Hello,
We just updated our Site Origin widgets bundle plug-in to the latest version and began getting an “empty needle” message whenever editing an existing post or creating a new post on WordPress. Please see this link for a screenshot of the message we got. This message shows up and then the usual editor page appears.
We normally don’t get this message when we edit or post new posts.
Please help.
Thank you,
Shalu
Hi Shalu
Thanks for letting us know about the warning; we’ll resolve it in the next update. Are you perhaps able to set
WP_DEBUG
andWP_DEBUG_DISPLAY
to false in your WordPress wp-config.php file? More info on setting those constants to false can be found at the end of the following page: Page: Debugging in WordPress. How to access the wp-config.php file can be found at the start of the page.Hello Andrew,
Thanks for following up.
Please let me know if already have an idea of when the next update will be released.
Thanks for the WP_DEBUG suggestion but I’m reluctant to do that in case I mess things up.
The next update should fix the issue, correct?
Thank you,
Shalu
Hi Shalu
Thanks for the update.
Ideally notices shouldn’t be displayed on the site front-end on a production site unless you’re actively troubleshooting. The standard setup for a live/production site would be to have notices disabled.
It’ll likely be a few days before the next Widgets Bundle release goes out. If you go slowly and make a backup of your wp-config.php file on your computer before editing the file, you won’t have any issues. Please let me know if you need any further explanation of the sections within the above help article. You’ll be inserting:
define( 'WP_DEBUG', false );
will likely already be near the bottom of the wp-config.php file, the constant shouldn’t be inserted twice.Hi Shalu
Alex here at SiteOrigin has prepared a beta release for you to try. You can find the ZIP file at the below link:
https://siteorigin.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/so-widgets-bundle.1.59.1-beta-1.zip
Once the ZIP file is on your desktop, you can install it from PluginsAdd NewUpload Plugin, overwriting the existing version when prompted.
Hello Andrew,
Thanks for following up.
I just uploaded the zip file and the problem seems to have been resolved. I am not getting the “empty needle” message, so it looks like the beta release worked.
Please note that I did not manually modify the wp-config.php file. The only thing I did was to upload the new zip file.
So I am presuming the zip file corrected what needed to be corrected in the wp-config.php file, right?
I would appreciate if you could give me an estimation as to when when the updated plug-in would be released. In 2 weeks maybe?
Thank you for the quick help!
Shalu
Hi Shalu
Thanks for the update; I’m glad to hear you’re making progress.
No further action is required. The beta release you installed will update normally after the next Widgets Bundle release. Unfortunately, I don’t have an exact timeline for the next release, but we update the Widgets Bundle plugin regularly as we introduce new features and functionality.
The empty needle notice that appeared on your site is primarily intended for developers. Notices and warnings don’t usually impact functionality. If you have a moment, it’s worthwhile setting error display to false, as directed at the end of our troubleshooting documentation page. That’ll ensure you don’t receive unnecessary information. If you’re troubleshooting a technical issue, you can set the values to true, start logging any problems, and make a diagnosis if errors are logged in your debug file.
Hello Andrew,
Noted.
Thank you,
Shalu
Thanks, Shalu. Cheers for now.
Andrew