[Plugin: Sociable] Save changes gives server error

I finally have some time to debug this issue and now I’m having trouble replicating it. My VM environment just won’t throw the error. The environment that I originally had the error is off limits to me at the moment, and I don’t know the exact configuration it is working with.

So… since I’m working blind here, I’ll focus on changing that post data to IDs and pipes, correct other calls to make use of this new data structure, and hope it works. I’ll post the diff patch once I’m done, but I can’t be sure it will actually fix it until I can replicate the bug and try it out in that environment – which would happen Monday when I can access the bugged server again.

I’ve got a first patch completed and available. Apply this diff to 3.4.3 to take the changes.

https://www.visual77.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/sociable-patch-001

This *will* fix the errors, but does have some drawbacks. I rearranged the $sociable_known_sites array to use numeric IDs instead of string IDs. I then rearranged the settings form and how it determined active and disabled sites. I’ve tested with adding, deleting and rearranging sites, along with restoring the settings and viewing it on the posts, it works in all scenarios.

The drawbacks are mostly dealing with legacy support and continued support. Applying this patch would require redoing the active sites, as the current setting uses strings and this patch does not, but I have a plan to correct that issue. Continued support is fully possible, but future engines have to be added to the end of the array, which would break the alphabetical order. This array would be much better suited to a table in the database, however.

I found myself having to do some interesting stuff to get it working, especially with that array_merge($active, $disabled) when displaying all the sites. Since array merge scrubs numeric keys, and this patch relies on numeric keys, I had to use a combination of array_combine, array_keys and array_merge to maintain the array as needed and keep functionality intact.

However, as I said in my last post – I’m working blind, so take this fix with a grain of salt. If I can get my VM to replicate the issue before Monday, I’ll do a proper test, otherwise, I will let you know on Monday if this fixes the error in a server that has the error.

Silly me – that whole array_combine trick was unnecessary. I went back and looked at it again, and simply using + to do an array union has the same effect. I just updated the diff to use this more efficient set up.

pretty ok diff, you missed a couple of things though, which make it impossible for me to use this:

1. the function sociable_html itself is used by many to include sociable into their themes, and they can use site names now, switching that to numbers is very un user friendly.
2. said function won’t work when people update, as well as their site settings will have to be updated.
3. there’s an API on how to add sites, that has been used by at least 5 other plugins to add sites from their local country

So, switching to the type of array you’re proposing is not an option… We’ll have to find another way around this.

Thanks for the feedback. I looked into fixing issues #1 and #2 and decided that I was just adding bandaids that would come back later to suck.

You were right on saying this change is not ideal. While I could get it to work and play nice with legacy and continued support, it would get awkward.

I have an idea that adjusts only that hidden input. It would still use numeric IDs instead of string keys, but only that one spot – the array would go unchanged, the database save string would go unchanged, the sociable_html() function would remain, etc.

I hope to get that diff up tonight, but I can’t guarantee it. Tomorrow night, though, if I am unable to finish it tonight.

Are the changes that you worked on in the update that was released today? I sure hope so.

Thanks for the fix – removing Ping.fm from the plugin worked wonderfully.

thanks visual77 had the same problem and found this post very usefull

Although I hate to change a plugin, I just came across the same error and removing Ping.fm worked for me. Thank you visual77