[Plugin: AskApache Google 404] Breaks my theme

Oops – forgot to add a URL to the site. Powerstates.com. Try url https://powerstates.com/test to see the AA Google 404 page.

The plugin inserts its code within my theme’s footer and I haven’t figured out why yet or how to fix it. The coding looks correct, but it doesn’t appear correct in a web browser. Still working at it – and posted a question at AskApache.

I had the same problem and tracked it down to an issue where the plugin processes its output twice if you have a 404 template.

Locate this block of code, somewhere around line 793 in askapache-google-404.php:

/**
	 * AAGoogle404Handler::handle_404()
	 */
	function handle_404()
	{
		//error_log(__FUNCTION__.':'.__LINE__);
		global $wpdb, $posts, $post, $wp_did_header, $wp_did_template_redirect, $wp_query, $wp_rewrite, $wpdb, $wp_version, $wp, $id, $comment, $user_ID;
		if ( is_array($wp_query->query_vars) ) extract( $wp_query->query_vars, EXTR_SKIP );

		ob_start();
		@header( "HTTP/1.1 {$this->status_code} {$this->reason}", 1 );
		@header( "Status: {$this->status_code} {$this->reason}", 1 );

		if ( $this->status_code == 400 || $this->status_code == 403 || $this->status_code == 405 || (string )$this->status_code[0] == '5' ) return $this->handle_non_404();

		if ( file_exists(TEMPLATEPATH . '/404.php') && is_file(TEMPLATEPATH . '/404.php') ) load_template( TEMPLATEPATH . '/404.php' );
		else {
			get_header();

			$this->handle_it();

			get_sidebar();

			get_footer();

		}

		ob_flush(); flush();
	}

You need to comment out the section that asks about whether you have a 404 template. So, your new function should look like this:

/**
	 * AAGoogle404Handler::handle_404()
	 */
	function handle_404()
	{
		//error_log(__FUNCTION__.':'.__LINE__);
		global $wpdb, $posts, $post, $wp_did_header, $wp_did_template_redirect, $wp_query, $wp_rewrite, $wpdb, $wp_version, $wp, $id, $comment, $user_ID;
		if ( is_array($wp_query->query_vars) ) extract( $wp_query->query_vars, EXTR_SKIP );

		ob_start();
		@header( "HTTP/1.1 {$this->status_code} {$this->reason}", 1 );
		@header( "Status: {$this->status_code} {$this->reason}", 1 );

		if ( $this->status_code == 400 || $this->status_code == 403 || $this->status_code == 405 || (string )$this->status_code[0] == '5' ) return $this->handle_non_404();

		/*
		if ( file_exists(TEMPLATEPATH . '/404.php') && is_file(TEMPLATEPATH . '/404.php') ) load_template( TEMPLATEPATH . '/404.php' );
		else {
			get_header();

			$this->handle_it();

			get_sidebar();

			get_footer();

		}
		*/

		ob_flush(); flush();
	}

dougvdotcom – many thanks for posting this. I was having the same problem and couldn’t work out why.