Soon after the WordPress 5.5 update, can the errors. A conflict here and there and missing functionality on more than one of my client’s templates.

After some Googling and quick research I found a few discussion referencing the jQuery Migrate Helper Plugin that’s available for download from the wordpress.org plugin downloads.

This guy, Enable jQuery Migrate Helper has saved the day for me twice now and I don’t doubt a third is on the horizon.

Remember, this plugin is a Band-Aid, quick fix, to any issues or conflicts that you may be experiencing with your JavaScript and jQuery coding. Ideally, you’ll find the actual root of the current conflict and resolve it there. Although that may be an even trickier and deep endeavor, it’s better for your site, server and visitors in the long run.

The plugin is a huge help. It gives you real-time updates on what’s going on with your pages and if they may have any issues to address.

This first example is what you may see while viewing your WordPress Dashboard.

This is the default plugin notification that guide you on what’s going on and what you may need to address.

One more feature of this plugin that’s huge for me, is the update emails.

Once a week you’ll get a hand update on what’s going on with your WordPress theme and what’s up with jQuery Migrate as seen here:

Enable jQuery Migrate Helper is a great solution to resolve some of those maddening error that seem to arise out of nowhere.

Installation
Upload to your plugins folder, usually wp-content/plugins/.
Activate the plugin on the plugin screen.
That’s it! The plugin handles the rest automatically for you.

Below is a screen shot of how my most recent build was rendering the page builder code. Look familiar?

I have your answer. I’ve run into this issue more than once and it’s been maddening every time until I finally found this simple fix.

This issue typically happens with various page builder plugins web designer use to expand the functionality of their WordPress template design.

In the world of constant updates and new code, plugin conflicts are a daily occurrence, this is a simple plugin conflict where your page builder plugins are missing some backward compatibility with the WP editor.

Classic Editor Plugin • Download Classic Editor Here

This is a SAVIOR!

And look now! Your ability to use the template page builder is back!

I hope this helps you out as much as it did me. Again, Classic Editor Plugin saved my client’s new WordPress template and I haven’t ran into any more page builder plugin errors or conflicts.

Configuring your WordPress site to send your web form submissions correctly is a must. Time and time again this small, yet vital, aspect of WordPress is overlooked. The potential to lose data with a misconfigured web contact form is undeniable. Lost data means lost leads means lost revenue.

The Gmail SMTP WordPress plugin will configure your wordpress installation to send email using Gmail’s OAuth 2.0 protocol to authorize access to the Gmail API and takes out the uncertainty of losing your vital communications and leads generating from your site’s web contact form.

The process is quick and fairly painless. With a few clicks you will be using Gmail’s SMTP servers to send emails routed through your site’s web contact form.

Gmail SMTP Basic Setup

• Go to the plugin settings (Settings->Gmail SMTP).
• Create a new web application using the link.
• Set the Authorized Redirect URL of the application as the one shown in the settings.
• Copy the Client ID and Client secret and paste into the settings area.
• Enter your OAuth Email, From Email and From name.
• Select an encryption.
• Enter a port number.
• Save the settings.
• Now you can authorize your application to access the Gmail API by clicking on the Grant Permission button.
• Once the application has been authorized Gmail SMTP plugin will be able to take control of all outgoing email.

Gmail SMTP
>>> Download the plugin here <<<

Installation of Gmail SMTP Plugin
>>> Documentation <<<

Google Console for API Key
>>> Link here <<<

I’ve installed Gmail SMTP WordPress plugin on all of my client’s sites and it’s been smooth sailing since. Gmail SMTP is secure, solid and easy to use. It’s received over 10,000 downloads from the WordPress plugin library.

Connect to Gmail SMTP server to automatically send email from your WordPress site. Configure wp_mail() to use SMTP with OAuth 2.0 authentication.

Last week I posted about grabbing Google UTM tags from a url string and using that to hide or show specific content based on a variable. After that task, I kept running into another issue with Google UTM tags… Grabbing them from an incoming link, grabbing those variables, and passing each of them along in the url to each page that the visitor navigates.

At first I was searching for a plugin or a WordPress function to rewrite the url’s with my url string but kept getting nowhere.

After several hours of research and a day later, I found a javascript/php hack that produced the results that I was ultimately looking for. Yes, it could be prettier but it WORKS!

Locate your template footer.php file in your theme folder and place the following code just before the closing tag to grab Google UTM tags and pass them to each page of your WordPress site.

Here’s 5 of the most common Google UTM tags that we grab from the session:

utm_source
utm_medium
utm_camgpaign
utm_terms
utm_content


<?php $utm_source = isset($_GET['utm_source']) ? $_GET['utm_source'] : ""; ?>
<?php $utm_medium = isset($_GET['utm_medium']) ? $_GET['utm_medium'] : ""; ?>
<?php $utm_campaign = isset($_GET['utm_campaign']) ? $_GET['utm_campaign'] : ""; ?>
<?php $utm_term = isset($_GET['utm_term']) ? $_GET['utm_term'] : ""; ?>
<?php $utm_content = isset($_GET['utm_content']) ? $_GET['utm_content'] : ""; ?>


<script type="text/javascript">
jQuery(document).ready(function ($) {
$(function() {
$("a").attr('href', function(i, h) {
return h + (h.indexOf('?') != -1 ? "&utm_source=<?php echo $utm_source; ?>&utm_medium=<?php echo $utm_medium; ?>&utm_campaign=<?php echo $utm_campaign; ?>&utm_term=<?php echo $utm_term; ?>&utm_content=<?php echo $utm_content; ?>" : "?utm_source=<?php echo $utm_source; ?>&utm_medium=<?php echo $utm_medium; ?>&utm_campaign=<?php echo $utm_campaign; ?>&utm_term=<?php echo $utm_term; ?>&utm_content=<?php echo $utm_content; ?>");
});
});
});
</script>

The first 5 snippets of php code are how you grab the Google UTM tag variables from the incoming link.

