All of a sudden Drop down menus not displaying in Magazine Child Theme?

[Diversified Woman]

I am curious what might be the problem but all of a sudden the drop down menus are not visible from our website.

http://defendinggodsword.com/

The blog has the most current version of WP running 3.5.1. 

It utilizes the StudioPress Magazine Child Theme.

The only thing I see is an error which states  '$.browser.msie' is null or not an object

Not sure what this is or what it has to do with...... if anything.

Hope someone can point me in the right direction.

Thanks for your help in advance.

[Diversified Woman]

I should add in that error that appears in the bottom left hand corner related to the  ’$.browser.msie’ is null or not an object error it says below that "superfish.js

Webpage error details

Message: '$.browser.msie' is null or not an object
Line: 11
Char: 1662
Code: 0
URI: http://defendinggodsword.com/wp-content/themes/genesis/lib/js/menu/superfish.js?ver=1.4.8

[Doug]

Diversified Woman,

Has no one responded to you from StudioPress? (I don't have the answer, just curious.)

Doug

[echofoxtrot]

I just looked at your site, in the lower left corner - looks ok to me. Did you get an answer?

[Diversified Woman]

Nope, never got an answer. There are still no drop downs on the primary and secondary navigation. There is also that yellow triangle that says "error on page"  on the bottom left hand corner of browser and when clicked on, it displays the problem which I posted above.

It's sad that no one can offer a solution for this. Surely there must be one. Everything is up to date and only have minimal plugins installed, none of which are the issue.

[AnitaC]

I am using Firefox and can see the drop downs. What browser are you using?

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Need help with customization or troubleshooting? Reach out to me.

[Bill Murray]

1) I am using Firefox, and I don't see drop downs.

2) The fact that no one has offered a solution doesn't mean no one can.

3) "...only have minimal plugins installed, none of which is the issue." Are you sure? It looks like you are loading jquery from Google. This isn't a great idea. Load the jquery that comes with WP. Make that change and post back.

4) Your site throws an increasing number of errors when monitored. Your drop menus are based on javascript. A number of your plugins load javascript, so your drop down menu is caused by either a) your loading jquery or b) a plugin conflict. If you complete #3 above and still see no drop downs, deactivate all plugins and see if you have drop downs. Then, reactive them one by one, and check for drop downs after activating and doing a page refresh. That's how you find the culprit.

Hope that helps.

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Web: https://wpperform.com or Twitter: @wpperform

We do managed WordPress hosting.

[AnitaC]

There is a discussion here about this problem - http://www.studiopress.community/topic/superfish-broken-with-jquery-1-9/. If you try it, make sure your apostrophe's and quotes are the correct ones. Maybe copy/paste into Notepad before copy/paste into your files.

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Need help with customization or troubleshooting? Reach out to me.

[ThunderKitties]

I use firefox for admin and safari to watch my results. I looked at your site from both browsers and didn't get dropdowns either.

I just went through this nightmare on my first WordPress/Genesis/Serenity site. I contacted studiopress directly and copyblogger wrote back:

Please disable all plugins and test, even the plugins you don't think are the problem. Please make sure they are all disabled at once, not just one at a time because sometimes more than one plugin is to blame.

If this gets better you can start turning on your plugins in small groups. I like to go 4 at a time so I get done 4 times faster and narrow the problem to just the 4 plugins when things break again.

If the problem you are trying to diagnose is with one of the StudioPress plugins you may leave that active to see if the other plugins are conflicting with it.
Once you know which plugin(s) is the problem please contact the plugin developer for support.

If disabeling all plugins does not resolve this please report back with as much information as you can about what happened during this part of the testing.

Turns out I had been a little overzealous in installing and activating too many plugins. All came back to normal after deleting plugins I don't need for my current site. I hope this helps you. Good luck.

[Bill Murray]

WP 3.5 doesn't use jQuery 1.9. It uses 1.8.3. See this. WP 3.6 alpha uses jQuery 1.9.1. The problem in this thread and the 1 anitac linked to are due to either a) someone mistakenly thinking there is a benefit to using a newer jQuery than WP ships or b) a plugin that loads a duplicate jQuery. There's virtually no reason to load a version of jQuery other than the one included with WP, and that's especially true for site owners that aren't javacript programmers. It's likely that when jQuery 1.9 is included in WP, other scripts used by Genesis will have been updated to be compatible.

Trying to use something other than jQuery 1.8.3 in WP 3.5 is asking for trouble.

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Web: https://wpperform.com or Twitter: @wpperform

We do managed WordPress hosting.

[Diversified Woman]

Hi Bill Murray,

You mentioned " It looks like you are loading jquery from Google."

Where can I determine this? I honestly don't remember doing that. Where can I tell and how do I go about changing it?

Thank you for your help. Also I have tested this on IE9 and the latest version of Firefox. No fancy dropdowns showing for either browser.

