The latest update to the plugin adds in advertising in the admin page, which is both discouraged, but also provides external tracking as the images are hosted off site. The ads are affiliate links.
I took a screenshot of the dashboard at https://interi.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/change-db-prefix-admin-ads.png.
The images are hosted (ex https://www.webwatchdog.io/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/wwd-300×250-ver1.jpg) and the links are https://www.webwatchdog.io/?ref=Creativedev.
Please see guidelines #7 and #11 (emphasis mine):
7. The plugin may not “phone home” or track users without their informed, explicit, opt-in consent.
In the interest of protecting user privacy, plugins may not contact external servers without the explicit consent of the user via requiring registration with a service or a checkbox within the settings. This method is called ‘opt in.’ Documentation on how any user data is collected, and used, should be included in the plugin’s readme, preferably with a clearly stated privacy policy.
This restriction includes the following:
No unauthorized collection of user data. Users may be asked to submit information but it cannot be automatically recorded without explicit confirmation from the user.
Intentionally misleading users into submitting information as a requirement for use of the plugin itself is prohibited.
Images and scripts should be loaded locally as part of the plugin whenever possible. If external data (such as blocklists) is required, their inclusion must be made clear to the user.
Any third party advertisement mechanisms used within the plugin must have all tracking features disabled by default. Advertisement mechanisms which do not have the capability of disabling user tracking features are prohibited.The sole exception to this policy is Software as a Service, such as Twitter, an Amazon CDN plugin, or Akismet. By installing, activating, registering, and configuring plugins that utilize those services, consent is granted for those systems.
and
11. The plugin should not hijack the admin dashboard.
Users prefer and expect plugins to feel like part of WordPress. Constant nags and overwhelming the admin dashboard with unnecessary alerts detract from this experience.
Upgrade prompts, notices, and alerts should be limited in scope and used sparingly or only on the plugin’s setting page. Any site wide notices or embedded dashboard widgets must be dismissible. Error messages and alerts should include information on how to resolve the situation, and remove themselves when completed.
Advertising within the WordPress Dashboard should be avoided. While developers are permitted to promote their own products and services, historically they have been ineffective; ideally users rarely visit these screens. Remember: tracking referrals via those ads is not permitted (see guideline 7) and most third-party systems do not permit back-end advertisements (notably, Google). Abusing the guidelines of an advertising system will result in such actions being reported.
Developers are welcome and encouraged to include links to their own sites or social networks, as well as locally (within the plugin) including images to enhance that experience.
Please roll back the changes or remove those ads as soon as possible.
]]>Has anyone used this plugin with the latest version of WordPress?
]]>Hello this plugin was suggested in woocomerce pages as a fix to having no download link supplied after making a payment through paypal. Once the payment has been taken there is no download link.
I installed and used the plugin as instructed. After plugin use, the page turned to a new wordpress install, and i had to start from a fresh.
I completely lost the website, no pages, no images all gone..
I had to re install from a previous back up of the database to recover the website.
Do you think there is a safe way to install this plugin and fix the small problem of not getting a download link after paying with paypal and getting the link to download the PDF?
this was suggested by woocommerce as a quick solution to this problem, but it did not work out such a quick solution.
Hello,
I would like to translate your plugin in french but the necessary functions aren’t available.
Could you update your plugin in order to enable internationalization ?
Thanks for your help !
Alex
Dear Bhumi,
used your great plugin, but unfortunate something went wrong and I can’t find the solutions in the support forum: Got the following message when run the plug-in:
All tables have been successfully updated with prefix xxx_wp !
Changing database prefix:
Changing value: xxx_wpuser_roles in table xxx_wpoptions: Failed
Changing values in table xxx_wpusermeta: Failed
The wp-config file has been successfully updated with prefix xxx_wp!
I guess my mistake is that I missed to use an additional underscore after xxx_wp ?
Tried to fix it also via myphp admin but not really so familiar with it.
So any advice would be very much appreciated.
Thanks!
