Debugging in WordPress – Best Tips By Experts
There’s certainly no such thing as flawless coding, and it’s a webmaster’s nightmare every time bugs appear on their websites or plugins. But today, we’re going to show you tips about how to debug WordPress, helping you find out stuff that could get out of your control.
What Does Debugging Mean?
Debugging, or simply debug, means to identify and remove bugs or errors in your code. The final step of debugging is to test the code correction and ensure that the problem doesn’t happen again. This is mainly performed by developers using debugging tools, and it’s a part of a routine in the software development stage.
Debugging should be achieved using techniques such as unit testing, code analysis, and pair programming. So, before the code or program is released to the consumers, the developers will attempt to identify bugs and then isolate them and repair them. Often, updating the code might be a real hassle since it could take longer than writing the code itself.
Tips For Debugging Problems In WordPress
If your WordPress site crashes or has a white death screen (WSoD), the usual approach is to uninstall plugins/themes and search for their updates. Although this is helpful in tracking down the guilty party, it can be time-consuming, inefficient, and you may even let the real problem slip unnoticed. That’s why using the right resources might be a total game-changer.
Activate WP_DEBUG
Activating WP-DEBUG is perhaps the best way to record issues on a WordPress account. Although, unfortunately, some developers don’t do this, most likely because they forget that this functionality exists. WP DEBUG is a constant that activates a “debug” mode in WordPress, which can be found in the wp-config.php file. Your log will document all the events on your web and help you fix any problems. In this tutorial, we discussed more comprehensive instructions on WP DEBUG.
Enable WPDB Error Reporting
You will allow WPDB error monitoring to detect any issues relating to the database. The global $wpdb object has a variable called $show errors. And if you set this to valid, you can make WordPress output SQL errors to the screen on every query. To allow this, go to your/public html/wp-includes/wp-db.php and open the file. Check the wpdb class and update the $show errors variable to true. Change the $show errors variable to true.
Check Your Website’s Error Logs
Often, when visiting the site, you can find an interval server error page. And to address this issue, you can review your website error logs. Doing a general log audit can allow both beginners and experienced developers to identify a problem with the website. You can also use Google search to find a solution. We discussed more comprehensive measures to review the error log of the website in this tutorial.
Use WordPress Staging Environment when Tweaking Your Code
If you want to minimize errors on the WordPress platform, you can do that by first implementing the code on the staging site. The staging site is like an identical clone of your live site and can be hosted on a private subdomain. This platform serves as a testing area for any codes you want to promote for your live site. Mostly, this setting is not accessible to users and search engines. So you will have more freedom to tweak, tune, and test the improvements you want to make without compromising the public, live platform.
Enable SCRIPT_DEBUG
By default, WordPress uses a minimized version of CSS and JavaScript files to help increase the loading time of your web. This may be a concern, though, since it can mask errors in the scripts/plugins that you use. To alter the execution of the script, WordPress also includes a constant that can be applied to the wp-config.php file, that is:
define( ‘SCRIPT_DEBUG’, true );
- Enable SCRIPT_DEBUG in the wp-config.php
- When the value is defined as true, WordPress will automatically load the non-minified versions of all CSS and JavaScript files, making all plugins use their full version.
Detect PHP Errors
You can spot PHP errors early on in your scripts using PHP info. This file is capable of outputting information about the current state of PHP, including compilation options and extensions, version, environment, OS version, HTTP headers, and authorization.
You will customize the php.ini file to allow error reporting. However, some hosting providers, including the Hostinger shared hosting package, disable this option.
This is because you don’t have root access to allow the functionality.
But alternatively, you can use the PHP code checker, which gives you a quick helper to check the botches in your code. You may also use IDEs like Eclipse or PHPStorm for a more in-depth analysis.
Take Advantage of Some Debugging Tools
If you need the flexibility to track bugs on your WordPress blog, you can also use WordPress Debugging plugins.
Query Monitor
Query monitor to debug WordPress. This plugin includes a WordPress Developer Tool Panel. You can allow database requests, PHP bugs, HTTP API calls, hooks & activities, stop editor blocks, queued scripts & stylesheets, and more. Additionally, you can also use the Debug Bar to Simply Show Hooks to help you debug your WordPress platform. However, these two plugins may have compatibility problems with the new edition of WordPress.
New Relic
New relic tracking apps to debug WordPress. You may even do a more stable debug using a paid platform, including New Relic. This app can help you track user experience, chart the WordPress architecture, review and enhance site performance, and identify anomalies before they appear. Both of these features will allow you to collect troubleshooting data so that you can have the best possible customer experience. You will try New Relic for 14 days free of charge.
Conclusion
These are all the tips you need to hear about debugging WordPress websites. As a developer, you need to find and address bugs before you push any code/plugins to the customer. As a webmaster, you should even use debugging software to figure out what triggers output problems on your website.
You should do the following to debug your WordPress site:
- Activate WP_DEBUG
- Enable WPDB Error Reporting
- Check Your Website’s Error Logs
- Use WordPress Staging Environment when Tweaking Your Code
- Enable SCRIPT_DEBUG
- Detect PHP Errors
- Use Debugging Tools such as Query Monitor or New Relic
Best of luck debugging your WordPress website; we hope you’ll be able to ease your issues to ensure a smooth visitor’s experience.
Read More : How to create a custom WordPress theme from scratch?
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