Limits to TablePress?

Hi,

you seem to have a very cooperative webhost! Their investigations are really nice and helpful! I haven’t seen a webhost who even investigates the source code of a plugin that seems to cause such plugins before, so that’s very cool. Please send them a thank you from me! ??

Now, unfortunately I can’t give estimates on whether, or how, I can use this information to make the plugin better usable with many tables. I have some ideas, but I need some time to think about, to implement, and to test them. It definitely looks promising though.
So, unfortunately, until I have a solution to this that I can add to the plugin, I’m out of ideas on how I could help you right now ?? Sorry.

Regards,
Tobias

Yes, they are great!

I know you mentioned that you can’t give a time estimate, and while I appreciate the candor, I will explain to you my situation. I can wait till sometime midday tomorrow, but after that, if there is no solution that is workable, I have to look at options. A couple that you can shed light on, perhaps.

Can I use both WPTable-Reloaded and TablePress on the same installation, or will they conflict. My idea is since I am exceeding the memory limits for one plugin, to distribute the tables between two, TablePress and WP-Tables Reloaded.

If that’s possible (i.e., there is no fatal flaw there in your estimate, i.e., a conflict or that the memory would still be a problem), are you able to recommend perhaps another Tables plugin that I can use, while you fix the issue, so that I can get my site deployed.

Thanks for all your prompt responses, Tobias, and the great plugin. I think I may just be pushing the limits here with the memory needed, compared to the average user – hopefully the problems I am experiencing help you ID issues early enough to make an even better plugin.

Ganaxi

Hi,

I can understand your situation, but have to take the defensive route here: I won’t be able to have a solution in place by midday tomorrow, and maybe not even until after the weekend. Sorry.
Exploring other options is the best idea for now, for your situation.

Using WP-Table Reloaded and TablePress together is possible, but needs some extra work. The first reason is that both plugins use the same WordPress Shortcode [table]. This can easily be circumvented, if you change the WP-Table Reloaded Shortcode with the help of the instructions at https://tobias.baethge.com/2010/01/extension-3-changing-the-table-shortcode/ You could change it to [wptrtable] for example.
The second reason is the CSS styling, which is slightly different in both plugins. Here, I recommend to deactivate the Default and Custom CSS in WP-Table Reloaded entirely, and to use the TablePress CSS for the tables from both plugins. This will also guarantee a uniform styling of your tables. To achieve that, just paste the lines

add_filter( 'wp_table_reloaded_table_css_class', 'wptr_add_tablepress_classes', 10, 2 );
function wptr_add_tablepress_classes( $classes, $table_id ) {
  $classes[] = 'tablepress';
  $classes[] = 'tablepress-id-' . $table_id;
  return $classes;
}

to your functions.php (or actually to the Extension that changes the Shortcode, to keep everything together).
After that, all tables will have the TablePress styling.

Note that this is not really a long-term solution. as WP-Table Reloaded will be discontinued soo. Unless I’m able to find a solution to the actual issue in TablePress, you might need to look into a custom PHP/mySQL database solution. Unfortunately, I also don’t know other table plugins that could handle your amount of tables (which is indeed more than the average user has).

Regards,
Tobias

Hi Tobias,

I will give that a shot. Thanks.

For what its worth, the host had another suggestion to pass on to you, as follows:
“One other thing to pass on to the developer would be to not store the data in the wp_options table.”

Thanks,

Ganaxi

Hi,

thanks for that note as well!
I’m not really sure why they come to that conclusion though. TablePress only stores a small list with the table IDs, and their post IDs in the wp_options table. This really is not a lot of data, and actually much less than for example WP-Table Reloaded stores there… (Basically, this was one of the reason why I decided to completely rewrite the plugin.)

Regards,
Tobias

Hi, Tobias:

I am not a techie, but from what I understand in laymen terms, what they told me is that I am having the memory problem of exceeding 0.25 GB – because the plugin on the back-end loads up the entire data-set for all the tables – as opposed to the just the table you are uploading, or just the names of the tables when you ask to list the Tables. That makes sense to me, because on their own, each of my Tables are very small, on the order of 3kb to 300kb — with most near the lower end of that range. But right now, when I try to upload any – it refuses to do so, indicating that I am exceeding that 0.25 GB in the error log.

