500 Error

On this fresh install, can you try installing some other theme as a test to see if it throws the same error? That way we’ll know if it’s because of code within the theme or not.

The issue sound server-setup/permission/php-version related, as no one else is having this.

Could also try downloading from here and uploading via FTP to see if it makes any difference, but it shouldn’t.

Sorry for the delay, for some reason I’m not getting notifications on this post.

I have tried multiple themes. The only other one I tried which threw a 500 was “CodePeople-Light.” The server is running PHP version 5.4.23 as Fast CGI with CGI and Perl support turned on as well as support for server-side includes and “additional write permissions” (i.e. onsite scripts are allowed to write to disk) allowable. I do NOT have Python support turned on.

My host is Midphase; I’m running on IIS 7.5 (I can’t change this; I’m running ASP.Net apps on the same server space.) I can access the raw server logs, but looking at them didn’t tell me much other than verifying I threw a bunch of 500 errors.

(Also, I did install from the download link, rather than the built-in WP theme manager; no change in behavior.)

(working along and continuing to try different things) I have also just downloaded and installed the latest version of the OptionTree plugin. Still no luck.

I am more than happy to work with you step by step with config file settings and so forth; my site is currently in early days and I *really* like this theme (I would say I love it, but having a close friend from Finland broke me of the casual use of that word LOL). The features including typography and high degree of available customization make it a perfect fit for the type of news-magazine site that I’m trying to create…and the theme I am currently using (ProMax) is the best available of poor second-place choices.

Could this perhaps be related to some sort of broken scripting on the automatic installation process (which is handled through the Plesk control panel)? I realize as I consider this that I should not have claimed a “clean” install as I cannot be 100% certain that this is the case! As far as I can tell – keeping in mind that I am a rusty ASP/ASPX programmer and not a PHP programmer – it does nothing out of the ordinary except automate the creation of a database and insertion of necessary account variables in configuration files (e.g. db username and pw). (Again, this is a matter of personal convenience/ease of use; I’m far more familiar with MSSQL than MySQL.)

I will also be more than happy to communicate any issue resolution to my hosts, should we find that their install coding is the root of the problem. Anything I can do to facilitate the greater use of your wonderful theme, I am happy to do…if we can get it working ??

Best regards,
-jh

Thanks for the detailed description!

Have you had the OptionTree plugin enabled with all tests? OptionTree is integrated with the theme, and it runs in theme mode, so if you have the plugin running as well it will throw up an error.

Try disabling the plugin and see if it works.

No, this is just something I tried on a hunch. I will disable and remove the plugin, as I have no plans to start developing themes for WP. (No change in behavior after disabling)

I’m afraid my next test will have to be trying to install a *true* “fresh” WP – that is, downloading, unzipping, and uploading. I hope to avoid this, as it will mean I need to recreate content and re-install plugins now. Still, better to do it at this stage than after the site has months of content on it.

Yeah it sounds like a good idea to do a separate new WP install as a test just to see if it’s related to that. If the new WP install throws up an error then we can probably narrow it down to server-setup.

Well, I am glad I tried this on a testing server before deleting my existing install – still a 500 error, this time with a *completely* fresh install, and again the only thing added is the Hueman theme.

Are there version checks I should make to MySQL or anything, or is there something in particular at which I might point my server support personnel?

If it helps, activating Hueman *totally* crashes the server; even the admin area throws a 500 error. This tends to suggest that there’s something that is called by Hueman – probably custom settings submenu – when loading the administration page, that is also called when the “front” of the site loads.

There is nothing in the theme code itself that should do that, but the integrated OptionTree is the likely reason here which calls something – as other themes works fine.

Hard to say what though, as I’m not the developer of it. Here is the issue list for OptionTree, you could perhaps try asking Derek (OT author) if he has any idea, by creating a new issue there.

500 Errors are hard to nail down as it doesn’t give much information.

NB: The same thing happens with “Anew.” I just tried it. I don’t know if that will help narrow down which component may be causing the issue. I’ve also submitted a ticket to my host.

Thanks for your help and patience. I will keep you posted in the event we’re able to isolate and solve the problem.

Sounds good!

Anew uses the same code structure and framework, so the only thing it confirms is that it’s not some hueman-specific code that is causing issues.

It appears that it is an OT-related issue.

I just got this back from my host. Two messages. The *second* message is that rolling back to PHP 5.2.17 (instead of 5.4.23) makes the theme work. Obviously this isn’t a real fix, since we don’t want to rely on running an older version of PHP. As I can clearly see that this code section is using option-tree specific variables, I have copied this message to support topics at both the Hueman theme and Option Tree support fora. Hopefully between the two of you, you can figure out what’s broken and how to fix it so it works in PHP 5.4.23+ ??

The first message is this list of errors:

===================
PHP Warning: Illegal string offset ‘background-color’ in D:\Inetpub\vhosts\lowgenius.com\staging.peoples-news-network.com\wp-content\themes\hueman\functions\dynamic-styles.php on line 219

PHP Warning: Illegal string offset ‘background-image’ in D:\Inetpub\vhosts\lowgenius.com\staging.peoples-news-network.com\wp-content\themes\hueman\functions\dynamic-styles.php on line 220

PHP Warning: Illegal string offset ‘background-position’ in D:\Inetpub\vhosts\lowgenius.com\staging.peoples-news-network.com\wp-content\themes\hueman\functions\dynamic-styles.php on line 221

PHP Warning: Illegal string offset ‘background-attachment’ in D:\Inetpub\vhosts\lowgenius.com\staging.peoples-news-network.com\wp-content\themes\hueman\functions\dynamic-styles.php on line 222

PHP Warning: Illegal string offset ‘background-repeat’ in D:\Inetpub\vhosts\lowgenius.com\staging.peoples-news-network.com\wp-content\themes\hueman\functions\dynamic-styles.php on line 223

PHP Warning: Illegal string offset ‘background-size’ in D:\Inetpub\vhosts\lowgenius.com\staging.peoples-news-network.com\wp-content\themes\hueman\functions\dynamic-styles.php on line 224

======================

All of those strings are used on those lines, within the following conditional:

(line 215) // body background
if ( ot_get_option(‘body-background’) != ” ) {

$body_background = ot_get_option(‘body-background’);
(L219) $body_color = $body_background[‘background-color’];
$body_image = $body_background[‘background-image’];
$body_position = $body_background[‘background-position’];
$body_attachment = $body_background[‘background-attachment’];
$body_repeat = $body_background[‘background-repeat’];
(L224) $body_size = $body_background[‘background-size’];

================

I’m no PHP coder, but I *am* a rusty old ASPX coder. This appears to me to be an error created by an OT-specific code segment within the theme when there is a value set for variable ot_get_option(‘body-background’). As I’m not familiar enough with PHP to chase down where, precisely, this string is set by default to a non-null value, I will leave it up to you talented folks to determine precisely what the problem is and how to fix it. I’ll be monitoring these threads so I can fix it by hand ASAP, in anticipation of a later, formal fix pushed out in a theme update (after, I’m assuming, a fix is pushed out through OT as it seems likely to me that OT is generating this code.)

What I would suggest as a quickfix is to unzip the theme on your computer, go to /functions/dynamic-styles.php and remove the whole

// body background

section. Line 215 to line 235. Then re-zip the theme and upload it.

(or use FTP to just edit that file instead)

The only downside is that the body background color/image option will be disabled on the styling page. I think I’ve seen this issue pop up in some other cases, but that was when people had ran the lite version from www.ads-software.com first, and then “upgraded” to the full one – will have to look into it as I think my code may be flawed in this case.