As the previous post stated, there are few things caused by the outside factors that can cause plugin not to work, like WordPress settings, other plugins or even themes. But much bigger are problems caused by the human factor. Solutions for these problems are usually easy enough, and in most cases problem can be avoided if you follow some instructions accompanying the plugin in the forum of read me file or user guide, or website and forum. Some of this problems are not something I can solve because they are not bugs.
Before you post a support question about the rating plugin not working, please check these posts first. Read the user guide and check the forum because most likely the problem you have has already been solved. I will not reply to the question that are already answered.
Here are the some of the common problems, and solutions for them:
1. Server Configuration
In few instances CSS files used by the plugin were not loaded because of the server error (Error code 500). This is usually problem with server access rights or some other configuration problem. This has nothing to do with rating plugin, or any other plugin, check your server configuration before asking any support question especially when server returns error code.
2. Plugin settings
I know that plugin has a lot of settings and sometimes can be easy to overlook something. But still, you need to check all the settings to be sure that everything is set right. 90% of all the settings you will set only once and never need to look at them again. Don’t be lazy, check all the settings. Plugin upgrade shouldn’t mess with saved settings, but you never know, and always check them after update. Most settings are self explanatory, and user guide also have a bit more details
3. Why I can’t vote for my own post
This problem is directly derived from previous one. Some people activate the plugin, and try to vote for the their own posts only to find out that they can’t. Default behavior is that post author can’t vote for own posts. There is a setting for on posts settings tab. The same goes for comments. Comment author by default can’t vote for own comments. Check out the setting on the comment settings tab.
For each vote cast, plugin saves entry into database log table and this will contain user id (if the user is logged in) and also the IP. Cookie is also saved and one cookie contains all posts that are voted for from the current browser. When the check is performed to see if the user or visitor can vote at all, plugin checks in database for existing vote coming from that IP for that post, or for that user for that post.
4. WordPress older than 2.5
Believe it or not I received few bug reports only to discover that some people are trying to use the plugin with WordPress 2.3 or even 2.0 in one case. As the read-me file clearly says, plugin requires at least 2.5. I will not going to change it to can work with older versions of WordPress, because it will take too much time, and some things will not work anyway. As far as I know some of the features should work with 2.3. But if you want to use this plugin you need at least 2.5.0
I will try to have more problem solving posts for some specific problems, so if you have some suggestion, please leave a comment. Also, expect 2-3 tutorials next week, and most important GD Star Rating 1.10. on Thursday.
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February 23, 2009
at 7:54 PM
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What i can say…great job with this plugin.
I’ve only a question,and i think it could be a usefull response to all guys havin such a mind problem…
What happen if…
I rate a post,then i delete the cookie and trying to tove again?
Looking at the source code,the check_vote function do the trick,
and if a user is not logged in you check if that IP has voted for that POST.
Now,my IP is not fixed so,is is possible that another guy getting my IP in the next future cannot rate for this post???
Or again,what if I’m behind an office with multiple users having the same IP?
Thanks in advance
Marco
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February 23, 2009
at 9:28 PM
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This is my solution,i would like to have your opinion:
The idea is checking if within a time period a user with the same IP has rated(legged or not),then if no results are coming from this checking if the logged user has rated.
So i was thinking to modify this:
if ($user > 0)
$votes_sql = sprintf(“SELECT * FROM %s WHERE vote_type = ‘%s’ and multi_id = %s and id = %s and user_id = %s”,
$table_prefix.$table, $type, $set, $id, $user
);
else
$votes_sql = sprintf(“SELECT * FROM %s WHERE vote_type = ‘%s’ and multi_id = %s and id = %s and ip = ‘%s’”,
$table_prefix.$table, $type, $set, $id, $ip
);
into this:
$votes_sql = sprintf(“SELECT * FROM %s”,$table_prefix.$table);
$votes_sql .= sprintf(“WHERE vote_type = ‘%s’ and multi_id = %s and id = %s and ip = ‘%s’ and timestamp 0)
{
$votes_sql .= sprintf(“OR WHERE vote_type = ‘%s’ and multi_id = %s and id = %s and user_id = %s”,
$type, $set, $id, $user
);
}
By this way you can also avoid users that rated previously to rate again when they are logged.
I would like to know what do you think about this.
Marco
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February 23, 2009
at 9:31 PM
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Sorry but wordpress cutted off some rows of my comment.
Contact me if you can.
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February 23, 2009
at 9:38 PM
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They can’t vote again because both IP or cookies will prevent it. I am not sure about timestamp in your code.
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