Undo installation 4.0

Hi There,

After updating the plugin, you need to re-configure the widget as the latest version is fully re-coded from previous. Can you share your website URL so I can check where you’re having problem. I’ll be glad to provide alternative suggestions.

Have a nice day, Cheers!

Hi, thanks for your quick reply.

The website is https://www.activestockmanagement.com. Your plugin is used together with the gText Widget for the translation to the other languages on our website. A lot of styling has been done by an external developer and I don’t have the CSS skills to fix this.

The new version stores in the database with option_name widget_category-posts while previously it was widget_categoryposts

So obviously ANYONE who upgrades the plugin will lose their widgets.

What a bad, bad, bad move. Seriously. You should have at least made sure there’s backward compatibility, checking if option exists and renaming it accordingly.

@biranit: Do you know if the renaming of the columns in the database is enough to make the plugin work again, like it did before the update?

@arbe-vanbeek:

I am not sure, because I only realized what he did after discovering the widgets have disappeared and rebuilding them…

But try it out! I got a feeling it will fix it, and if you don’t have the widgets then you really have nothing to lose by trying this, at this point…

UPDATE wp_options SET option_name='widget_category-posts' WHERE option_name='widget_categoryposts'

(Obviously don’t do this if you don’t know your way around MySQL etc…)

By the way, it’s extremely rare that I criticize a developer who is giving something for free to the community. It’s ungrateful.

But this is such a huge failure, with implications for thousands of websites, that I find the negligence shocking.

@mrinal Kanti Roy: it would have been better if you launched a new plugin called “Category Posts Widget Redux” or something, because you just cannot make such a fundamental change without taking care of backward compatibility. If your upgrade erases the widget, then this is not an upgrade — it’s a clean install!

It’s not too late. Add a backward compatibility with a $wpdb query to update the wp_options table (see my above post) and at least those who have not upgraded yet won’t get so badly affected.

Hi There,

Yes, I’ll do that within the upcoming weekend. Please wait until I manage the time.

Thanks!

Good luck! I’m sorry we’re all angry at you ??

I’m not, that was a rookie mistake that broke a TON of sites. His reply: “just update your site. Good luck, have fun!”

OK, so I am not alone. Interesting to note that not all sites are affected by disappearing widgets, I have a site built on an older version of Thesis, on that site the widgets stayed put. It’s interesting to note that the failure of this update shows in different ways for different themes.

I am not angry, what’s the point? I’ve used this plugin in its various versions for years and I am thankful for it. Just don’t do it again! ??

@mrinal Kanti Roy: Were you able to make the changes/updates to the plugin?

Bump for the changes, but I’m also wondering if arbe-vanbeek or Biranit had success updating the wp_options record?

Well. I tried updating wp_options and it didn’t seem to work. I’m guessing the format of the options has changed and so it is not compatible. Off to rebuild all of my widgets!

Well the wp_options seems to have worked so that it is working again. However I need my Theme styling (CSS) to take over. Now the styling of the widget seems to be leading.

Anyone any idea how to do this?

the wp_options renaming works for me.

@arbe-vanbeek: not a very useful solution, but like you I wanted the styelsheet off. So I edited the plugin (you can do that via Plugin -> Editor) and commented out line 17:

// add_action( 'wp_enqueue_scripts', 'category_posts_widget_styles' );

(added // at the start of the line)

I also added, on line 3, on the plugin’s description, a note to myself — so that if I see an upgrade for the plugin, I’ll remember to comment out the stylesheet again:

Description: (MODIFIED: REMOVED STYLESHEET) Adds a widget that shows the most recent posts from a single category.

I hope in future versions, though, the inclusion of the stylesheet will be an OPTION.