TitoZ

That worked – thanks for the reply. This topic can now be closed.

Hi Takayuki, just wanted to get back to you to let you know I narrowed down the problem to the use of a plugin named Contact Form 7 to Database Extension by Michael Simpson.

The plugin is old and has not been updated for years. After deactivating this plugin and replacing it with the plugin named CF7DB, which does pretty much the same thing, Contact Form 7 was able to send messages using PHP8.1.

Thanks for the help with this issue.

Hi Takayuki,

Thanks for your prompt response. Below is a list of the themes and plugins used on the site. I put an arrow to the left of the Contact Form 7 to Database extension which I suspect could be the problem. The plugin is no longer available and has not been updated for six years. I need to test the form on PHP8.1 with this plugin disabled to prove this theory.

`### wp-dropins (3) ###

advanced-cache.php: true
db.php: true
object-cache.php: true

wp-active-theme

name: Flood Panel 2019 (flawless-child)
version: 1.5.1549133820
author: Goodlayers
author_website: https://www.goodlayers.com
parent_theme: Flawless (flawless)
theme_features: core-block-patterns, widgets, automatic-feed-links, woocommerce, widgets-block-editor, post-thumbnails, menus, post-formats, editor-style
auto_update: Disabled

wp-parent-theme

name: Flawless (flawless)
version: 1.8.6
author: Goodlayers
author_website: https://www.goodlayers.com
auto_update: Disabled

wp-themes-inactive (2)

Flood Panel: author: Flood Expert, version: (undefined), Auto-updates disabled
Twenty Twenty-Three: version: 1.1, author: the WordPress team, Auto-updates disabled

wp-plugins-active (34)

ARVE Advanced Responsive Video Embedder: version: 9.10.3, author: Nicolas Jonas, Auto-updates disabled
bbPress: version: 2.6.9, author: The bbPress Contributors, Auto-updates disabled
BP Group Documents: version: 1.20.1, author: lenasterg, Auto-updates disabled
BuddyPress: version: 11.1.0, author: The BuddyPress Community, Auto-updates disabled
Classic Editor: version: 1.6.3, author: WordPress Contributors, Auto-updates disabled
Classic Widgets: version: 0.3, author: WordPress Contributors, Auto-updates disabled
Contact Form 7: version: 5.7.5.1, author: Takayuki Miyoshi, Auto-updates disabled

-> Contact Form DB: version: 2.10.29, author: Michael Simpson, Auto-updates disabled

Controls for Contact Form 7: version: 0.8.0, author: Kaspars Dambis, Auto-updates disabled
Envato Market: version: 2.0.8, author: Envato, Auto-updates disabled
Goodlayers Importer: version: 1.0.0, author: Goodlayers, Auto-updates disabled
Goodlayers Portflio Post Type: version: 1.0.0, author: Goodlayers, Auto-updates disabled
Goodlayers Shortcode: version: 1.0, author: Goodlayers, Auto-updates disabled
Google Doc Embedder: version: 2.6.4, author: Kevin Davis, Dan Lester, Auto-updates disabled
Invite Anyone: version: 1.4.3, author: Boone Gorges, Auto-updates disabled
LayerSlider: version: 7.5.3, author: Kreatura Media (latest version: 7.7.1), Auto-updates disabled
Page Links To: version: 3.3.6, author: Mark Jaquith, Auto-updates disabled
Page scroll to id: version: 1.7.7, author: malihu, Auto-updates disabled
Premium SEO: version: 6.2, author: Web SEO Services, Auto-updates disabled
Really Simple CAPTCHA: version: 2.1, author: Takayuki Miyoshi, Auto-updates disabled
Really Simple SSL: version: 6.2.4, author: Really Simple Plugins, Auto-updates disabled
ReCaptcha v2 for Contact Form 7: version: 1.4.3, author: IQComputing, Auto-updates disabled
Recent Posts Widget Extended: version: 2.0.2, author: Ga Satrya, Auto-updates disabled
Say What?: version: 2.1.4, author: Ademti Software, Auto-updates disabled
Shortcake (Shortcode UI): version: 0.7.4, author: Fusion Engineering and community, Auto-updates disabled
Simple 301 Redirects: version: 2.0.7, author: WPDeveloper, Auto-updates disabled
Smush: version: 3.12.6, author: WPMU DEV, Auto-updates disabled
UpdraftPlus - Backup/Restore: version: 1.23.3, author: UpdraftPlus.Com, DavidAnderson, Auto-updates enabled
W3 Total Cache: version: 2.3.1, author: BoldGrid, Auto-updates disabled
Wordfence Security: version: 7.9.2, author: Wordfence, Auto-updates disabled
WP-DBManager: version: 2.80.9, author: Lester 'GaMerZ' Chan, Auto-updates disabled
WP Content Copy Protection & No Right Click: version: 3.5.3, author: wp-buy, Auto-updates disabled
WP Courseware: version: 4.9.9, author: Fly Plugins, Auto-updates disabled
Yoast SEO: version: 20.5, author: Team Yoast, Auto-updates disabled

wp-plugins-inactive (1)