Sirpa
All,
Just a note, if you’re using OPCache (or any PHP caching), you’ll want to restart apache (apachectl graceful) after changing your prefix. Otherwise, the site will act like it’s brand new!
]]>Hi,
I notice in the screen shots that the current prefix is required, dose this mean the plugin wont work on my prefixless tables? The site was set up 5 years ago and I don’t think prefixes were enforced then.
e.g: “options” not “wp_options”
All the solutions I’ve found seem to require the wp_ to find / replace against.
Best regards,
Paul
Just a suggestion.
For security I have placed wp-config one directory below the WP installation(root)
When I changed the prefix it said that the wp-config had been altered, but it wasn’t.
I altered this manually, but you may want to look into this scenario as WP security is ramping up and there will be more installation like this
(All mine are!)
Hi,
I don’t believe that you are from India. Today i installed your plugin “Change DB Prefix” and its so good and also save my time.
In future i will contact you for making WP template specially for my site.
Also i try to contact you at : “www.creativedev.in/contact-us/” but receiving error : Failed to send your message. Please try later or contact the administrator by another method.
Thanks a lot for your good work.
As some people have noted in the poor reviews, there are some blatant code errors in the plugin that need to be fixed.
All WordPress plugin developers should use WP_DEBUG to prevent easily fixable errors before releasing them to the WordPress plugin directory.
We run WP_DEBUG with logging on all of our test sites, and this plugin filled up our debug.log with many copies of the following errors as soon as we activated it:
PHP Notice: wp_register_style was called <strong>incorrectly</strong>. Scripts and styles should not be registered or enqueued until the <code>wp_enqueue_scripts</code>, <code>admin_enqueue_scripts</code>, or <code>login_enqueue_scripts</code> hooks. Please see <a href="https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Debugging_in_WordPress">Debugging in WordPress</a> for more information. (This message was added in version 3.3.) in /XXXXXX/wp-includes/functions.php on line 3560
PHP Notice: wp_enqueue_style was called <strong>incorrectly</strong>. Scripts and styles should not be registered or enqueued until the <code>wp_enqueue_scripts</code>, <code>admin_enqueue_scripts</code>, or <code>login_enqueue_scripts</code> hooks. Please see <a href="https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Debugging_in_WordPress">Debugging in WordPress</a> for more information. (This message was added in version 3.3.) in /XXXXXX/test-blog1/wp-includes/functions.php on line 3560
PHP Notice: wp_register_script was called <strong>incorrectly</strong>. Scripts and styles should not be registered or enqueued until the <code>wp_enqueue_scripts</code>, <code>admin_enqueue_scripts</code>, or <code>login_enqueue_scripts</code> hooks. Please see <a href="https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Debugging_in_WordPress">Debugging in WordPress</a> for more information. (This message was added in version 3.3.) in /XXXXXX/wp-includes/functions.php on line 3560
PHP Notice: wp_enqueue_script was called <strong>incorrectly</strong>. Scripts and styles should not be registered or enqueued until the <code>wp_enqueue_scripts</code>, <code>admin_enqueue_scripts</code>, or <code>login_enqueue_scripts</code> hooks. Please see <a href="https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Debugging_in_WordPress">Debugging in WordPress</a> for more information. (This message was added in version 3.3.) in /XXXXXX/wp-includes/functions.php on line 3560The scripts and styles in your plugin are not coded correctly. In lines 12-17 you have this:
wp_register_style('dbStyle',plugins_url('css/style.css',__FILE__));
wp_enqueue_style('dbStyle');
wp_register_script('jquery.validate',plugins_url('js/jquery.validate.min.js',__FILE__),array('jquery'), false, false);
wp_enqueue_script('jquery.validate');
wp_register_script('util',plugins_url('js/util.js',__FILE__),array('jquery'), false, false);
wp_enqueue_script('util');You don’t want to just drop this code in there like that. Please see the WordPress standards for enqueueing scripts and styles.