As you can see, we are grabbing the variables from the session that being passing in from the link. We’re grabbing the dynamic variable and echoing that variable in the javascript below it.

The javascript is where the magic happens on page redirect.

When a visitor clicks on any internal site link, the variables are picked up from the session and echoed behind the hardcoded variable tokens.

Sidenote: the code can be optimized, but this down and dirty method works

While using WordPress and running traffic to many WordPress sites, I discovered the need for variables to be passed from one page to the next as a visitor is navigating a WordPress site.

After doing some extensive research, I found a simple script that can be added to the theme functions.php file to carry dynamic variable from one page to the next as a visitor is on your site.

I’m my case, I wanted the “utm_source” variable “GA” be appended and carried at the end of my url. It would look something like this:

http://www.mywebsite.com/category/site/?utm_source=GA

What natively happens in WordPress , is that once a visitor clicks a link, the variable is dropped from the url and not carried/passed on to the next page. The following script, when placed in your theme functions.php file, will allow your WordPress theme template to keep that variable and pass it to the next page.

////////////////////////////////////////
///// pass vars page to page

function wprdcv_param_redirect(){
if( !is_admin() && !isset($_GET['CUSTOM ']) ){
$location = "http://".$_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'].$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'];
$location .= "?CUSTOM =PARAM1 ";
wp_redirect( $location );
}
}
add_action('template_redirect', 'wprdcv_param_redirect');

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Just replace CUSTOM and PARAM1 with the variables you’re using, in my case, CUSTOM = utm_source and PARAM1 = GA, in the above code and add it to your functions.php

Also, if you are needing to do this for more that one variable, simply duplicate the code and update the variables, but, be sure to create new function identifier as follows:

function wprdcv_param_redirectTWO(){
if( !is_admin() && !isset($_GET['CUSTOM2 ']) ){
$location = "http://".$_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'].$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'];
$location .= "?CUSTOM2 =PARAM2 ";
wp_redirect( $location );
}
}
add_action('template_redirect', 'wprdcv_param_redirectTWO');

Be sure to test everything out and if you run into any errors, roll back your edits until you get it the way you want it.

Good luck!

While coding websites for several different clients, I’ve repeatedly had the need to a smooth scroll anchor function. Through several hours of searches and digging, I found something, that was actually in a comment somewhere, that executed the scroll function perfectly. Just a few lines of code and viola! It’s very light weight and uses a bit of css and jquery.

Place the code below right before the closing head tag “</head>”

<!-- SMOOTH SCROLL PLACE IN HEAD -->
<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.10.2/jquery.min.js"></script>
<script>
$(function() {
$('a[href*=#]:not([href=#])').click(function() {
if (location.pathname.replace(/^\//,'') == this.pathname.replace(/^\//,'') && location.hostname == this.hostname) {
var target = $(this.hash);
target = target.length ? target : $('[name=' + this.hash.slice(1) +']');
if (target.length) {
$('html,body').animate({
scrollTop: target.offset().top
}, 1000);
return false;
}
}
});
});
</script>
<!-- End of SMOOTH SCROLL -->

And now with the following code, place it just after the opening <body> tag.

<body>
tag ==> <div name="top"> </div>
<p>somethings</p>
ANCHOR LINK ==>    <a href="#top"> Go to top </a>

Try it out for yourself and enjoy the results.

I’ve been doing quite a few WordPress sites for clients lately and I use a lot of premium templates from templateforest.net. These templates are great but you can run into php errors with them from time to time dependent on your server’s settings for php. Sooner or later you’re going to run into some kinds of php error and that brings your site to a screeching halt. The most recent error that I encountered was this:

1.Maximum Execution Time (max_execution_time) : 30

I ran into several solutions, or so I thought, to correct this error. Again, dependent on your server’s php settings and where you host your site, this can turn into a giant headache in a hurry. I’m going to give you two methods that work and the one method that worked for me. It saved me so much time and got my project back on track with the client.

Method 1: Editing the .htaccess file

Using your favorite FTP clinet (mine’s Filezilla), edit your .htaccess file that’s located in your site’s root folder, where all of your main WordPress files reside as well.

Right click on the file (in Filezilla) and choose View/Edit and edit the .htaccess file in your text editor of choice. I prefer Notepad++.

At the end of the .htaccess file, paste this snippet of code.

1.php_value max_execution_time 300

This code sets the value for maximum execution time to 30 seconds. Some WordPress templates may require 60 seconds or more, if so, simply change the value to 600 or more dependent on your template’s needs.

Method 2: Editing the wp-config.php file (method that worked for me)

Again, using Filezilla (FTP) to connect to your server, in the root folder of your site, edit the wp-config.php file.

Scroll to the bottom of the file and above the commented out code that reads:

1.“/* That’s all, stop editing! Happy blogging. */”

Paste this snippet of code:

1.set_time_limit(60);

I hope that one of the above methods works for you, the wp-config.php file edit method is what worked for me. Happy coding.