Akismet Anti-Spam: version: 5.1, author: Automattic, Auto-updates disabled

Hi Maybelline, you are correct. I am using the %%excerpt%% variable to attempt to create the meta description tag dynamically from the post content.

However, on the snippet preview, all I see are the Avada builder shortcodes – there’s so many no actual copy makes it into the snippet. See this screenshot:

https://paste.pics/ad12979cad439e598a76f6555e4d0b20

It looks like the Yoast plugin is ignoring the shortcodes and not generating a meta description at all because there is no content to add after filtering out the shortcodes. See this screenshot for what the source code shows on the front end to admin users:

https://paste.pics/2e3d010ef17902a9e7d1487682c8b89e

Thanks in advance for any insight you may be able to offer. We are aware that we can manually insert a meta description but we are trying to avoid that as there are dozens of pages and posts on this site that don’t have a meta description and we would rather handle it dynamically with the variable.

I am making this issue as resolved now.

Hi Jeroen,

Thanks for your prompt reply and for the suggestions. I looked at the pages in that date range and found that someone had used the “Page Links To” plugin to redirect a page to “#”. This is why the pound mark was showing up in the XML sitemap.

I set the plugin to use the page’s normal URL and saved the page as a draft, as the intent was to make it inaccessible to the public.

Thanks again!

Hi there, the issue is not fixed. Please take another look at problem:

https://wordpress-323294-2248706.cloudwaysapps.com/

By the way, this is the clone site the shows the problem:

https://wordpress-323294-2248706.cloudwaysapps.com/

Hi there, it appears you are not seeing what the problem is. Here is a screenshot of the clone site displaying the Post Grid incorrectly:

https://zumatours.net//zt-the-post-grid-01.png

Here is a screenshot of the Post Grid displaying a second instance (which is rendering correctly) under the incorrect instance of the grid:

https://zumatours.net//zt-the-post-grid-02.png

The issue is not related to the equal height CSS. It appears the plugin is rendering the post query incorrectly, then rendering the grid correctly right below.

If you need admin access to the clone site please let us know.

Greetings, I added the CSS you suggested but I still see an incorrect instance of The Post Grid on the home page of the clone site:

https://wordpress-323294-2248706.cloudwaysapps.com

Here is another example of The Post Grid on the same website where the plugin is rendered incorrectly:

https://wordpress-323294-2248706.cloudwaysapps.com/transfers-and-shuttles/

The second example oddly appears to include posts from the home page grid, which it should not since the posts are in different categories.

Please advise.

I fixed the FontAwesome icon issue by adding this custom CSS:

.fa {
font-family: FontAwesome !important;
}

This overrides The Post Grid call to use FontAwesome 5 instead of the theme’s native FontAwesome 4.7.

The issue with the broken post grid still persists, though. Please advise.

Hi there, please take another look at the clone site:

https://wordpress-323294-2248706.cloudwaysapps.com

The second icon from left to right is missing, the one over the text “Fast Water Taxi”.

Below is a set of post grid items which have the wrong featured images (or none), and no excerpt.

If you keep scrolling down, you will see a SECOND instance of the post grid, this one with the correct images and excerpts as the plugin is configured to display this grid.

I don’t think this is a CSS-only problem, and again it only happens if I upgrade the plugin beyond version 2.3.6.6. Please advise and thank you for your help with this.

Hi there, sorry about the confusion. The live site https://www.zumatours.net is using version 2.3.6.6 of the plugin and it works fine.

I cloned the live site and updated the plugin to version 3.0.5 so that you can see how the plugin breaks the layout on the home page and displays a weird version of the post grid on top of a correct version shown below. There are also issues with some FontAwesome icons not displaying.

Please check this version:

https://wordpress-323294-2248706.cloudwaysapps.com

Note that there are no console errors shown on my browser. Please let me know if you would like admin access to the clone site.

The error was flagged by Google Search console. I checked again and the error appears to be gone. I will reach out again should the problem resurface. Thanks for your help!

We can close this ticket at this point, thanks.