Broke client's site

[seedubya]

Hi all,

A client asked me to make a couple of changes in WP for them, which I did, and all was fine. However when I'd tested it all I then updated WP to the latest version and now a few of their pages don't work properly. I can't figure out what the problem is. We did not build the site. The site was previously on 3.9.something, now up to 4.3.1.

The problem pages are:
http://nonesohardy.ie/conifers/
http://nonesohardy.ie/also-available/
http://nonesohardy.ie/hedging/
http://nonesohardy.ie/feathered-whips/

They're supposed to look like
http://nonesohardy.ie/main-species/

They're just category list pages which display article extracts, as far as I can tell.

All help gratefully accepted.

 

[BlackLabTechs]

Well the Broadleaves page still works which looks to the same layout as the ones mentioned above. Maybe you can compare the code in the 2 pages to see what is different?

 

[Mick]

Any plug-ins due for an update - or listed as incompatible with 4.3.1.? You got a big chunk of missing text/code on the 'conifers' page around line 176. Looks like maybe a missing or invalid short-code? Not echoing anything out, anyway.

 

[jmitservices]

Did you make a full back-up of the site before starting the work?

Turn on debugging and see what error messages you get, if any.

I think this is going to be one of those problems you need to see it to fix it. Instead of suggesting things here.

 

[seedubya]

@jmitservices - I have a full backup but it's before quite a few small changes were made. I've restored it to a test server and everything works just fine - until I update WP then the problem recurs. I'll turn on debugging.

@Mick - none of the plugins are listed as incompatible. I've noticed the missing code but can't find out why it's missing or where it's supposed to come from.

@BlackLabTechs - done that and noticed the missing code but can't figure out where it's coming from or why it's not working

 

[BlackLabTechs]

I'm no Wordpress master by any means so if the following text makes no sense, just ignore me and carry on.

As Mick stated - looks like the main article / content is missing. Did you check out any theme options? Sometimes the content for different sections is posted in the themes options somewhere. If it is based on a theme, try searching on their website for wordpress updates breaking things. Might need to adjust or update theme as well.

 

[jmitservices]

Well if everything was working correctly before the Wordpress update then I would guess that a function the site was using has been deprecated. Turning on debugging would show this.

 

[glennd]

everything works just fine - until I update WP then the problem recurs.

Then don't do it. Seriously, if there's no particular imperative or customer request to upgrade WP then don't do it. You might mention to the customer that WP should be updated soon but that will require some time to upgrade the code and fix resulting issues.

 

[fencepost]

You have a really weird combination of stuff pulling from the site itself and stuff pulling from the host's IP and hosting username. Is the wp-content directory renamed to contentwp? If not, you may have issues with themes, etc. not actually being updated because they're pulling from a different source. That may also be related to the CDN, but it's not something I've seen before. It also makes me twitchy to see sites requesting things by IP address, particularly when what's being requested is Javascript code (I use RequestPolicy and NoScript, so I see these things).

If one of the things you updated was the theme, check for differences in the theme files in contentwp/themes/html5blank-master - whoever did the development may have customized within the theme files, and when you did the upgrade it then overwrote those customizations. If that's the case, you'll likely want to get a WP pro to convert that changed theme into a custom child theme if feasible, or at least you might look into changing the name of the theme so it won't be stomped by upgrades.

Not sure if this is relevant, but I note that while it's the "conifiers" there are some references to the "confiers" (spelling) page template. Still though first I'd check for a developer who actually modified the raw theme files without ensuring that their changes wouldn't be overwritten.

And for automated backups, I've been pleased with Updraft Plus.