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WordPress

Posted by Thomas Wright
Thomas Wright
13,747 Points

Gravity Forms "How to Build a Wordpress Theme" Conflict

Hey, everyone!

I've been working on a client website for a little while now. I basically took what I learned form the "How to Build a Wordpress Theme" tutorial and have been building it from there using other online resources when I run into issues or things I want to do.

The problem I'm having, and maybe someone else could be having, is that when I use the Gravity Forms to set up PayPal, I get no response in the "Total" field which should be adding up the price for the items selected.

I wrote Gravity Forms and they said to switch themes and see if it worked. I went back to the Twenty Eleven theme and tested the form and it worked. So... on to my real question.

If I have a problem with a plugin like this not working with my theme, where do you start for debugging it? So far, I think I've followed all conventional wisdom for theme creation.

Thanks for any ideas or resources you can suggest!

-Thomas

1 Answer

Matt Campbell
Matt Campbell
9,767 Points
Matt Campbell
Matt Campbell
9,767 Points

Plugins working in some themes and not others can truly be a nightmare. Also, the fact you are essentially using a plugin within a plugin, just makes it harder.

The only way to debug is to go backwards to the point where what isn't working no longer exists. The chances are, along the way, something will suddenly start to work and you'll have found where the problem is. I had a similar debugging nightmare the other day and it took me hours of removing bits of my themes code to find what was causing the problem. Once I had deleted a block of code and the plugin functioned again, I could reimplement it and focus on those few lines of code for the solution.

It's very difficult to give advice specifically for your issue without seeing the roar WordPress files and code. Perhaps a link to your WordPress site may be of use, but unlikely what with what WordPress being like it is...output ode is nothing like input code.

I'd be happy to help out for a few minutes over the weekend if you're still stuck. Add me on Skype: th3m8dh8tt3r

I'm out tonight and busy tomorrow morning so will be available from around 4pm GMT.

Tough one finding issues, I feel your pain.

Thomas Wright
Thomas Wright
13,747 Points

Matthew,

Thank you so much for your quick response! I love that about this forum.

Within 5 minutes after going into my theme to try weeding out the problem, I had it solved. So, it turns out that the the "theme_js" was the conflict. Since I wasn't using the flexslider.js that was part of the tutorial, I didn't need that code anyways.

What I did was put in the /* */ tags around different elements, saving, and refreshing until the problem was resolved. Doing it that way meant there was no risk of losing any valuable coding.

Thanks again for your help!

-Thomas, Denver, CO

Matt Campbell
Matt Campbell
9,767 Points
Matt Campbell
Matt Campbell
9,767 Points

That's great Thomas. Unfortunately, while time consuming, taking things out till things work again is the only way find those little blighters causing issues.