Popularity Contest Plugin Issues~ Wordpress 2.5
By 
andrew daum on Apr 13, 2008 in FYI, Featured, How To
Just a quick Sunday morning FYI post.
I decided to jump off the cliff and upgrade to Wordpress 2.5 yesterday, as my Buds at social power linking were not having any issues — they really liked 2.5 and the new admin and dashboard features.
As usual, it was not a smooth process (thanks Buds)… had an issue I could not figure out.
Something was going on that would not allow my front page to load. This has happened in the past, so I was somewhat sure it had something to do with a plugin.
I went through all my plugins — made sure they were all up to date — one cool new feature in Wordpress 2.5 is the auto plugin update. You can automatically update the plugin from the plugin page — no more downloading — FTP’ing, etc (so I thought).
Updated all my plugins… no go. Only a part of my page loads.
Now I was beginning to think it was not a plugin issue as they all showed to be up to date. I started to sweat a bit.
So I hit Google looking for specific plugin compatibility issues with Wordpress 2.5.
To make a long story short… I found the problem (and the solution to fix it) on Blogvaria.
I “borrowed” the image below from Blogvaria… but you still need to go there — they give a few more details on the issue.
Be sure you manually edit the line in the code… do not copy and paste (that is why I did an image instead of the actual code). It is a simple fix… and one I cannot believe Alex has not fixed. He is a big time Wordpress guy… maybe he is busy or out of town or something.
Oddly enough… the update feature of Wordpress did not show the Popularity Contest plugin even needed updating.
This is something to keep in mind if you are having issues with your blog. The plugin developer may not have the update feature coded into the plugin… it is not a Wordpress issue, but rather a plugin issue.
That’s it… be sure to visit the Blogaria blog — they for sure saved my butt.
Short little Popularity Contest Plugin video on how to make the changes to fix the problem;
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On Apr 13, 2008,
Jack Humphrey (Check me out!) said:
Awesome post man. You’re going to get a ton of links to this one!
Jack Humphrey’s last blog post..Using Twitter for Marketing on Autopilot
On Apr 14, 2008,
Rangoo's review (Check me out!) said:
Great post and useful video. Thanks Andrew
I upgraded to 2.5. I found that alinks plugin and one of the feedburner plugins don’t work. I have two feedburner plugins.
I hope there is no other problem.
Rangoo’s review’s last blog post..‘Authority Site Center’ Jack Humphrey Demystifies ‘Authority Site’ Content Development
On Apr 14, 2008,
andrew daum (Check me out!) said:
Thanks Jack… maybe I’ll just write and post about the problems I have from now on… that would keep me pretty busy…
Same here Rangoo… so far Popularity Contest was the only plugin I’ve had an issue with.. my one feedburner seems to work fine… I used to run alinks… only thing I have noticed is it seems to take longer for a new post to actually post — it just sits there awhile after I hit the post button… could be something on my end… who knows.
Andrew
On Apr 14, 2008,
Martin (Check me out!) said:
Andrew, hi,
Thanks for this info..! I have to say, though, that I’m running Popularity Contest and never had a problem. Maybe it’s waiting until I feel all smug and confident before jumping out and biting me in the bum!
Cheers,
Martin.
Martin’s last blog post..Making Money Part 2
On Apr 15, 2008,
Ben Cope (Check me out!) said:
If you are installing the Popularity Contest plugin for the first time in WordPress 2.5 and you have already made the fix described in this post, but you STILL get a Fatal Error when trying to activate the plugin, you may need to manually add the necessary tables to your WordPress database (using phpMyAdmin).
I ran into this problem with a blog I was installing for a client … I was installing the Popularity Contest plugin for the first time on a WP 2.5 site, and I had already updated the popularity-contest.php file, but it was still giving me a fatal error. This article fixed everything.
Ben Cope’s last blog post..Hottest New Premiere Wordpress Theme Goes on Sale!
On Apr 16, 2008,
Alex (Check me out!) said:
Well, before you get all excited - I recommend you check your error logs. I have also located the fix you mention and implemented it only to discover that it doesn’t address the issue completely. Maybe that is the reason Alex didn’t implement it.
