Tag: plugins

Round Up: 18 Free Plugins to Help Troubleshoot and Debug WordPress

Jeff Starr

I’ve written numerous tutorials explaining how to troubleshoot WordPress, plugins, email, and more. When investigating issues, diagnosing problems, and hunting bugs, troubleshooting is a critical core skill for any web developer. To help readers level up their tool belt, here’s a quick round-up of free plugins to help troubleshoot any of your WordPress projects.

Plugins to troubleshoot & debug WordPress

There are TONS of great troubleshooting plugins available at the WordPress.org Plugin Directory. Some of these plugins you’re probably familiar with, others are newer with their own unique features. While nobody is gonna need all of these plugins, it is comforting that there are so many to choose from. So you can find the best tools for whatever inspecting or debugging is needed. Plus all of these plugins are open source and 100% free. So without further ado..

★ BugFu Console Debugger
Handy plugin that enables logging of PHP directly via the browser console. Can be a huge time saver for developers.
★ Code Profiler
Measures the performance of your plugins and themes at the PHP level. Finally a replacement for the once-great P3 Profiler.
★ Debug
Handles the configuration of debug and other variables via wp-config.php. So you don’t have to edit the file manually.
★ Debug Bar
Adds a debug menu to the admin bar that shows query, cache, and other debugging information. Super useful tool for analyzing performance.
★ Debug Info
Provides important details about your WordPress operating environment. Easy way to get PHP configuration (via phpinfo()).
★ Debug Log Manager
Provides all sorts of tools for managing your site’s debug logs and more. Another massive time-saving tool.
★ Debug This
Displays lots of details about your WordPress site via the admin bar. Reveals “under the hood” what’s happening on each page.
★ Log HTTP Requests
Incredibly useful plugin for measuring and logging outgoing HTTP requests. One of my favorite plugins when developing.. other plugins :)
★ Plugin Detective
Holds your hand through the process of troubleshooting your site. Could be super useful depending on your workflow.
★ Query Monitor
Enables debugging of database queries, PHP errors, hooks, and much more. Hands down one of the best plugins for debugging WordPress.
★ System Dashboard
Monitors WordPress components, processes, server hardware, software, and resource usage. A must-have for serious WordPress developers.
★ Variable Inspector
Enables you to inspect various PHP variables via the dashboard in the WP Admin Area. Huge time-saver when working with PHP variables.
★ WP Console
Adds PsySH runtime developer console, interactive debugger and REPL. Write code and view the output right in your browser.
★ WP Crontrol
Enables you to view and control what’s happening in the WP-Cron system. Excellent plugin and highly recommended.
★ WP Debug Log
Enables you to check the debug log from the dashboard and optionally send email notifications. Looks super useful for debugging with WordPress.
★ WP Debugging
Adds the requisite PHP constants to the wp-config.php file to enable debugging. So you don’t have to edit the file manually.
★ WPPerformanceTester
Measures performance of your WordPress site. Looks interesting and useful but hasn’t been updated in a while.
★ WordPress Hosting Benchmark tool
Tests the performance of your server and compares with results from other servers. A great tool for diving deeper into server performance.
★ Explore even more debug tools..
The WP Plugin Directory is loaded with many plugins for developing, troubleshooting, and debugging your site. Try a few searches and browse the results. All free and open source. Amazing.
Shouts out to the developers working to provide these free tools to the WordPress community. Your work is important and appreciated.

Note: WordPress plugins tend to change over time, usually for the better but not always. So to be safe, make sure to check the official homepage/docs for more details before trying any of the above plugins. If anything should or should not be on the list, please let us know so we can update the post. Thank you!

Props

Gotta give props here. I was inspired to put this round up together after seeing this post in David McCan’s Dynamic WordPress group on Facebook. Check it out for some interesting comments and more ideas for troubleshooting your WordPress-powered websites.

Cheers! ?


