Buyer Help Resource Thread

@ authors – post your tutorial here and we can create a nice list of help resources to address some of the common tech support questions we get.

Everything worked before I uploaded, but it doesn’t work on my website?

Chances are there are some files missing online. Here’s a video that shows how to troubleshoot this.

https://vimeo.com/48578271

Uploading zip file fails when trying to install WP plugin

Get this quite a bit. Step 1) read installation instructions. If that doesn’t work: Step 2) please unzip the CodeCanyon file to your desktop. Inside this zip file will be the WordPress plugin (along with other files, such as help docs and source graphics). Install this inner file as the plugin, not the entire download file.

Q: My WordPress plugin doesn’t work and I can’t figure out why?

A: Your theme may be using an outdated version of jQuery!

First check the html source of one your pages to see if the jQuery version being loaded is outdated:

If so, your theme is forcing WordPress to use an outdated version of jQuery. This usually takes place in the theme’s “functions.php” file. In this example, I’ve opened “functions.php” in the WordPress Theme Editor and have commented out the two offending lines:

And that’s it. Your theme should now use the default jQuery version that comes packed with WordPress.

Things to consider

• If your WordPress version needs to be updated, update it!
• You may have a plugin installed that also forces WordPress to load an outdated version of jQuery. If the above fix still doesn’t work, try disabling your plugins one by one to help identify the offending plugin.
• Your theme may not be compatible with the latest version of jQuery! If this is the case you have two options:
  1. Not use the plugin that requires a more recent version of jQuery.
  2. Install a new WordPress theme.

Q: The jQuery plugin I bought just doesn’t work!

A: Your web page might be loading two versions of jQuery!

To determine if this is the case, open the html source of your web page, do a keyword search for the word “jquery”, and cycle through all of the cases where the word “jquery” appears inside the code.

Scripts that look like this are “plugins”, and are not what we’re looking for.

<script src="js/jquery.someplugin.js"></script>

Scripts that look like this represent the core jQuery library, and are exactly what we’re looking for.

<script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.9.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.9.1.min.js"></script>
<script src="js/jquery-1.9.1.min.js"></script>

Each of the examples directly above represents an instance of the jQuery library. And in the above example, only one of the scripts should be used while the other two should be deleted.

But if you happen to find multiple instances of jQuery, how do you know which one to keep and which one’s to delete?

Usually it’s best to just use the latest jQuery version. For example, if the following two scripts are found on your page, the “1.9.1” version is the better choice.

<script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.7.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.9.1.min.js"></script>

However, your website or plugin may not be compatible with this particular version of jQuery. When this happens, you’re left with the following choices:

1. Choose not to use the plugin
2. If the plugin is using an outdated version of jQuery, ask the plugin author if they can update the plugin
3. If your website is only compatible with an outdated version of jQuery and you built the site yourself, update your code. Otherwise, if the site is a template that you’ve purchased, ask the author of the template to update it.

One last thing to keep in mind when working with jQuery plugins:

jQuery plugins “hook” into the core jQuery library, and because of this, the jQuery library always needs to be loaded before the jQuery plugin. Loading the jQuery library and jQuery plugin scripts in the wrong order will render the plugin dysfunctional.