wp_enqueue_script() – https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Function_Reference/wp_enqueue_scriptwp_enqueue_style() – https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Function_Reference/wp_enqueue_styleIf you see from the examples the relevant commands are inside functions, and are enqueued by using add_action() to hook the function that enqueues your scripts/styles at the right time in the loading process. See this for a rundown of the order of action hooks in a WordPress page load: https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Plugin_API/Action_Reference
This explains how to properly add the action for your enqueueing function(s) to the hook ‘wp_enqueue_scripts’: https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Plugin_API/Action_Reference/wp_enqueue_scripts
Since your scripts are only used in the admin, you should use ‘admin_enqueue_scripts’: https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Plugin_API/Action_Reference/admin_enqueue_scripts
Also, you’ll want to see the section “Example: Target a Specific Admin Page” and make sure it’s only added to your plugin’s settings page.
I would also recommend Googling how to properly enqueue scripts and styles as there are some good tutorials out there.
We also got the following errors:
PHP Notice: Undefined index: dbprefix_hidden in /XXXXXX/wp-content/plugins/db-prefix-change/dbprefix_admin.php on line 3
PHP Notice: Undefined variable: bprefix_Message in /XXXXXX/wp-content/plugins/db-prefix-change/dbprefix_admin.php on line 34
PHP Notice: Undefined variable: bprefix_Message in /XXXXXX/wp-content/plugins/db-prefix-change/dbprefix_admin.php on line 82
PHP Notice: Undefined index: dbprefix_hidden in /XXXXXX/wp-content/plugins/db-prefix-change/dbprefix_admin.php on line 86These relate to not initializing PHP variables with a default value.
And last, we got the following error:
PHP Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /XXXXXX/wp-admin/includes/template.php:1935) in /xxxxxx/wp-content/plugins/db-prefix-change/dbprefix_admin.php on line 50The referenced code is:
header("location:".admin_url() . '/options-general.php?page=' . $_GET['page']);
This also relates to not being hooked at the right time in the load process. The headers have already been sent when your code is processed. Once headers have been sent, any other header() directives will cause errors and won’t be executed.
The plugin does do the job it’s supposed to do, which I give you kudos for. But with all these errors, you’re only halfway there. I can’t really recommend this plugin to anyone until these issues are fixed.
]]>The new version, 1.3 works fine with 4.2.2
Make wp-config.php writable (777) before using and enter your new prefix in full, such as wp_12345_
Then reset wp-config.php permissions (644). I then deleted the plugin, as it is not needed unless you want to change it again.
I found this plugin after unsuccessfully trying to do it manually through cPanel.
]]>Download the improved db-prefix-change_1.3 version
]]>This plugin working but if i on debug option then show this message “
Notice: wp_register_style was called incorrectly. Scripts and styles should not be registered or enqueued until the wp_enqueue_scripts, admin_enqueue_scripts, or login_enqueue_scripts”
Please update this plugin.
]]>After successfully installing plugin and changing DB prefix, pictures now do not load.
Please help?
Thank you!
]]>Hi,
Reporting possible bug…
With Debug mode on, and Change DB Prefix activated, I get the following messages on every page load, including front end and admin dashboard. When I deactivate CDBP, the notices go away.
Notice: wp_register_style was called incorrectly. Scripts and styles should not be registered or enqueued until the wp_enqueue_scripts, admin_enqueue_scripts, or login_enqueue_scripts hooks. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 3.3.) in /Users/***/wp-includes/functions.php on line 3245
Notice: wp_register_script was called incorrectly. Scripts and styles should not be registered or enqueued until the wp_enqueue_scripts, admin_enqueue_scripts, or login_enqueue_scripts hooks. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 3.3.) in /Users/***/wp-includes/functions.php on line 3245
Thanks!
]]>Hi !
i just changed the prefix successfully. the site work, the admin work.
But when I Did that, i was redirect to the install.php page… which don’t say that there is an already existing wordpress site.
what must I do ?
Fill the form and nothing will happend ?
or leave it as it is ? but is this a security problem ?
thanks for the answer ??