After activating the plugin with fix as you did I have located that my error_log was rapidly growing (I think it was in plugins directory, sorry had to deactivate the plugin) and when looked inside - it was all due to the implementation of the fix …
So, please do be sure to check your log!
Alex’s last blog post..WordPress Guide - Installing Plugins And Themes
On Apr 16, 2008,
andrew daum (Check me out!) said:
Hey Alex,
What type of errors are you showing?
I show a lot of MagpieRSS errors… but not any Popularity errors.
Oh, thanks for the heads up — have not checked my errors log in a long time — guess I’ll have to spend a bit trying to find out what the issue is with MagpieRSS — like I have nothing better to do — yea, thanks again
On Apr 22, 2008,
Dmitry (Check me out!) said:
Yes, i was having loads of issues with this plugin and 2.5 also.
If you are doing a fresh install of the plugin, you have to create the tables manually via phpmyadmin.
On Apr 24, 2008,
Digital SLR Joe (Check me out!) said:
Pretty good article. I like it, keep it up.
On Apr 29, 2008,
Chris (Check me out!) said:
Doesn’t work in my site! Table ‘usr_web**_1.wp_ak_popularity_options’ doesn’t exist on line: 124
How can I install the Plugin under Wordpress 2.5?
On Apr 29, 2008,
Andrew (Check me out!) said:
Check out Ben’s post above — he covers the table issue. Is this a new install or fix from ugrading to 2.5?
Andrew
Andrews lastest and greatest blog post.."Beautiful"
On Apr 29, 2008,
Chris (Check me out!) said:
Thanks!
On Apr 30, 2008,
Tom Lamothe (Check me out!) said:
I think that was a pretty good post. I couldn’t do it
. Keep up the good work.
On May 1, 2008,
David Wh1te (Check me out!) said:
hmmm… I like a blog post that makes me think.
On May 15, 2008,
Online Debt collection (Check me out!) said:
Thanks for the information.. Fixed my site with not problems.. Thanks again..
Online Debt collections lastest and greatest blog post..Win A Chance To See Sex And The City The Movie
On May 22, 2008,
Johnnie from Auto Insurance Quotes (Check me out!) said:
Wordpress is cool, but what you guys think about php seo? Alot of people have random problems with wordpress, but i guess it all depends of what type of plugins they try to install.
On May 25, 2008,
Money Off Shop (Check me out!) said:
Hmmm, I tried applying the fix as suggested to Wordpress 2.5.1 on my site - http://www.ddwt.co.uk - with no luck
I get the error “Plugin could not be activated because it triggered a fatal error.” when trying to activate it
On May 25, 2008,
Money Off Shop (Check me out!) said:
Just found a solution
Which gives some extra database info that was required in my case.
You can find the fix here - http://www.kenmc.com/2008/03/30/wordpress-25-is-live-and-wild-plus-popularity-contest-notes/
On May 29, 2008,
ali (Check me out!) said:
i did the editting but when i tried to activate it i got this line in an empty page :
Table ‘blog.wp_ak_popularity_options’ doesn’t exist on line: 124
On May 29, 2008,
andrew daum (Check me out!) said:
Read a few comments higher — someone talked about the “table” issue.
Andrew
On Jun 22, 2008,
Johnnie from Auto Insurance Quotes (Check me out!) said:
I was also testing this plugin out on WP2.5 and ran into a few problems. Mainly because i was trying to create a widget that can be added to the sidebar. Luckily enough some guy thought of the same idea and got it to work with 2.5. The website is wpguy.com
On Aug 6, 2008,
Affiliate Payload (Check me out!) said:
Ahh dude, you saved my day with this. It works perfectly now. Thanks a ton. By the way does anyone know if there is a similiar plugin for Wordpress MU? It’s not compatible from what I hear. I need to find an alternative.
Any suggestions, thanks in advance.
B
On Aug 17, 2008,
Melv (Check me out!) said:
it works on my blog. thanks!
On Aug 29, 2008,
James (Check me out!) said:
I’m still on 2.2 something.. maybe time to upgrade?
Jamess lastest and greatest blog post..How to properly market your articles