can think of a few ways that this might happen, but really, I’d need to see for myself what’s going on. Why don’t you contact me via my contact form and let’s take this offline. Initially, I think your homepage might not have widget capability…but it might and could be something else too… let’s talk.
Twitter: easyPblog
I’ll contact you Wayne.
Keith