How to Disable Embeds for Any Specific URLs

Jeff Starr

Quick tip: how to disable embeds for any URL(s). The other day I was adding URLs to a draft post in WordPress. Some of the URLs were for Twitter tweets. Checking a preview of the post on the front end, I was surprised that WordPress had automatically embedded the actual tweet in place of the URL. After a few minutes searching for a way to disable the automatic embedded tweet, I remembered about WordPress oEmbed (now referred to as Embeds), which I’ve actually written about in several tutorials. Turns out the solution is dead simple.

Contents

How embed works

By default, WordPress embeds tweets, video, audio, and other media from third-party services like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and many other sites.

Embed media via block editor

To enable embed for any URL when using the Gutenberg Block Editor, add an Embed Block and enter the URL. WordPress takes care of the rest, and will automatically convert the URL to embedded media, right there on your page.

Embed media via classic editor

To enable embed for any URL when using the Classic Editor, simply add the URL on its own line, like this:

Lorem ipsum this is just an example..

https://twiter.com/perishable/status/1616553818183065601

Lorem ipsum dolor amet..

When WordPress finds any URLs on their own line, it auto-embeds the actual media. For example here is the previous tweet URL added to its own line:

If all is working correctly, a formatted tweet should be displayed. This method works for all supported media sites.

How to disable embed for any URL

As you’ve probably guessed, the solution to not auto-embedding media is simple. Here’s how to do it easily using either the Gutenberg Block Editor or the Classic Editor.

Disable embeds via block editor

To disable media embeds for any specific URL using the block editor, simply remove whichever Embeds block contains your URL. I know, it may seem obvious but not everyone knows or understands how it all works.

Disable embeds via classic editor

To disable media embeds for any specific URL using the classic editor, make sure that the URL is not written on its own line. There are numerous ways of doing it, the easiest is to simply prepend a word like “Link”, for example:

Link: https://twitter.com/perishable/status/1616553818183065601

Another method is to make the URL an actual link, by wrapping it with an HTML hyperlink, for example in the post we would write:

<a href="https://twitter.com/perishable/status/1616553818183065601">https://twitter.com/perishable/status/1616553818183065601</a>

On the page, wrapping a URL with a link looks like this:

https://twitter.com/perishable/status/1616553818183065601

See ma! No embed! :)

How to disable ALL media embeds

An easy way to disable WordPress oEmbed/Embeds is to use a plugin.

Currently there is only one available at the WordPress Plugin Directory, Disable Embeds by Pascal Birchler.

I’ve used this plugin on my sites for several years now. It does a great job of disabling all of the needless oEmbed scripts and functionality. BUT it only disables oEmbed for non-whitelisted sites. So media embeds for sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, et al will continue to work normally.

SO at this point, in order to disable ALL media embeds, you’ve gotta do it with custom code. I’m not going to rewrite the wheel here, tutorials for this already exist, for example:

From what I can tell, either tutorial provides the same code/information, and should work great to completely disable ALL WordPress Embeds on your site.

CU Later

I didn’t see this information posted anywhere so thought I’d share here at DigWP.com. Cheers people :)


How to Add Custom Code to WordPress

Jeff Starr

There are many books and tutorials that share useful code snippets for WordPress. For example, you can find hundreds of custom functions right here at DigWP.com. You can also find them in my WordPress books, tutorials, and code snippets. For many code snippets and custom functions, the usage instructions will say something like:

Add this code to your theme (or child theme’s) functions.php file, or add the code via simple custom plugin.

So what does that actually mean? Let’s take a closer look. First we’ll go through how to add custom code via the functions.php file. Then we’ll explain how to add code by making a simple custom plugin. Finally we’ll wrap things up by explaining the difference between the two methods and how to go further.

Contents

Add custom code via theme functions.php

Every WordPress theme can have a file named functions.php. If present in a theme, the functions file must be located in the root directory of the theme:

/wordpress/
	/wp-content/
		/themes/
			/my-theme/
				functions.php

If the functions file does not exist, create it. Then open the file in a code or text editor and add your custom code. Save the file, upload to the server, and done. It is very straightforward. Just make sure to test any new code on a private/test site before adding to a live production site.

Learn more about building themes in my book, WordPress Themes In Depth.

