First off, many thanks to Ulrich for all his hard work and help troubleshooting the recent Avatars release! I just confirmed however, that v. 3.5.2 is conflicting with how SimplePress Forums renders user avatars.
SimplePress Forums (SPF) will show a user's WP avatar next to their forum posts, if they have one. If none has been uploaded, it will next look for the default SPF avatar, then custom avatars from the SPF Avatar Pool, then Gravatar. (Actually, there are more options and you can configure the priority order as you wish.)
After updating to Avatars 3.5.2, however, settings configured from the site's discussion options are over-riding those set in SPF. No SPF default avatars load, ever. Changes made to discussion settings for default avatars take effect – displaying Gravatar, Wavatar, Identicon, etc. – but something is prohibiting the SPF defaults from showing. WP User Avatars show fine, but when none is available a Monster ID will show for that user, if that is what is selected from Site->Settings->Discussions.
With me so far?
I just reverted to Avatars 3.5.1 on our test site, and all Avatars on forum posts are displaying as expected – SPF defaults appear where they should instead of Gravatar, or mystery man, etc. – for any user without a WP Avatar.
So, my questions are... what might I ask in the SPF developer forums to try and start getting these playing nice together? Or could anyone possibly compare the code of 3.5.1 and 3.5.2 to see what difference might cause this behavior? Or, does anyone know if the pending WP 3.1 will offer any sort of site-wide default avatar upload? Wile the latter would suit my needs, it would be really nice to get SPF and Avatars working together.
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Hiya,
I'll let Ulrich comment on this, but the only file that changed between these versions was the /avatars/avatars.php
If you want to check out the differences yourself you could download the older version and do a file comparison.
There's quite a few changes in the file, but largely in two separate sections. Haven't used this plugin with SimplePress so I can't help any further, but I'm sure Ulrich will be able to provide more.
Are the urls of the avatars weird when you use avatar v3.5.2.?
No, all avatar image urls render properly in the forums. The Gravatar setting from WP discussion options is just over-riding the SPF Default set via the Forums Admin panel.
...we use both and I don;t find any tickets...
Do you use the SPF Default avatar for guest posts and users without a WP Avatar? If so, and they are showing, please share your SPF Admin Avatars Priority setting. We have ours set to 1. WP Avatar 2. SPF Default 3. The Rest Don't Matter ...
Prior to 3.5.x, the Avatars plugin did not require Display Avatars to be selected via WP Discussion Settings for avatars to show site wide or in the forums. Now that the setting is required, it seems to disable the SPF settings.
If you think it is a conflict with the WordPress option, try commenting lines 359 and 360 of avatars.php:
if ( ! get_option( 'show_avatars' ) )
return false;
Thanks, however, commenting those lines out of avatars.php had no effect.
I did find a work-around with the following hacks. While this does not address the SimplePress conflict, it does load the desired default avatar in the forums, and will work until the issue is resolved. Perhaps this may be of help to any other SPF users out there...
1. Upload desired default avatars to /mu-plugins/avatars-files/images/ (pay attention to filenames, formats and image sizes!) 2. Declare default user and blog avatars as 'local_default' in config section of avatars.php (lines 39 & 40) 3. Declare $default = 'local_default' in avatar output function at line 356. (Taking step 2 alone had no effect.)
Maybe this will help someone identify what's going on too. Any thoughts @drmike?
Interesting side note... just discovered the 'local_default' avatar defined in my plugin hacks above show in one widget but not others. See attachment.
Well... hate to say it, but all pages break and stop loading wherever the first avatar should appear. Selected new local default discussion settings option, still no good.
Confirmed the files exist but found this in the error log:
[error] File does not exist: /home/triblogs/public_html/wp-content/mu-plugins/avatars-files/images/default-avatar-32&forcedefault=1.png
[error] File does not exist: /home/triblogs/public_html/wp-content/mu-plugins/avatars-files/images/default-avatar-32&forcedefault=1.png
I couldn't reproduce the "all pages break and stop loading wherever the first avatar should appear" but fixed the cause of the error which appears in your log. Please download the plugin again.
Please have someone test this with the WPMU-Nelo theme. Pages continue to stop loading everything located after the first instance of an avatar on any page. Turn off Avatar display from WP Discussion settings and pages load completely. Activate 3.5.2, select any Default Avatar, and viewing the source of any page which should include an avatar reveals that the code just stops rendering at that point. Reverting to 3.5.2 resolves the issue.
If you don't think this can be theme related, might there be any settings "stuck" in the database I could look for?
PS: No errors in the logs
EDIT: Looking at the code for the theme templates and the Recent Posts pugin (where the pages are breaking) everything seems to choke right at the get_avatar function.
ONE MORE THING: I have left 3.5.3 active on our test site for now so you can see what's happening...
So far so good... with 3.5.4 activated, pages no longer break and the local_default appears to be showing everywhere it should. Thanks again!
Note to SimplePress Users: This still does not fix the conflict where WP Discussion/Avatar settings now override SPF settings when the Avatars plugin is activated for the site where forums reside. The fix is to upload your desired default avatars as I describe above, and set SPF to use WP Avatars. I have not tested how the plugin may affect the native SPF avatar upload/management feature.
