Work with Varnish & ESI?

Hi Paul,

Based off that article, it appears that you’ll have to modify your theme code to get it ready even before this plugin comes into play.

What exactly is it that you’re trying to achieve?

Thanks,
Paul.

Hey Paul,

Nice name ??

Thanks for the rapid response, so good to find a developer that is actively supporting their plugin!!

Lets see how well I can explain this.

So, basically, I’m using Varnish to cache my site. I’m currently using ESI (Edge Side Includes – https://www.varnish-cache.org/trac/wiki/ESIfeatures) to fetch a plugin script(AdRotate via a sidebar widget) from my database on each site load (thus avoiding a cached request).

All of the above is working correctly, no problems.

Now, what I am aiming to do is to load different parameters from the plugin depending on the origin of the visitor who is visiting the site. IE, display US adverts for US visitors and UK adverts to UK/Europe based visitors…

This is where your script comes into play.

The problem I am facing is trying to call your shortcodes from an independent file, ie. outside of WordPress (in the dedicated ESI php file).

Currently the code I have can be found here: https://pastebin.com/16JSXfU3

Your shortcodes to not seem to be getting parsed correctly, as such the different ads are not loading correctly (I’ve put a ‘hello world!’ in there for experimentation’s sake…).

Can you recommend a solution? PHP is not my strong-point at times (this being one of them!).

I would appreciate any help you can offer.

Happy to buy you a drink or two for a solution…

Thanks again for any help you can offer,

Regards,
Paul

—
Update:

Also tried the following code, still not happening….

<?php

// This section is experimental and not working (also the 'do_shorcode...' sections below)

include ("../../../wp-load.php");
include ("../../../wp-includes/shortcodes.php");
include ("../../themes/sahifa/custom-functions.php");

// end of section

$cwd = getcwd();
$path = substr($cwd, 0, strpos($cwd, 'wp-content/'));
require $path . 'wp-blog-header.php';
global $adrotate_config;

do_shortcode( '[CBC country="us" show="y"]<?php echo adrotate_group('1'); ?>[/CBC]' );
do_shortcode( '[CBC country="us" show="y"]<?php echo "Hello World!"; ?>[/CBC]' );

?>

Hey Paul,

I’m not sure exactly what’s happening here with Varnish etc., but I can tell you one thing that is wrong with the code immediately, and it’s the use of do_shortcode().

You must do this:

$sShortcodeText = '[CBC country="us" show="y"]' . adrotate_group('1') . '[/CBC]';
do_shortcode( $sShortcodeText );

You need to do the shortcode with the complete string… you cannot break it up into parts.

Does that make sense? Try changing it like I’ve outlined and see how it plays out.

And no problem about supporting the plugin – it’s just what we do with all our services! ??

Let me know how you get on.
Cheers,
Paul.

Hi Paul,

Thanks for getting back to me so soon.

I posted the same problem up on StackOverflow also to seek additional help as my PHP knowledge is limited.

A solution has been found by one of the members here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/14316019/how-to-call-wordpress-snippets-in-external-independent-php-file-outside-of-word

But I’m not sure how to combine your answer and his answer to get the completed contents of the file…

Would you mind taking a quick look and see if it’s an easy amalgamation?

Again, thank you so much for your help!

Paul

Sure..

Take the last 6 lines of your code (everything to do with do_shortcode), delete them, and replace them with these 2 lines:

do_shortcode( '[CBC country="us" show="y"]' . adrotate_group('1') . '[/CBC]' );
do_shortcode( '[CBC country="us" show="n"]' . "Hello World!" . '[/CBC]' );

What results to you get then?

Hi Paul,

Still not working.

