Broken Link Checker installation failed

Hello @longnguyen58 !

I’m sorry to hear you’ve experienced this issue!

From the log you’ve shared it looks like the installation was not successful but the log itself doesn’t contain any mention of errors. What I noticed is that the dates on the log are a bit odd – few months old.

Would you be able to take a backup of the site (just in case, but it’s a good idea in any circumstance) and delete the tables from the database that start with wp_blc_ and try installing the plugin again?

Please also try with a different PHP version than currently in use and let us know if that helped.

Best regards,
Pawel

Hi WPMU Dev team,

We tried to delete the tables with ‘wp_blc_’ in prefix and then reinstall the new version of plugin but it doesn’t help.
We updated the PHP to 8.0, but the error still occur.

Is there anything else you may consider it can help to resolve the issue? Or is there anything else we can do from our side to investigate the root cause of the issue?

Thanks,
Long

Hi @longnguyen58,

Could we know what version of WordPress you are running? Also, the issue is only when activating the plugin or did you notice this after upgrading the plugin version?

Could we know whether you could replicate the same issue if you temporarily deactivate all the plugins on your system and only keep the default WP theme activate?

Could you also please enable debug mode while performing the above and see whether there are any further errors picked in the logs?

To enable debug mode, open your wp-config.php file located in your root directory, and look for define(‘WP_DEBUG’, false);. Change it to:

define('WP_DEBUG', true);

In order to enable the error logging to a file on the server you need to add:

define( 'WP_DEBUG_LOG', true );
define( 'WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', false );
@ini_set( 'display_errors', 0 );
define( 'SCRIPT_DEBUG', true );

After making the above changes, please try to replicate the issue. The related errors will be saved to a debug.log log file inside the /wp-content/ directory.

Please attach the logs in your next reply. You can use Google Drive, Dropbox or any such cloud services to share the log file.

You can find more details about debugging here:

Debugging in WordPress

Please let us know how that goes, have a nice day.

Kind Regards,
Nithin`

Hello,

We tried to deactivate other plugins, just the Broken Link left but the error still happen. The issue happened with the old version, then we updated it to the latest version but it doesn’t help.
We can’t enable the log like your suggestion because we’re using VIP to host our website. Is there anything else we can do? This is a bit rush for us now, when the issue is there for a long time.

Best,
Long

Just for your info, the issue doesn’t happen when we run the website locally. We tried to enable all plugins to make it the same with the dev/stag/prod environment but it still doesn’t happen.
The issue now is happening in dev/stage/prod environment, which is hosted by VIP.

Best,
Long

Hello @longnguyen58 !

Are there any differences in PHP versions between the environments?

Also, have you contacted the hosting support? They may be able to provide some additional details specific to the hosting environment, maybe there’s something they have there that’s preventing our plugin from working?

Warm regards,
Pawel

Hi support team,

There is no difference about the PHP version. We’re also using PHP 7.4 in localhost. The only difference is about the wordpress version. It’s 6.0.0 in localhost, but 6.0.1 in dev environment.
Is there anyway it’s causing the issue?

Best,
Long

Hi @longnguyen58

Thank you for response!

You mentioned VIP hosting earlier. Do you mean VIP as in wpvip by Automattic?

If yes, this very likely is the reason. They have some very strict rules and restrictions there (kind of over the “standards”) and the plugin uses certain functions/code patterns that may be prohibited there or at least fail. At least some of the warnings mentioned here

https://docs.wpvip.com/technical-references/code-review/vip-warnings/

unfortunately apply to current iteration of Broken Link Checker, I’m afraid, and this can cause a number of various issues.

The platform is quite specific and we can’t provide a “patch” to address this but there’s a new version of Broken Link Checker “on the table”. It will be completely re-factored, actually re-written from scratch to meet modern requirements and increased security standards and also to move most of the “processing” to the “host-independent” cloud.

I don’t have an ETA but I’m pretty sure it should solve most of such host-related issues once it’s released.

Meanwhile, if I correctly understood where you host the site, I’m afraid there’s not much more we can do here. If it’s a different (more “standard”) host that just happens to go by “VIP” name, let me know please and we’ll take another look into this.

Kind regards,
Adam

Hello,

Sadly, you’re correct about where we’re hosting the website. It’s wpvip.
Just would like to confirm that there is nothing else we can do, even a temporary workaround solution to by pass the error? And then we’re good to wait the new version release?

Thanks,
Long

Hi @longnguyen58

It will require custom coding in this case and it will be too complex to cover this request. We suggest in this case to wait for the new version.

Kind Regards,
Kris

Hello @wpmudevsupport13 ,
How far are you going with the new version?

Best,
Long

Hi @longnguyen58,

I hope you are doing well today!

There is no ETA at the moment but our team is continuously working on the revamped version which will include all of the possible bug fixes and improvements.

Kind regards,
Zafer