Hi Anitica~
I am thinking it has to do more with the issue you referenced but not quite understanding exactly what needs done with that. It's a bit confusing. It appears that when I updated to WP 3.5 this is when the problem started. I now have 3.5.1

Hi Thunderkitties ~
I have added no new plugins for months.
My Plug-ins are all up-to-date as well.

I am running Askimet, Buzzsprout Podcasting, Fast Secure Contact Form, Genesis Slider, Google XML Sitemaps, my Repono Backup Plugin, Reftagger, Simple Local Avatars, WordPress Editorial Calendar, WP Socializer, WP Touch, and YIKES, Inc Easy Mailchimp Extender

Hopefully this will shed more light on what could be wrong.

[Bill Murray]

1) If you don't remember loading jQuery from Google, it's probably being done by a plugin. This is a bad idea. To fix it, follow #2.

2) Deactivate all of these plugins:
- Buzzsprout Podcasting
- Fast Secure Contact Form
- my Repono Backup Plugin
- Reftagger
- Simple Local Avatars
- WP Socializer
- YIKES, Inc Easy Mailchimp Extender

3) One by one, in the order listed above, reactivate them. After you reactivate one plugin, check your menus. You should find the culprit.

3a) Open your home page in Firefox with Firebug active (if you don't have Firebug loaded, download and install it). Look at the head section. You'll see an entry that looks like:

script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1/jquery.min.js?ver=2.4.6" type="text/javascript"

After each plugin deactivation, check to see when that disappears. That is the plugin that is loading jQuery from Google.

4) Read my comment about versions of jQuery. The thread anitac linked to involves another plugin loading jQuery 1.9. You can't load multiple copies of jQuery, and you should not be loading anything other than the default jQuery that comes with WP. If you did this on your own, my advice is that's a mistake. If you didn't do it on your own, a plugin you loaded did it to you. The fix is the same: deactivate your plugins to track down the culprit. Once you track it down, you can point the plugin author to this thread and leave the plugin deactivated until it's fixed.

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Web: https://wpperform.com or Twitter: @wpperform

We do managed WordPress hosting.

[Diversified Woman]

Hi Bill,

I agree this sounds like the problem but how can I fix it and where can I determine if I am using  jQuery 1.9.1? 

 

[Bill Murray]

1) Don't worry about jQuery for the moment. You just need to deactivate the plugins and do the testing I described.

2) You do NOT want to be using jQuery 1.9.x. If you are using WP 3.5.1 (which I assume you are), you should be running the WP version of jQuery, which is 1.8.3. You can see which jQuery is loading by examining the section of your document source.

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Web: https://wpperform.com or Twitter: @wpperform

We do managed WordPress hosting.

[Diversified Woman]

Ah HA! Well it turns out it is the WP Socializer plugin.

So what Plugin would someone recommend which would give me say the Facebook Like, retweet Twitter button and Share button for other option, which would provide no conflict? Would like the counter showing.  

That's a shame but maybe someone can point me to a Plugin which is conflict free or at least CLOSE!

🙂

[AnitaC]

I used the social icons inside the Jetpack plugin. I actually use most of the features in the Jetpack.

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Need help with customization or troubleshooting? Reach out to me.

[Bill Murray]

@Diversified Woman - Before you go jumping ship on the plugin, what version were you using? We have version 2.4.7 on one of our networks running WP 3.6 alpha, and it seems that the jQuery conflict was fixed in that version. Maybe the fix isn't working on WP 3.5.1. You should try reaching out to the plugin developer, since he has a support forum, which is here. If you weren't running 2.4.7, upgrade, and try the plugin again.

Another plugin that does a similar thing is http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/digg-digg/.

@Anyone reading this: The original poster first believed that “…only have minimal plugins installed, none of which is the issue.”

First, that's not a great approach to solve a problem. Don't develop conclusions about what is or isn't the issue until you've done testing. "none of which is the issue" means to people trying to help on the forum that you've deactivated all plugins and done this testing. Bad starting conclusions only slow down or block getting a solution.

Second, if you are ever given just 1 guess on solving these types of problems, always guess "it's a plugin conflict" and you'll be right a lot. Deactivating plugins and reactivating them 1 x 1 with testing after each activation is standard WP debugging. If you want to run a WP site, get used to it. You can make better guesses about which plugin is the culprit by researching which plugins load which things, but sometimes, those better guesses are just plain wrong, and you have to deactivate them all.

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Web: https://wpperform.com or Twitter: @wpperform

We do managed WordPress hosting.

[Diversified Woman]

I think the problem was I did not deactive them all at once. I will certainly remember this moving forward. Great advice and glad you pointed that out Bill Murray. 🙂

 

[ThunderKitties]

I'm a newbie at WordPress, Genesis, and community forums so greatly appreciate these contributions to Diversified Woman. You've helped me too, and I am grateful. Thank you all for taking the time to troubleshoot and coach.

= ^ - , - ^ =

[Diversified Woman]

No problem Thunderkitties.  😉

[Author]

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