Reviews have disappeared

Hello, Adam.

Thanks for using GoodReviews. Although I have neglected to update the version compatibility information in the repository, the plugin does actually work with WordPress 3.8.1. I copied and pasted your shortcode into my WP 3.8.1 test environment and immediately received a list of 14 reviews.

Are you receiving any particular error messages when you try to load the reviews? That might help narrow down the problem.

Thanks again and let me know if I can be of further assistance.

James

Thanks for the quick response, James. I love the GoodReviews plugin!

I don’t receive an error message or a warning at all. When I deactivate the plugin, the shortcode appears on the site, but with the plugin activated, nothing appears at all. Could the problem be with my theme (it’s the same theme I used since first installing GoodReviews, and it worked in the past)?

Hi, Adam.

If GoodReviews was previously working with your theme, it most likely isn’t a theme issue. Looking at the source code for the NIGHT MOVES page, I can see that the plugin is loading because the GoodReviews stylesheet is being loaded. However, the GoodReviews iframe does not appear to be loading.

There are a couple of things you should check on the GoodReviews Settings page:

1. Make sure the first checkbox (the one that indicates that you agree to display Goodreads links on your site) is selected; if it’s not selected, the plugin will not display information.
2. Make sure you have the correct Goodreads API Developer Key in the appropriate field.

Let me know if the above solves the issue or if I can be of any further assistance.

Thanks.

James

Hi James,

The box is checked and the API Key was correct. I reset the key and saved the new one in. Still no dice.

Thanks,
Adam

Hi, Adam.

Further perusal of the source code on the NIGHT MOVES page shows the following HTML comment being generated by GoodReviews:

!– GoodReviews did not find any available reviews. —

If the Goodreads API were returning an error, GoodReviews would display the error message in your source code. The generic message we’re seeing above typically only happens if there is no result from the API at all.

Because I was able to produce results on my test site by using the shortcode you provided, I wonder if something on your host is blocking calls to the API or responses from the API. I note that you said cURL is being reported as active and enabled on the host, which is good. However, that does not necessarily guarantee that traffic from cURL isn’t being blocked by something else. If you have a development site or a WP site on another host with which you can test the shortcode, it might help narrow down the issue some more.

Thanks, and let me know what happens.

James

Hi James,

I see what you mean. I tested it on another site hosted under the same account (a GoDaddy server) and encountered the same issue. I tested it on a WP site hosted by Bluehost and it works, no problem.

I guess I’ll call GoDaddy. If you have any ideas what could be at issue, I’d love to pass it on — or if anyone else using GoDaddy has encountered this before.

Thanks for everything.
Adam

Hi, Adam.

No problem. I’ll be interested to hear what you come back with. I’d also be interested to know whether other GoDaddy accounts are experiencing this issue.

The ONLY other possible cause I can think of would be if Goodreads throttled or blocked requests from your GoDaddy IP address for some reason, but I doubt that’s what’s happened.

Thanks and let me know what happens. I’m going to go ahead and mark this issue as “resolved” because we know that it’s a host issue and not a plugin issue.

Hope you’re able to get it resolved soon.

James

James,

GoDaddy said it’s possible that the plugin isn’t compatible with the host, and that I would need to know more about the plugin configuration to be able to troubleshoot this (like what the php requirements are, just as an example). Is there any place where I can find this info specific to GoodReviews, or some language which I can use when I call GoDaddy again in hopes for a more helpful rep? Is GoodReviews compatible with an IIS7 server?

Thanks,
Adam

Hi, Adam.

The plugin was written using PHP 5 and the WordPress plugin development API. Therefore, it’s unlikely that the plugin is incompatible with a host that is already successfully running PHP 5 and WordPress unless the host has no means of retrieving information by using cURL or file_get_contents.

The presence of the GoodReviews stylesheet link and the GoodReviews HTML comment error in your HTML source indicates that the plugin is actually running on your site but is unable to retrieve information from Goodreads. Additionally, you indicated that the plugin was originally working on your host. Therefore, the most likely cause is that something particular to your host configuration has changed: either cURL is not working properly on the host, GoDaddy is blocking the host’s attempts to request information from the Goodreads site in some way, or Goodreads has blocked your GoDaddy host’s IP for some reason.

If it’s helpful, I know of several sites running the GoodReviews plugin on PHP versions 5.2.x, 5.3.x, and 5.4.x. It is not yet tested on PHP 5.5. However, I saw nothing on your site to visibly indicate that any PHP errors were occurring.

Hope that helps. Let me know if I can be of further assistance.

Thanks.