Error warnings upon modifying the MLA settings

Namaste, Tenzin,

I am very sorry you are having trouble with yout WordPress site and with the Media Library Assistant (MLA). The symptoms you describe may be serious, but if you can give me more information I can try to help.

MLA uses WordPress functions and services for its database access. The “Internal Server Error” seems to be a problem between WordPress and the database server, not specific to MLA. Do you remember what settings changes you made before the error happened? Do you know what actions, if any, your hosting company or site administrator took to recover from the error?

You write that the “Warning: Missing argument…” message appears “in the dashboard”. Does this message always appear, or only when you try to edit a post, page or media item (attachment)? The call to “mla_add_meta_boxes_action()” should only be made when WordPress is preparing to display the “Edit” screen. If the message appears at some other time there might be a problem with your WordPress installation.

As the name implies, mla_add_meta_boxes_action() is called in response to a WordPress “do_action” function call. The do_action call appears in three places in the WordPress code, and all three places supply two arguments; I don’t see how there could be a “Missing argument 2” in any of these calls.

Is there “Call Stack” information below the warning message? If so, could you post it to this topic? It would give me additional information about where the error is coming from.

Finally, I would like to verify the version of WordPress you are running. You can find the version number in the bottom-right corner of the Dashboard screen. The version displayed on this support topic is 3.4.2; is that right? If so, that is an additional puzzle because the mla_add_meta_boxes_action() function is only activated when the WordPress version is 3.5 or higher.

You might also try deactivating the MLA plugin for a while and seeing if there are any other problems with your site, especially when you edit posts, pages and media items.

I wish I could give you an immediate solution, but the symptoms do not lead me to a specific MLA problem, yet. I hope you can give me more information that will identify something I can fix. Thank you for your help and your patience.

David

Tashi Delek David,

Thankyou very much for your kind intention. Very much appreciate it.

MLA uses WordPress functions and services for its database access. The “Internal Server Error” seems to be a problem between WordPress and the database server, not specific to MLA. Do you remember what settings changes you made before the error happened?

It might be bulk edit a set of 4 or 5 photos, or anything between changing the MLA settings (for categories) or quick editing media in the Assistant, edit post categories/tag list, or edit categories in event calendar (time.ly all-in-one calendar).

Do you know what actions, if any, your hosting company or site administrator took to recover from the error?

I did not contact anyone at that time. No action was taken, it just recovered by itself, I guess.

You write that the “Warning: Missing argument…” message appears “in the dashboard”. Does this message always appear, or only when you try to edit a post, page or media item (attachment)?

I have open the website again to check. No it doesn’t always appear, I have to look for it and it’s only appear when I open the Calendar/Settings. So yeah, it has something to do between the calendar plugin and MLA.

Is there “Call Stack” information below the warning message? If so, could you post it to this topic? It would give me additional information about where the error is coming from.

I cut and paste the whole warning message that appears on top of the dashboard button. Nothing else, no “Call Stack” information.

Finally, I would like to verify the version of WordPress you are running.

It says: You are using WordPress 3.5.

Also, our website is on a development site. In case you need to have a look, the URL is https://intro.baromkagyu.info/

Since the warning says Missing argument 2 for MLAEdit: I assume it was something to do with MLA. Could you please help to look from the MLA perspective to see if there is anything that can be done here.

Thankyou for making MLA available with attentive support for non-expert like me.

tenzinchodon

Hi David,

I have just test deactivate/re-activate MLA.
The warning message in Calendar/Settings was gone with MLA deactivated, and reappeared when re-activated.

tenzinchodon

Tenzin,

I have good news and bad news. The good news is that when I downloaded and installed the “All-in-One Event Calendar Plugin” version 1.9 from the WordPress Plugin Directory I was able to immediately reproduce the Warning message you reported.

The bad news is that the “All-in-One Event Calendar Plugin” v1.9 is NOT compatible with WordPress version 3.5 (the Readme.txt file says “Tested up to 3.4.1”). Specifically, in your case, the calendar plugin has defined its own “add_meta_boxes” function which has replaced the WordPress function of the same name. That is where the call to MLA comes from and the calendar plugin’s function does not pass two arguments – hence the Warning.

In the WordPress 3.5.1 “Compatibility” section of the calendar plugin’s Plugin Directory page “31 people say it’s broken”. The plugin itself says that version 1.9 is no longer supported and urges an upgrade to the more recent “free Standard version”, v1.9.5.

I am sorry to say there is nothing I can do in MLA to resolve this issue. You will have to pursue it with the publisher of the calendar plugin. I tried upgrading to the “free Standard version” (1.9.5) at the Timely web site. This version did not display the Warning message on my system, but I looked at the source code and some “add_meta_boxes” logic is still present. I do not trust this version, either.

I will post a public question at the Timely customer support site bringing this issue to their attention. I will post an update here if I get a response.

You should make sure you are using the latest “free Standard version”, 1.9.5, of the calendar plugin. Even if you are, be careful until there is an update that fixes the issue you’ve found.

Good luck with this and with your site. Thanks for your interest in MLA. I am going to mark this issue Resolved because the problem seems to be in the calendar plugin, not in MLA.

David

Thank you David, especially for follow up this issue with Time.ly.

I run the calendar on the free standard version, v1.9.5
The warning came with this version.

Please do follow up if we have responds from Timely.

Thankyou for you help,
tenzinchodon

I am awaiting a response from the calendar plugin’s authors on their plans to fix this problem:

Plugin do_action( ‘add_meta_boxes’ … calls not compatible with WordPress version

You can add a comment to that report relating your issue and asking them to address it.

Thank you David,

I have already post a comment @ Timely.
I understand it’s a free plugin and they clearly stated that support for free plugin is limited. But this issue is related to a fault from the plugin itself, not from the user’s side, so hopefully the issue will be addressed soon.

Thankyou for your fantastic support,

tenzinchodon

Today I received this response from the “Public Question” I submitted in the Timely support forum:

APR 05, 2013 | 05:02PM PDT
Bailly replied:
Hello,
As the popularity of The All-in-One Event Calendar has increased, so have our support requests. We truly appreciate your patience and understanding as we grow to better handle the volume increase.
We are expanding our support team and creating a quality forum where our community of calendar users can actively participate in resolving issues.
Since we are currently unable to respond to your case, we highly recommend you take a look at our articles and documentation on help.time.ly for possible solutions.
If you’re not sure what’s causing your issue, start by following these steps to troubleshoot:
1. Confirm that you are using the latest version (1.9.5 Standard or 1.9.6 Pro) of the Ai1EC.
2. Check to see if you are experiencing a theme or plugin conflict: https://help.time.ly/customer/portal/articles/782129-do-i-have-a-theme-or-plugin-conflict-
Thank you for your support as we grow and improve our services.
All the best,
The Timely Team

I don’t know if this is their final response to my question. I have also submitted my question by e-mail to their support team, but have had no response, yet.

I can tell you that the warning messages only appear in admin mode; they should not affect the end-user view of your site. The messages are also harmless, and I don’t believe they interfere with the admin screens on the site, either. The Timely calendar plugin and the MLA plugin will probably operate without any other problems or symptoms.

If you find evidence to the contrary, let me know. Thanks again for your patience and your interest in the Media Library Assistant.

Thank you David. We can see if there will be any incidents other than this warning.
Best Regards,
tenzinchodon

I have released version 1.40, which contains a modification to the “add_meta_boxes” handling that avoids the warning messages.

Please let me know if you have any further trouble with this issue. Thanks for your patience.