elffuts

That’s pretty much what I’m doing. I have a localhost WP installation where I’m testing things before I make the site live. Some themes cause the error message to appear, and others don’t. In most of those cases I may be able to use the theme today, but if I try it again tomorrow I get the error. The next day, it may or may not cause the error again. How can it be the theme causing the error if it’s not consistent?

I’ve seen some “fixes” posted, but they generally require me to modify a WP js file, and I don’t think it should be “my” place to fix what looks to me like a WP problem. I’m just a user, not a developer. What can I do?

When you start out by telling me that “This is not a message output by WordPress”, I immediately lose confidence in any other comments you may make. It is clearly output by WordPress, although I can readily agree that WordPress is likely reacting to something else misbehaving. But, as I said in an earlier comment, it’s not consistent. Sometimes I get the error, and other times — under exactly the same circumstances — I don’t. When it isn’t repeatable, I don’t know where to turn for help. The only thing that’s the same every time I get the message is WordPress, so here I am. Why the question wouldn’t be supported by this forum is something I, and apparently many others (who started other similar threads), don’t understand.

The error message itself is infuriatingly useless, in that it tells one exactly nothing about what the problem is. It’s no more useful than the message “Windows has encountered an error.” Believe it or not, I might actually have enough brains to figure out what to do if the message meant something to me.

I know very well that many of the “folks” here have contributed for a long time, and honestly try to help. But, it doesn’t help to tell me to avoid sleazy themes. That’s not the problem!

I’d be a lot more comfortable doing so if I could tell them that I received an error message that meant something, rather than some WP programmer’s idea of a clever message that means little to anyone other than to satisfy his or her own sense of humor (or lack of same).

Every single thread I’ve found that’s related to this error message ends up unresolved, with the thread closed after 6 or 8 messages. I can’t help wondering why the experts, whoever they may be, are so unwilling or unable to help those of us who don’t claim to be programmers. Is it not true that themes in the WP archive have supposedly been reviewed and tested for such problems before being accepted for listing there?

I too am sorry for your issues, but “support” to me means something other than an irrelevant response to my plea for help. This is the same thing I’ve seen in other threads related to the same error message — blame it on the user rather than help discover the true root of the problem.

I notice that you chose to attack me for my perceived insubordination rather than respond to my questions. I really could use some relevant assistance instead.

Like I said earlier, if you don’t know the answer, please leave it up to a more knowledgeable member to respond. I AM NOT using some fly-by-night site’s infected themes!

If you don’t know the answer, please don’t waste your and my time with an answer like that that helps no one.

If it’s not a message output by WordPress, how is it that it’s always exactly the same wording? Surely those improper folks wouldn’t just happen to tell me they’re such by all producing exactly the same message telling me I shouldn’t be using their product, would they? They’re not that stupid, any more than I am.

All of the themes I’m looking at came from the WP archive or a reputable site.

As the originator of this topic, I can say that it is incorrectly labeled as resolved. After several tries, I gave up. The problem was never solved, but if I read the last few replies correctly, I was told that I really didn’t need what I was asking for. If that’s the case, why have I found dozens of other themes where the menus work like I asked?

As I said, I’m not a css programmer. Can you please give me a more detailed description about where I should insert those changes? Is it between lines 102 and 103? or where?

Thank you!

I wish I knew enough about CSS to feel comfortable making that change. Unfortunately, I can’t even find the place to add the code lines you provided. Are you planning to make available an updated version of Raindrops that includes this change?

Sorry to say that I never was able to get it to work. Had success with many other themes, but never with Raindrops.

Yes, the warning message is gone. But, the menus sill don’t work.

I don’t know how to put a screen shot in here, but I could send one as an email attachment.

In the meantime, when I try Raindrops, I get this error message at the top of the screen, “Warning: Illegal string offset ‘widget_ids’ in /homepages/6/d172544949/htdocs/IAS/wp-content/themes/raindrops-1.232/functions.php on line 7306”

Does that help?

I’m just a user, not enough of a css programmer to understand your comments. And, I don’t mean to argue, but I just tried six other themes, and my menus work properly with all six. Therefore, it seems to me that the problem must be with the Raindrops theme.

Thank you for the quick reply, but now neither menu appears as it should.

Please check my website at https://www.idacadsci.org

When the mouse cursor hovers over “About IAS” in the navigation bar, a drop-down menu appears, then when the cursor hovers over “Awards” in that menu, a second drop-down menu appears to the right of the first one. Neither of those drop-down menus appears with Raindrops ver 1.230

Might it clean up some of the problems if I re-install WP 3.9?

To answer your last question, I’m having a pretty hard time grinning and giggling right now.

Same host, yes. Different themes. Different sets of plugins.

I don’t know how to install and run a “local” version. I’ve always installed WP on a remote Linux server — initially by FTP, but then automatic updates until now. My PC doesn’t run Linux, so I’m not sure even how to start setting up a local version.