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Web Dev + WordPress + Security
Tag: bug
18 posts

WordPress get_comments_number() Not Working Correctly?

It seems that the WordPress function, get_comments_number(), is not working correctly. It is returning inconsistent results for posts with zero comments, pingbacks, or trackbacks. Sometimes the function returns true, other times false. It’s just random, from what I’ve been able to tell. So maybe a bug, or maybe something I am missing. Not a big deal, just looking for clues.. Continue reading »

WP 6.0 Fix Error: QTags is not defined

“Quick” post about an error that may occur with WordPress 6.0 (and possibly other versions). After updating to WordPress 6, the JavaScript Errors Notifier extension was showing a “QTags is not defined” error on sites where custom Quicktags are configured (via plugins or custom scripts). Because of the error, custom Quicktags were broken and not added to the editor toolbar. This quick post explains why the error is happening and how to fix it (easily). Continue reading »

CSS: Odd Bug with Colons and Combined Pseudo Elements

According to specification (and these helpful posts by Chris Coyier), CSS pseudo elements like ::before and ::after should be written with two preceding colons. It can be confusing because while pseudo elements are prefixed by two colons, like ::element, pseudo selectors (aka pseudo classes) are prefixed by only one, like :selector. So that’s the context for an odd little CSS bug.. Continue reading »

Opera and Brave Blocking Legit Images

The Opera and Brave web browsers are blocking many legit images (and likely video and other types of media). Thanks to the Opera settings “Block Ads” and “Block Trackers”, many legitimate (non-ad) images are broken. For Brave it’s the setting, “Block cross-site trackers”. These settings are all enabled by default. Apparently the blocking feature in Opera and Brave is determining (at least in part) if an image should be blocked based on its URL, file name, and possibly factors like […] Continue reading »

Weird Bug with Highlight.js

Working on adding syntax highlighting to my code snippets here at Perishable Press. To do it, I use my free WordPress plugin Prismatic. Basically all the plugin does is load up either the Highlight.js scripts and styles, or it loads up the Prism.js scripts and styles. So I can rule out the plugin itself for this “weird” little bug. The issue is with Highlight.js specifically. Continue reading »

Case of the Invisible CSS ::selection

Recently I noticed a weird bug in my free WordPress security plugin, Banhammer. For some reason, I could not select any text on the page. Usually when you click and move the mouse cursor over some text, it becomes highlighted and displayed in some other color. But this wasn’t happening on the Banhammer settings screen. No matter which HTML/text I tried to select, it just wasn’t working. T’was a real mystery.. Continue reading »

PHP Code Not Displayed in Browser

Recently a reader sent in a bug report about this post on bbPress. For some reason the PHP code snippets were not displaying properly in the browser. Basically, instead of looking neat and tidy as always, the code looked like a garbled mess of spaced-out nonsense. And by “spaced out” I don’t mean in a good way: there was literally like 100px of vertical space breaking up the jumbled lines of code. It was definitely a mess, so I began […] Continue reading »

Facebook Not Letting Users Delete Their Own Comments

Here is video proof that Facebook is not letting people delete their own comments. The video shows me trying to delete two different comments, using three different browsers: Chrome, Firefox, and Opera. Watch the video and see for yourself. It’s been like this for at least several days now (not sure when it started). Very frustrating! Continue reading »

Twitter Login Verification Bug

A few days ago, I was unable to log in to my Perishable Twitter account. My login credentials simply did not work. I’ve been successfully logging into Twitter since 2007 with no problems. So it was surprising at first, and then I figured it was some sort of weird Twitter bug. So I began investigating and recording the events/details in this post.. Continue reading »

WordPress Error Fix(?): Increase PHP Memory for cache.php

This trick isn’t guaranteed to prevent all WordPress-generated PHP memory errors, but it certainly seems to help reduce their overall occurrence. For some reason, after my host upgraded their servers to Apache 1.3.41, I began logging an extremely high number of fatal PHP “memory exhausted” errors resulting from the WordPress cache.php script. Here is an example of the countless errors that are generated: Continue reading »

How to Fix the Wonky Windows XP Clock

I don’t know about you, but ever since the 2007 change in daylight savings time, my installation of Windows XP has had a difficult time (so to speak) maintaining consistently accurate time. Ever since the change, Windows XP has been randomly resetting its clock (as indicated via the Taskbar) to display time incorrectly. Specifically, WinXP will automatically (i.e., without user intervention) set the time to be one hour earlier than the actual time. For example, if the time is actually […] Continue reading »

Fixing Mint after Switching Servers

After switching Perishable Press to its current home at A Small Orange, I began noticing an unusual problem with referrer data displayed in Mint. Specifically, the first item recorded in the XXX Strong Mint data panel — for both “Most Recent” and “Repeat” views — displayed several thousand hits for various site resources, all reporting the following IP address: Continue reading »

WP-ShortStat Slowing Down Root Index Pages

For over a year now, I have been using Markus Kämmerer’s (Happy Arts Blog) WP-ShortStat plugin for WordPress. The plugin is relatively well-maintained and remains one of my favorite admin tools. Great for popping in on stats without logging into Mint. Nonetheless, due to its IP/country-detection functionality, WP-ShortStat has experienced its share of difficulties (e.g., read through the change log on the plugin’s home page). In this article, I describe how WP-Shortstat slows down the root index-page of a site, […] Continue reading »

Major Problem with cPanel Hotlink Protection and htaccess

There is a major problem with the “Hotlink Protection” feature of cPanel. To summarize the issue, allow me to quote a recent email sent to a completely unresponsive tech support department: …The problem is that if I try to include any rewrite rules for permalinks, hotlinking, or blocking spambots, cPanel automatically enables its “Hotlink Protection” feature. And, even worse, it automatically adds every URL from every rewrite rule (even the ones for blocking spambots) to its “auto-discovered” list of URL’s […] Continue reading »

Perishable Press Unresolved Error Log

This post is hereby dedicated to the official logging of all unresolved and/or unexplained errors encountered during development or implementation of various plugins, extensions, themes, scripts, and/or anything else that results in bizarre and mysterious errors, bugs, or other anomalies. Further, we will also post any potential solutions, fixes, workarounds, or explanations for any errors logged in this post. This information is provided for reference purposes only — please share any related information you may have concerning any of the […] Continue reading »

Feed Tester

Note to WordPress 2.0.5 users: Everything was working fine on this site before upgrading to WP 2.0.5. After upgrading, apparently, our feeds stopped validating and the BDP RSS Aggregator plugin refused to update our own feeds. After several hours investigating the situation, we determined that the Live Comment Preview plugin was interfering with our feeds validating, while the upgraded WordPress (2.0.5) was responsible for problems with the BDP plugin. Continue reading »

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Perishable Press is operated by Jeff Starr, a professional web developer and book author with two decades of experience. Here you will find posts about web development, WordPress, security, and more »
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