Tabs not Showing, Despite in Database

Hi @kiphakes,

Did you migrate your tab data from one environment to another one recently? Have you changed the data via the database in any way?

Let me know.

Thanks,
Kevin.

The site was on a staging server up until recently.. I replaced the url in the database

From
bhctest.co.uk.gridhosted.co.uk

to
https://www.bhcfurniture.co.uk

Although I’m certain the tabs were working after the move.

Thanks
Kip

Hey Kip,

The tab data is saved as a serialized array. Long story short, this means that if you change anything about the tab data directly in the database the tabs will be corrupted.

I would suggest changing the URL back to the previous URL. This should restore your tabs. After doing that, make sure your tabs are working again. If they are, you can use a plugin like https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/search-and-replace/ or https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/better-search-replace/ to change the URLs of the yikes_woo_products_tabs post meta field.

Does that make sense?

Sorry about the hassle.

Cheers,
Kevin.

OK.. I’ll give it a whirl.

What’s the difference between editing the database directly and using the search/replace plugin?

Thanks
Kip

It’s specific to serialized data. Any time an object or array is serialized, PHP will also calculate and store the string length. The next time that object is unserialized, if the number of characters is different than what’s stored, PHP will not use the array (that is what I mean by corrupted). So changing the data directly in the database is changing the length of the string and corrupting the data. By using a plugin, it will grab the serialized data from the database, unserialize it, change the value, and then serialize it again.

I hope that makes sense.

Cheers,
Kevin.

Ahhh.. Thanks for the explanation. So will I need to change back all the urls in all the fields in database or just the yikes_woo_products_tabs one to get it working?

Thanks
Kip

To get the custom tabs working again, you only need to change the yikes_woo_products_tabs fields.

Great. Thanks so much for the help. I’ll give it a whirl!

K

Yep – I think that’s worked – thank you so much!

Awesome! Great news.

-Tracy

@yikesitskevin
Hi,
We are also having the same problem, Tabs are gone away after we changed the site url in database.

Since we are in critical situation need your help to fix it.

Whether it will be visible after we change to old site url?

This problem will be exist on woocommerce update also?

Whether we can buy pro version and upgrade with free version now.

Regarding Plugin sales question?

whether the data will be invisible while woocommerce update on pro version?
And after purchase of pro version the problem of changing site url again will be there?

Hi @prasathwebworld,

Whether it will be visible after we change to old site url?

If your tabs disappeared because you did a search & replace for the URL name in your database, then reversing the search and replace will bring your tabs back.

This problem will be exist on woocommerce update also?

A WooCommerce update shouldn’t affect your tabs.

Whether we can buy pro version and upgrade with free version now.

You are always welcome to buy the Pro version and upgrade. However, please read my answer to the next question.

whether the data will be invisible while woocommerce update on pro version?
And after purchase of pro version the problem of changing site url again will be there?

Again, a WooCommerce update should have no affect on your tabs. However, your data will not automatically come back by purchasing the pro version. You will still need to run the reverse search & replace. Also, the problem of losing tabs after search & replacing items in the DB will be there with the Pro version. The tabs are stored in the same way (serialized data) in both the free and pro versions.

Hope that makes sense. Please ask more questions if you need more help.

Cheers,
Kevin.