Add custom code via simple custom plugin

With WordPress, plugins add functionality, and themes display content. There is some overlap (and grey area), but in general the best way to add functionality to WordPress is with a plugin. That’s one reason why there are over 50,000 plugins in the WordPress Plugin Directory.

Plugins range in complexity. They can be very advanced, comprising many files and lots of code. Or they can be very simple, made with one file and a few lines of code. To add a custom code snippet, a simple plugin will suffice.

How to make a simple custom plugin

To make a simple custom plugin, follow these steps:

  1. Create a new PHP file
  2. Name the file whatever makes sense, can be any alphanumeric string (plus dashes and underscores if needed)
  3. Open the file and add the header code provided below
  4. Save the file and done

After creating this file, it is ready for your custom code snippet(s). To save you some time, I’ve created an example plugin that you can download below. It’s ready to go for any custom code that you want to add.

Download a simple custom plugin

Download a copy of our simple custom plugin, ready for your custom code.

↓ Download Simple Custom Plugin (ZIP file < 1 KB)

Usage: Download and unzip the file. Open simple-custom-plugin.php and customize the file header as explained below. Then add your custom code snippet, save changes and done.

Plugin file header

At the beginning of your plugin file, add the following lines:

<?php 
/*
	Plugin Name: Simple Custom Plugin
	Plugin URI: https://digwp.com/2022/02/simple-custom-plugin/
	Description: This is a simple plugin template for adding custom code to WordPress.
	Author: Jeff Starr
	Author URI: https://plugin-planet.com/
	Requires at least: 5.9
	Tested up to: 5.9
	Version: 1.0
*/

if (!defined('ABSPATH')) die();

// add custom code snippets below this line..

You can customize the header lines with your actual information. As our simple plugin is meant only for your site and will not be distributed publicly, the file header can be much simpler than what’s required for plugins destined for the WP Plugin Directory. Learn more about plugin file headers at WordPress.org.

Also: notice this line:

if (!defined('ABSPATH')) die();

That line is included to prevent direct access to the file. It basically checks if WordPress is loaded; if not, the script simply exits. This is a basic security measure to help prevent anyone from meddling with your custom code.

Remember to use code snippets only from trusted sources. And then test the code on a private site before going live.

What’s the difference?

What’s the difference between adding code via theme functions vs. simple plugin? The main difference is scope. When code is added via your theme template, it will run only when the theme is active. So for example, say we add a custom code snippet that displays social media buttons on posts. If we change themes, the custom code will not run, and the buttons will not be displayed.

Contrast that with adding custom code via simple plugin. As long as the plugin is active, the custom code will run always, regardless of which theme you’re using. Going the plugin route also benefits in terms of things like extensibility and maintainability. Managing custom code via plugins generally is easier than burying it within the theme’s functions file.

So which is best? Neither. The two methods are just different. Which one is best for any given code snippet depends on various factors. Most importantly whether or not the custom code is theme specific or global in scope.

For an easy, no-fuss way to add custom code snippets, check out WPCodeBox.

Going further..

The above simple plugin example is the most basic possible. To go further with plugin development, visit the Plugin Developer Handbook at WordPress.org.

Check out my complete video course on developing WordPress plugins »

Questions and comments welcome! :)


How to Troubleshoot WordPress, Easy Step-by-Step Guide

Jeff Starr

Easily hands down the most common thing that I find myself explaining to WordPress users is how to troubleshoot WordPress in order to find the cause of some issue. And it makes sense if you think about it. WordPress and all of its plugins and themes are made of code. And code is a complex thing. The more code you add to a site, the more likely it is for bugs and issues to happen. And when they do, it can be confusing and frustrating to the average user.

Fortunately, there is a reliable, proven technique for figuring out why any given problem is happening. It's referred to as "troubleshooting", a very powerful tool that everyone should have in their belt. This DigWP tutorial explains two methods of troubleshooting using plain, easy to follow steps.

Troubleshooting is something that literally anyone can do. It is a straightforward, proven process that helps millions of people diagnose problems every day.

