Category: Troubleshooting
How to fix Thumbs Rating method up and down invalid values?
In few instances reported so far, the Thumbs Rating values have become invalid, showing million or billion high ratings. So far, we were unable to find the cause of the problem, but it was caused by something in the early 3.x versions of the plugin. To fix this issue, you need to recalculate the Thumbs Rating, and the ratings will be fixed.
To do that, open the Rating System plugin admin menu, go to Tools and open Recalculate Data tool. Make sure to read all the provided information there. Find the Thumbs Rating box, and enable recalculation for it. Click the Recalculate button, and wait for the process to run, you will see the progress information. Once it is done, check the posts that had invalid ratings to confirm that the problem has been solved.
Also, it is recommended to update plugin to the latest available version before doing this.
Some features not working with BuddyPress group forums?
This happens if the plugin’s JavaScript is not loaded. Make sure that both CSS and JavaScript options are enabled and ‘Always Include’ option is also enabled.
Click on Quote button doesn’t add quoted content?
This happens if the plugin’s JavaScript is not loaded. Make sure that both CSS and JavaScript options are enabled. If that doesn’t help, make sure to enable ‘Always Include’ option too.
Why updating GD Rating System Pro breaks the website?
This can happen if you are using GD Rating System Pro additional addons (like Multi Ratings or User Reviews addon). If that happens, make sure to disable GD Rating System Pro and all addons for it, and upgrade main plugin and all its addons, and reactivate them after the upgrade is done.
Why plugin’s JavaScript files are not loaded?
All Dev4Press plugins and addons require jQuery. But, they will work only if the jQuery is loaded with the WordPress proper Enqueue method. If you are replacing jQuery that comes with WordPress with some other version loaded from other location, my plugins will not function properly, and that goes the same for most of the other WordPress plugins that depend on the proper way for loading jQuery.
Why I am getting errors related to missing database tables?
Errors like this point to the problem with the plugin installation process when additional database tables need to be created. If that has not happened, it points to a problem with database access or something related to the server. Still, it might be simply WordPress-related issues preventing the normal update.
To check this out, open the bbPress Toolbox menu -> Tools -> Recheck and Update. This panel will recheck and recreate tables in possible. If not, you will see the error messages. If that happens, you need to create tables manually (via phpMyAdmin, for instance).
Here is the SQL schema for all database tables plugin needs: Database Schema.
After successful voting and refreshing the page, vote is gone
This is always the issue with the page cache. The plugin supports the use of cache plugins, but in that case, it needs to get current ratings through AJAX to avoid showing old cached page. The plugin includes Dynamic Load addon that will load rating blocks through AJAX. This addon is disabled by default, and if you use cache plugins, just enable this addon from plugin Settings -> Extensions panel.
Why reviews look broken or missing after installation?
When you install User Reviews addon for the first time, it may happen that new templates are not properly picked by GD Rating System Pro. To remedy that, simply open GD Rating System -> Tools -> Recheck and Update panel. You will see the update messages, and that will reload all available templates, and reviews should be OK now.
How can I confirm that topic new/unread tracking is working?
Before you go on, make sure you have configured the plugin properly. Check out this article for more information.
To confirm that topic tracking for users is working (new topics, unread topics, and new replies), you need two user accounts: one to create a new topic, and the second account to visit the forum with the new topic to get to see the mark for ‘new‘.
If it is not working, check if the database tables are created during the update. Table name is ‘wp_gdbbx_tracker‘. You can run Tools -> Recheck and Update to make sure all is OK.
Can I limit users to own files in Media Library via TinyMCE Add Media button?
By design, if a user opens Media Library from TinyMCE Add Media button, that user will only see their own files when the library is displayed.
Why quoted content shows HTML tags?
In bbPress, only some user roles can post unrestricted HTML content. Other users can only use some basic set of HTML tags, and tags like UL, LI, and DIV… will not work, and bbPress will save them as text, not HTML. Because of that, when you quote complex HTML content, tags normally not supported will be displayed as text, not HTML.
To fix this, you must allow all user roles to use the expanded set of HTML tags. And to do that, open the bbPress Toolbox -> Features -> Tweaks -> Expand KSES allowed HTML tags and attributes -> Allowed tags list. The Select box has 3 options: the default bbPress set of HTML tags, and the other two include a wide range of supported HTML tags. You need to switch this option to the second or third option.
But, some HTML tags are not permitted (IFRAME, SCRIPT, STYLE) because they can generally contain dangerous content, and when quoted, such tags will be escaped and saved as plain text. Because of that, quoting content that contains embedded content (FaceBook posts, Twitter tweets…) is not quotable.
Why thumbs (or stars) are not showing after plugin upgrade?
When new plugin version is released, it usually contains changes to CSS and JavaScript. If you use some sort of cache (plugin for cache, server side cache, CDN), and depending on your system configuration, CSS and JS files can be cached, and even with new version of the plugin installed, old files can be served from cache.
Whenever you update the plugin, make sure to clear all cached data from cache plugin, server-side cache, CDN and finally browser cache.
Can you nest BBCodes?
Yes. You can nest BBCodes as long as they are different types. You can have UL BBCode and inside it, you can have LI BBCodes.
And No. You can’t nest the same type of BBCodes. You can’t have UL inside another UL. Ordered or unordered list in HTML is allowed, and you can have UL, inside it several LI tags, and in those LI tags, you can have another UL. This will not work in WordPress, and BBCodes written like that will also fail to render properly. This will not change until WordPress fixes the issue.
Why rating block alignment is not working?
Alignment for complex HTML elements can be a very tricky issue, and it largely depends on the container and styling it has. The plugin has options to add alignment classes to the rating block, but, these classes don’t include actual styling and they are meant to be styled individually for the theme used.
To center element, that element should have the width set. But, if you set width for the rating block, that block will no longer be responsive. The plugin automatically makes stars smaller for the rating block to fit the current screen with. Having fixed width set for the rating block will prevent the plugin from making it responsive.
You can use CSS for responsive breakpoints to set different widths, but that too depends on the theme (themes usually have different breakpoints and different grid systems), and it is best to style rating block alignment for each individual theme to make sure alignment works for your theme. Also, depending on the theme and the grid system use, there might be some other way to center elements.
Plugin alignment feature is only placeholder class name, styling must be defined for theme.
Rating is working, but instead of stars I see letters S
If you don’t see stars, but instead there are letters S, this means that font with icons used by the plugin is not loaded by the browsers. The reason for this is that most likely your website is loading a font from CDN and some browsers are enforcing CORS policy. To get more information about it, and the solution on how to fix it, check out this article: Loading fonts from CDN.
Why BBCodes are not working?
There are few reasons for BBCodes not working:
- You have disabled BBCodes in the plugin.
- You have disabled some of the BBCodes in the plugin.
- You are using some 3rd party plugin that is causing problems.
The plugin that is often causing problems with BBCodes is ‘bbPress Advanced Statistics’, and this plugin will disable all Shortcodes/BBCodes by default. Either configure it properly to allow shortcodes, or remove it.
Why is Google not showing rich rating snippets for my website?
GD Rating System is adding a fully functional and standardized rich snippet for rating or review, and you can test all your posts to confirm that the rating snippet is correct. But, there is no way to influence Google to show the snippet inside search results. There is no way to know how, why and when Google displays rich snippets and even big websites like IMDb or Amazon very often don’t have the rich snippets displayed.
Check out this user guide about setting up the rating rich snippets.