Responses (12)
Member (joined April 2009) Likes (0)
Hiya,
I'll let Ulrich comment on this, but the only file that changed between these versions was the /avatars/avatars.php
If you want to check out the differences yourself you could download the older version and do a file comparison.
There's quite a few changes in the file, but largely in two separate sections. Haven't used this plugin with SimplePress so I can't help any further, but I'm sure Ulrich will be able to provide more.
Thanks!
Keeper of the Dark Chocolate (joined July 2007) Likes (0)
Strange as we use both and I don;t find any tickets right off on the topic.
Are the urls of the avatars weird when you use avatar v3.5.2.?
Member (joined April 2009) Likes (0)
No, all avatar image urls render properly in the forums. The Gravatar setting from WP discussion options is just over-riding the SPF Default set via the Forums Admin panel.
Do you use the SPF Default avatar for guest posts and users without a WP Avatar? If so, and they are showing, please share your SPF Admin Avatars Priority setting. We have ours set to 1. WP Avatar 2. SPF Default 3. The Rest Don't Matter ...
Prior to 3.5.x, the Avatars plugin did not require Display Avatars to be selected via WP Discussion Settings for avatars to show site wide or in the forums. Now that the setting is required, it seems to disable the SPF settings.
Thanks for the reply!
Developer (joined August 2010) Likes (0)
Hi @jcnjr,
If you think it is a conflict with the WordPress option, try commenting lines 359 and 360 of avatars.php:
if ( ! get_option( 'show_avatars' ) )
return false;
Member (joined April 2009) Likes (0)
Thanks, however, commenting those lines out of avatars.php had no effect.
I did find a work-around with the following hacks. While this does not address the SimplePress conflict, it does load the desired default avatar in the forums, and will work until the issue is resolved. Perhaps this may be of help to any other SPF users out there...
1. Upload desired default avatars to /mu-plugins/avatars-files/images/ (pay attention to filenames, formats and image sizes!)
2. Declare default user and blog avatars as 'local_default' in config section of avatars.php (lines 39 & 40)
3. Declare $default = 'local_default' in avatar output function at line 356. (Taking step 2 alone had no effect.)
Maybe this will help someone identify what's going on too. Any thoughts @drmike?
Member (joined April 2009) Likes (0)
Interesting side note... just discovered the 'local_default' avatar defined in my plugin hacks above show in one widget but not others. See attachment.
Intended as FYI only.
Developer (joined August 2010) Likes (0)
Avatar 3.5.3 has been uploaded. It fixes the issue with 'local_default'.
Member (joined April 2009) Likes (0)
Well... hate to say it, but all pages break and stop loading wherever the first avatar should appear. Selected new local default discussion settings option, still no good.
Confirmed the files exist but found this in the error log:
[error] File does not exist: /home/triblogs/public_html/wp-content/mu-plugins/avatars-files/images/default-avatar-32&forcedefault=1.png
[error] File does not exist: /home/triblogs/public_html/wp-content/mu-plugins/avatars-files/images/default-avatar-32&forcedefault=1.png
Are those filenames supposed to be like that?
PS: Plugin file still says v3.5.2
Developer (joined August 2010) Likes (0)
I couldn't reproduce the "all pages break and stop loading wherever the first avatar should appear" but fixed the cause of the error which appears in your log. Please download the plugin again.
Member (joined April 2009) Likes (0)
Please have someone test this with the WPMU-Nelo theme. Pages continue to stop loading everything located after the first instance of an avatar on any page. Turn off Avatar display from WP Discussion settings and pages load completely. Activate 3.5.2, select any Default Avatar, and viewing the source of any page which should include an avatar reveals that the code just stops rendering at that point. Reverting to 3.5.2 resolves the issue.
If you don't think this can be theme related, might there be any settings "stuck" in the database I could look for?
PS: No errors in the logs
EDIT: Looking at the code for the theme templates and the Recent Posts pugin (where the pages are breaking) everything seems to choke right at the get_avatar function.
ONE MORE THING: I have left 3.5.3 active on our test site for now so you can see what's happening...
These 2 page include Recent Posts plugin call:
http://tripawds.net/forums/
http://tripawds.net/chat/
These use a typical Nelo page templates:
http://tripawds.net/
http://tripawds.net/progress
Replace .net with .com to see how these pages should look.
Developer (joined August 2010) Likes (0)
I think it has something to do with the email_exists error reported here: http://premium.wpmudev.org/forums/topic/avatars-353-upgrade-package-not-available-error#post-73370
I am working on a fix.
Member (joined April 2009) Likes (0)
So far so good... with 3.5.4 activated, pages no longer break and the local_default appears to be showing everywhere it should. Thanks again!
Note to SimplePress Users: This still does not fix the conflict where WP Discussion/Avatar settings now override SPF settings when the Avatars plugin is activated for the site where forums reside. The fix is to upload your desired default avatars as I describe above, and set SPF to use WP Avatars. I have not tested how the plugin may affect the native SPF avatar upload/management feature.
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