Table of Contents

Two different approaches

When it comes to troubleshooting WordPress, there are two ways to do it:

  • From the top down
  • From the ground up

Each of these methods uses basic logic to eliminate variables and determine causality. As one might imagine, either technique has its own pros and cons. In a nutshell, most common method is top-down, which is used to quickly diagnose plugin/theme conflicts, etc. The ground-up method is a more rigorous, clinical approach that generally requires more time.

Let's take a closer look at each..

Troubleshooting from the top down

Top-down testing is basically:

Temporarily deactivating each of your other plugins one at a time, re-testing the problem/issue after each, until the issue no longer happens. This tells you as quickly as possible which plugin is interfering with normal functionality.

Pros of top-down testing:

  • Can be the fastest way of diagnosing issues

Cons of top-down testing:

  • May not be feasible to test on a live site
  • Can be complicated if lots of other plugins used on site
  • May require lots of time if using lots of other plugins

To understand how it works, let's go thru an example..

Example

Let's say that you have a plugin named "Amazing Plugin". It is not working correctly, and you suspect there is some conflict with one of your other plugins or theme. You want to find out why the issue is happening, and hopefully get it resolved. Before contacting the plugin provider, take a few minutes to do some basic testing of your plugins and theme. Doing so will help the support team understand and provide help as quickly as possible.

Here are the magic steps to troubleshoot your setup using top-down troubleshooting..

Troubleshooting steps

To troubleshoot why "Amazing Plugin" is not working using top-down testing, it is necessary to test all other plugins and the theme. It doesn't matter which you start with, for this tutorial we'll start with testing the other plugins, as that is where I've found most conflicts can happen.

Note: The steps below are for testing a plugin called "Amazing Plugin". The steps also work if you are testing a theme. Just replace "Amazing Plugin" with "Amazing Theme" and you're good to go.

Test your other plugins

  1. Deactivate one of your other plugins
  2. Re-test if Amazing Plugin is working properly
  3. If Amazing Plugin now works, stop; you have found the conflict
  4. Otherwise, if Amazing Plugin still is not working, deactivate another one of your other plugins
  5. If Amazing Plugin now works, stop; you have found the conflict
  6. Otherwise, if Amazing Plugin still is not working, deactivate another one of your other plugins
  7. Repeat this process for all of your other plugins, or until Amazing Plugin is working properly

At this point, if the Amazing Plugin is working normally, then the cause of the issue is whichever plugin that was last deactivated. Otherwise, if you get through deactivating all of your other plugins and Amazing Plugin still is not working correctly, it is time to repeat the test with your theme.

Test your theme

If you follow the above steps and deactivate all of your other plugins, and the problem remains, it's time to repeat the process to test your current theme:

  1. With all of the other plugins deactivated, switch to one of the default WP themes (e.g., Twenty Twenty)
  2. With the default theme active, try retesting the Amazing Plugin
  3. If Amazing Plugin now works properly, you have found the issue: there is some conflict with your theme
  4. Otherwise, if you have deactivated all other plugins and switched to the default theme, and the issue persists, then there is something else that is interfering

Hopefully at this point, you have found out which plugin or theme is interfering. If not, then further sleuthing is required to solve the mystery.

Beyond plugins and theme

After completing the above troubleshooting steps, in 99% of the cases I've seen, the conflicting plugin (or theme) will be found. If that is not the case, then one of the following must be true:

  • Further testing/troubleshooting is required
  • The issue is with the plugin itself
  • The issue is with WordPress core
  • Something else outside of WordPress
  • Some combination of the above

So with all other plugins deactivated, and using the default WordPress theme, if the issue persists, then there may be a conflict with specific plugin settings, server configuration, network interference, or even WordPress itself (although rare, in my experience). In this case, further testing is required in order to find (and hopefully resolve) the issue.

This is where ground-up testing can be useful. Instead of trying to reverse-engineer your entire current site, you can start from scratch using the ground-up technique, which gives you a "clean slate" that eliminates all other variables. Let's take a look..