The host is WP-Engine, and you are welcome to contact them, if you need more details. The person is Topher that I had communicated this with. https://www.wpengine.com

Generally, they are open to and welcome communications with plugin developers, to make them function better in their environment. If you would like to contact them, and need further info, you can reach out to me via this message or the personal e-mail you have from our earlier communication.

Thanks,

Manish

Hi,

yes, I can understand the point about not loading all the tables in one batch. That makes sense, and I’ll investigate ideas to change this.
I was just confused, because the suggestion with the “wp_options” doesn’t really fit into that description.

And thanks for their contact details! If I need more information, I’ll ask them directly! Thanks!

Best wishes,
Tobias

Hi Tobias!!

Your plugin (TablePress) provides much-requested functionality in the WordPress ecosystem.

The comment above (regarding not storing plugin data in wp_options) is more for a convenience for your users; it would allow much easier selective backup (and insertion) of new display tables.

Contact me off-thread if you’d like more information about our platform. [email protected].

Hi,

ah, ok. Thanks for that feedback!
The data in wp_options is really only a list, that maps table IDs to post IDs. It’s not that important for the export/backup. The easiest way for that is to use the TablePress Bulk Export feature, with JSON as the format, as that will also include all table options and not just the data.

Best wishes,
Tobias

Hi,

I implemented the solution as you recommended. Thanks. So, I now have both TablePress and WP-Tables running, and I have been able to upload my Tables.

Everything is working on the front-end, but when I just now went into TablePress from the back-end, it is giving a server error, as follows:

“””HTTP Error 500 (Internal Server Error): An unexpected condition was encountered while the server was attempting to fulfill the request.”””

Going into the server log, it is giving the same memory error as before, so that I can’t access from the back-end, as follows:
[Thu Dec 13 07:38:07 2012] [error] [client xx.yy.zz.aaa] PHP Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 268435456 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 32768 bytes) in /nas/wp/www/cluster-1346/xyz/wp-content/plugins/tablepress/models/model-table.php on line 161

I need to edit a couple of the Tables in TablePress. How can I override the error so that I can edit the tables on the back-end.

Thanks,

Ganaxi

Hi,

this is not a really an error due to a bug in the code, and it can not just be “overridden”. It is an error due to limited ressources (in this case the memory that PHP is allowed to use). So, to fix this, you’ll need to increase the available memory limit (which probably is not possible), or reduce the amount of memory that is actually used. The easiest way for that is to deactivate a few “big” other plugins while editing tables in TablePress. It might even be enough to temporarily deactivate WP-Table Reloaded, and the re-activate it after your done editing tables in TablePress. I know, this is an ugly solution, but it is the only thing that will work, until I can implement a long-term solution that does not load all tables at once.

Regards,
Tobias

Hi again,

wait, there might be another way: The main problem is the “All Tables” list, from what I can see. So, you can try to navigate around that, by using the “Edit” link below the table (on the frontend). That will take you directly to the table’s “Edit” screen, and it bypasses the problematic “All tables” list.

Regards,
Tobias

Thanks,

That works great!

Hi,

very nice! ?? Thanks for the confirmation!

Best wishes,
Tobias

Hi Tobias,

I did exactly what you mentioned to get WP-Tables and TablePress working on the same WP installation, and it solved the memory problem, as I mentioned earlier – and the Tables look fine. FYI- I also added the extension for the CSS that you mentioned above to achieve uniform styling of my tables.

However, I just noticed that as in the example page below, where the table was created using WP-Table Reloaded,
https://www.gurufundpicks.com/13f-3q2-alf
I am not able to go to the next page of table entries. i.e., the table displays the first 10 rows, but then the arrows to go to the next page are missing, so I cannot access all of the table entries.

Please help.

Thanks,

Ganaxi