Cannot activate plugin: Fatal error

There is likely another plugin using TGM conflicting here. Can you tell me which other plugin that is so I can test? I can’t reproduce this error with just bbPress and PMPro bbPress on multisite.

Also to confirm, you are activating on just one site correct? It wouldn’t make sense to network activate any of these plugins.

Thanks so much for the reply Jason!

First of all, yes I am only activating this on one site.

It’s actually my belief that it is conflicting with a theme that is using TGMPA as well. If I disable the theme and activate twenty fifteen, the plugin will activate. Then if I switch back over to my desired theme, I get a whole new set of errors:

without object from outside a class in /home/mysite/public_html/wp-content/themes/atelier/includes/class-tgm-plugin-activation.php on line 2954

Warning: call_user_func() expects parameter 1 to be a valid callback, first array member is not a valid class name or object in /home/mysite/public_html/wp-content/themes/atelier/includes/class-tgm-plugin-activation.php on line 2954

The theme in question is “Atelier” By swift ideas
https://themeforest.net/item/atelier-creative-multipurpose-ecommerce-theme/11118909

I have been working with their support team as well on this issue and they are confident it is not an issue on their end, saying “Absolutely nothing wrong with how we include the TGM class within our themes – it’s exactly as they recommend in their docs.” Considering I get errors from the plugin on one side and errors from the theme on the other side, I really have no idea which end the problem is actually occurring on.

If it helps you troubleshoot, I can send you a login to my site, send you a copy of the class-tgm-plugin-activation.php, or even send you a login to the Atelier support forum to discuss with the developers. Just let me know if you have any ideas or suggestions. Thanks again!

According to the TGMPA FAQ,

There are at least two copies of TGMPA active in your WP install and one of those is using a really old version of TGMPA (2.3.6 or less – over two years old) which conflicts with the current way of doing things which causes that error message. Please contact the author of the theme/plugin using the old version of TGMPA and urge them to upgrade the TGMPA version they include.

Scott, thank you so much! I simply downloaded the newest version from github
https://github.com/TGMPA/TGM-Plugin-Activation

And replaced the 2.3.6 version that is in pmpro bbpress with the 2.5.0 version on github and now everything works great!

It’s really unfortunate that Jason didn’t want to take a few minutes to troubleshoot an issue that is a result of him not keeping his own plugin up to date.

Jason, please update the plugin with the most recent version of TGMPA when you get a chance so others don’t experience the same issue.

Scott, thanks again for chiming in on this!

Glad to help, @jaykdoe. I’m sure that Jason not getting to this issue right away has nothing to do with a lack of desire to contribute. PMPro is a major contribution to the WP community, and the vast majority of the work is done by Jason and his wife Kimberly, and shared with hundreds of thousands of WP users — completely open source and free of charge.

BTW… I chose a different solution that is simpler and works because I am willing to hack the plugin and maintain it manually. See:

https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/is-tgmpa-really-necessary

I too am having the same problem and it is DEFINITELY related to my theme. Here is the error that appears in the browser on the server after the plugin is activated and I return to the plugins page within the admin panel.

“PHP Warning: get_class() called without object from outside a class in C:\Inetpub\vhosts\sedm.org\httpdocs\wp-content\themes\kleo\kleo-framework\lib\class-tgm-plugin-activation.php on line 3010 PHP Warning: call_user_func() expects parameter 1 to be a valid callback, first array member is not a valid class name or object in C:\Inetpub\vhosts\sedm.org\httpdocs\wp-content\themes\kleo\kleo-framework\lib\class-tgm-plugin-activation.php on line 3010”

The problem happens even though the TGM Plugin Activation version 2.5.0 is installed. When I try to manually activate it, the above error happens again.

I am running the Kleo theme, version 3.0.6:
https://seventhqueen.com/themedemo/#kleo
https://seventhqueen.com/premium-wordpress-themes

Also running WordPress 4.3 and PHP 5.5.28. The bbpress pmpro addon is version 1.3.

When is this going to be fixed?

The same applies: https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/tgm-plugin-activation-error-with-version-13-update-today?replies=3

This was fixed in TGMPA v2.5.2 – the Kleo theme and/or the pmpro bbpress plugin should upgrade the version they include. One of them is using v2.5.0/1. (The other probably an even more outdated one ?? – actually, yes, just checked pmpro bbpress is using v2.3.6 which is nearly three years old/outdated. )

Installing the TGM 2.5.2 plugin doesn’t solve the problem. Now:
1. There is a warning to update to 1.3 of the pmpro bbpress addon.
2. When you tell it to update, nothing happens.
3. When you look at the 1.3 changelog, its EMPTY!

There is STILL something wrong.

Thanks anyway, but no cigar.
Here is the fix:
1. You can’t do an auto update from within wordpress 4.3. That will try to update to 1.2 instead of 1.3.
2. The WordPress plugins directory still lists version 1.2 as the latest, even though the plugin itself tries to update to 1.3.
https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/pmpro-bbpress/
3. You have to download the 1.3 update from GitHub and bypass the auto update from within WordPress.
https://github.com/strangerstudios/pmpro-bbpress

Jason needs to add version 1.3 to the wordpress plugin directory so that the auto update from the plugin directory will work. Until he does this, the above manual procedure is necessary.

I posted a permanent solution that is working great for me and also makes my entire site perform slightly better:

https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/is-tgmpa-really-necessary

Since it involves changing the code of the plugin, you don’t want it to auto-update. You can prevent auto-updating by changing the Plugin Name (line 3) to something like this:

* Plugin Name: Paid Memberships Pro - bbPress Add On (FIXED)

The only caveat is that you might need to manually update the plugin if there are any major changes to the way PMPro works in a future version.