Troubleshooting from the ground up

Ground-up testing is basically:

Set up a new WordPress installation, leave everything at the defaults (e.g., plugins, theme, and settings), and then install the plugin or theme that you want to troubleshoot. This enables you to verify that the plugin works normally, without interference from any other plugins, theme, or settings.

Pros of ground-up testing:

  • Gives you a clean slate to work with
  • Does not interfere with your other/original site
  • Provides a baseline where the plugin works correctly

Cons of ground-up testing:

  • Takes more time to set up another WP install
  • May require transferring of plugin license(s)

Let's look at a quick example..

Example

For example, say you have a plugin named "Super Duper". It is not working correctly, and you suspect there is some conflict with one of your other plugins or theme. You want to find out why the issue is happening, and hopefully get it resolved. Before contacting the plugin provider, take some time to do some basic troubleshooting. Doing so will help the support team understand and provide help as quickly as possible.

Troubleshooting steps

To troubleshoot why the Super Duper plugin is not working using ground-up troubleshooting, follow these steps:

  1. Set up a new WordPress installation
  2. Leave the plugins, theme, and settings at default values
  3. Install only the plugin (or theme) that is not working

After following these steps, you can verify that the plugin or theme you are testing works normally on default WordPress. This is your baseline: the plugin works on default WordPress. IF that is not the case, then you have found a bug with the plugin (or theme) itself. And should be reported to the plugin developer.

Otherwise, if the plugin is working properly on default WordPress, then the problem is not a bug with the plugin, but rather a bug with your particular setup, configuration, etc. So further testing is required..

Test your other plugins

Once you verify that the plugin is working properly on default WordPress, you can begin troubleshooting by installing and activating each of your other plugins, one at a time. You want to re-test the problematic plugin after adding each new plugin. At some point, as you are doing this, the issue will return, and you will know exactly which plugin is breaking things.

If you get through adding all of your other plugins, and the issue has not reappeared, the next step is to test your theme.

Test your theme

If you get through adding all of your other plugins without the issue reappearing, then move on to the theme. Try installing and activating whichever theme you are using on the other site and re-test the issue again. If the theme breaks things, then you have the information you need to either:

  • Report the issue to both plugin and theme developers
  • Troubleshoot within the theme itself (or hire someone to do it for you)

And of course, if you get to this point and the issue has not resurfaced, then yep you guessed it, more digging is required.

Beyond plugins and theme

If you get through testing each of your plugins and theme, and the issue does not return, then there must be something else — some other difference between your original WordPress installation and the test/default installation — that is causing the problem.

In this case, the next step is to figure out the specific differences between the two WordPress sites. For the sites to behave differently (i.e., one showing the issue and the other working normally), there must be some difference between them. Your job is to continue the troubleshooting process by eliminating variables until the issue returns.

Take-home message

The take-home message for this tutorial is that troubleshooting is something that literally anyone can do. It is a straightforward, proven process that helps millions of people diagnose problems every day. And more importantly, a bit of troubleshooting provides valuable information that can help the plugin or theme provider to understand and hopefully resolve any issue.

Remember, the people who develop your WordPress plugins and themes love to help you, but they are only human. They do not possess a crystal ball or Palantír that magically reveals to them exactly what is happening on any given site.

Seriously none of us have anything like that.

We have no idea what's happening on your site unless you tell us. So by doing some basic troubleshooting, you can provide the developer precise information, increase the chance of getting the issue resolved quickly, and benefit from better understanding of your own website.

Going further..

For a more in-depth troubleshooting tutorial, check out my post at Perishable Press: The Art of Troubleshooting WordPress. That goes into much more depth, plus provides all sorts of tips and tricks, etc.

Thanks for reading and happy troubleshooting.


Panmure Bridge Childcare

adminDbO

This site, for an Auckland childcare centre, was contracted to Urban Legend web via Elan Design, who provided the graphics and website content.

We coded the custom WordPress theme, comprising pages, posts and categories, widgets, etc. We installed and configured the necessary plugins.

Note that the client has yet to use the CMS to complete some of the content, including photo gallery, and events.