I currently have this in my external file:

<?php

define( 'WP_USE_THEMES', false );   

include ("../../../wp-load.php");
include ("../../../wp-includes/shortcodes.php");            

$cwd = getcwd();
$path = substr($cwd, 0, strpos($cwd, 'wp-content/'));
require $path . 'wp-blog-header.php';
global $adrotate_config;

do_shortcode( '[CBC country="us" show="y"]' . adrotate_group('1') . '[/CBC]' );
do_shortcode( '[CBC country="us" show="n"]' . "Hello World!" . '[/CBC]' );

?>

and this in my functions.php:

function shortcode_function() {
     echo 'shortcode';
}
add_shortcode('displayshortcode', 'shortcode_function');

If I remove the shortcode code then the script works but obviously without the geo-identification. So must still be a problem with the shortcodes?

I’ve got a feeling the code within the functions.php is not correct (was taken as-is from the suggestion made on stackoverflow, link above)?

Feel like we’re almost there…? Wish I was better at PHP!

Regards,
Paul

You don’t need the code that you’ve written there in your functions.php.
They were just giving you an example of how to create a shortcode.

Forgetting the adrotate_group(‘1’) part, what about hello world?

What exactly is displayed on the sidebar then? Do you get any output from:
do_shortcode( '[CBC country="us" show="n"]' . "Hello World!" . '[/CBC]' );

Hello Paul,

The “hello world” doesn’t work just on it’s own using the above code, or even if I put “echo do_shortcode….”

Nothing is displayed in the sidebar.

Yet if I put ‘echo’ before the lines:

echo do_shortcode( ‘[CBC country=”us” show=”y”]’ . adrotate_group(‘1’) . ‘[/CBC]’ );
echo do_shortcode( ‘[CBC country=”us” show=”n”]’ . “Hello World!” . ‘[/CBC]’ );

Then the adrotate script shows, but with normal text surrounding it (it appears the “hello world!” doesn’t work either way… I’ve left the above changes live on my site and can be seen visible at: https://www.livefreedietravelling.com in the right hand sidebar under “My Gear Reviews” widget.

So it seems like the shortcodes are still not being parsed…?

Again, appreciate all of the help you’re giving, would be great to get this working!

I’m happy to give you login details if that would help?

Regards,
Paul

Okay, I think you need to include the plugin file then:

include (“../../../wp-content/plugins/custom-content-by-country/content-by-country.php”);

I’ve used “../../..” just because you’re already including files at the beginning using that, and I’m not sure if on your server this is the correct path to file. Make sure the full path is correct, and I’m hoping that should be it.

Hi Paul,

Great news… got it working!! ??

Thank you so much for your continued support, really has helped me out ALOT!

In case you are wondering what the working code looks like, see below (may also help others?).

I would like to buy you a beer or two to say thanks for the time invested into helping me, what’s the best way to do that??

Thanks again,

Paul

—

<?php

define( 'WP_USE_THEMES', false );   

include ("https://www.livefreedietravelling.com/wp-load.php");

$cwd = getcwd();
$path = substr($cwd, 0, strpos($cwd, 'wp-content/'));
require $path . 'wp-blog-header.php';
global $adrotate_config;

echo do_shortcode( '[CBC country="GB,GR,FR,DE,ES,IT,NL,CH,BE,SE,CA" show="n"]' . adrotate_group('1') . '[/CBC]' );
echo do_shortcode( '[CBC country="GB,GR,FR,DE,ES,IT,NL,CH,BE,SE" show="y"]' . adrotate_group('2') . '[/CBC]' );
echo do_shortcode( '[CBC country="CA" show="y"]' . adrotate_group('3') . '[/CBC]' );

?>

Hey Paul,

I’m just delighted we got there in the end! ??

Don’t worry, ya don’t need to buy me anything… it’s a pleasure to create the software and get people working with it.

Your support for our plugins by giving them a 5* rating on www.remarpro.com, and/or heading over to WorpDrive.com and checking out our service, and even using it if you think it suits your backups needs, is the best way to support us.

Spreading the word about us, using our services (they’re cheap!) and providing testimonials is all the support we need ??

Thanks Paul!