What to do after plugin is installed?

Once you complete installation of any of the Dev4Press plugins, the process is essentially the same for all plugins. It is important to follow the post-installation procedure to make sure all is working as expected.

Post install process

Once installed, the plugin will display a notice on the top of admin pages reminding you that you need to complete the installation procedure. This looks like this (for GD Rating System Pro):

The post-install process is very important because most plugins will validate all the settings, create database tables and set up other important things (depending on the plugin). Click on the ‘Click Here’ button, and you will get to the install screen for that plugin. This screen looks like this:

Depending on the plugin, there will be different elements related to installing process. If there are any problems found during installation, this panel will display those errors too.

Database installation

Most important part of the installation is the process of creating additional database tables. Some of the Dev4Press plugins use additional database tables, and they are not created as expected, the plugin will not work as it should be working.

If there are any errors reported related to the database tables, that can point to some issue with the database server, or some other plugin that might cause problems. If that happens, you should attempt to create database tables manually. Each plugin has a knowledge base article with the full database schema, and you need to use that schema to create tables in your website database.

Dealing with cache

There are few things you should know and do any time you install a new plugin.

Cache Plugins

If you use any cache plugins, make sure to clear its cache. Most cache plugins will offer to do that any time the new plugin is installed. It is important to do this, to make sure cache plugin recreates all cached pages with the newly installed plugin active.

Server Side Cache

If you use a server-side cache (like OPCache, APC, Varnish), make sure to clear all the cache for it. OPCache is caching compiled PHP scripts, and whenever you make changes to the website code, it is a good idea to clear the cache.

These cache methods can be configured to automatically clear cached scripts when they detect changes, but in some cases, these cache extensions are not properly configured, and they require manual cache clear when the code on the website changes.

Proxy Cache

If you use CloudFlare or similar proxy cache system, you must clear the cache for the proxy too. CloudFlare will usually detect when something is changed, but in case that doesn’t happen, clear the cache manually.