]]>Hi,
I recently installed the Change DB prefix pluginand ran it as instructed. It said that it had changed my prefixes and no errors were shown.
However, when I try to access my website, it takes me to the wordpress installation page. I have looked in my website directory and all the wordpress files still have the ‘wp-‘ prefix and not what I changed it to. My wp-config file still has the table prefix as ‘wp_’.
Can anyone help as I am lost as to what to do and cannot access my site.
Thanks.
Alan
]]>The DB prefix changing worked fine for me! Thanks for that.
Just a curious side effect: when activated, the plugin’s CSS added some unwanted properties to at least my whole WordPress .container class.
For instance I add a margin-top:20px; added which come on the top of the properties defined in my website’s container class, thus messing up the design.
I just had to desactivate the plugin after use and everything became as usual.
]]>If I use this plug in to change the db prefix once that is done can I remove the plug in or does it need to remain installed and activated to continue to do some type of redirect?
Thanks.
When you use this with 3.8 and apply the db change you get a php warning complaining that the contents were already being sent back to the browser when it reached the header(..) function in the dbprefix_admin.php (line #49). As such this plugin cant redirect the page to show the final results.
I checked the database for all the changes (to confirm that everything went ok) and indeed it did.
So besides having a visual problem and not indicating to the user that all went well this plugin works. But for the average user they will rightfully think its broken so it should be fixed.
]]>Hi,
I ran this plugin on a WP site and got the following errors –
Changing value: mdv_user_roles in table mdv_options: Failed
Changing values in table mdv_usermeta: Failed
Is there a way to quickly reverse to original prefix?
Thanks!
After I installed Change DB Prefix, it gives me this error.
Notice: wp_register_style was called incorrectly. Scripts and styles should not be registered or enqueued until the wp_enqueue_scripts, admin_enqueue_scripts, or login_enqueue_scripts hooks. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 3.3.) in /home/xxxxxxx/public_html/wp-includes/functions.php on line 3060When I’m renaming the database prefix it will case any issue?
]]>I used caps and a dash like SSDD22_ got the error “Warning: Cannot modify header information – headers already sent by (output started at /home/site/public_html/wp-admin/includes/template.php:1642) in /home/site/public_html/wp-content/plugins/db-prefix-change/dbprefix_admin.php on line 49
Will this change all new prefixes when plugins are added btw?
https://www.ads-software.com/extend/plugins/db-prefix-change/
]]>Will it work on my multi site
I have a plain vanilla multisite no sub folders
I add new site from the admin panel and nothing else
Thank you
SVitucci
https://www.ads-software.com/extend/plugins/db-prefix-change/
]]>HELP! I did as suggested in Hardening WordPress and changed my database prefix to something other than wp_. I used the recommended official wp plugin “change db prefix”, as I don’t know enough yet to mess around with my databases manually. BUT once I activated the plugin, I got logged out of my wp-admin and cannot get back in again. And of course the catch-22 is, that I can’t change the database back using the plugin unless I’m logged in to wp admin!!
What do I do please?
Is it possible that having Bulletproof Security activated somehow requires or calls to the databases by their old name?
https://www.ads-software.com/extend/plugins/db-prefix-change/
]]>I love this plugin! It does everything it should do to the database to change the table prefix. The only thing it doesn’t do is update the table prefix in the wp-config.php file. Would it be possible to add this feature to the plugin?
Thanks for considering it,
Fred Chapman
https://www.ads-software.com/extend/plugins/db-prefix-change/
]]>Can’t login to WordPress after using this.
What’s the fix?
https://www.ads-software.com/extend/plugins/db-prefix-change/
]]>Thanks for this handy plugin! I tested it on a new WordPress site, and it does everything that this article says it should:
https://digwp.com/2010/10/change-database-prefix/
I’m very happy to add this plugin to my admin toolkit.
Thanks again,
Fred Chapman
https://www.ads-software.com/extend/plugins/db-prefix-change/
]]>