Plugins do not activate

[thoughtwell]

I have to this point been trying to avoid plugins with my site in favor of hard-coding the site to do what I want. However, time is running low and I have to bite the bullet. I've so far tried installing two different plugins. One is Bill Erickson's Genesis Grid. The other is Nick the Geek's Genesis Featured Widget Amplified. I can upload both plugins fine, but when I go to activate, I get a screen with an error message that reads:

"Sorry, you cannot activate unless you have installed Genesis"

However, I have been working in Genesis this whole time. I am using Genesis 2.0 with my child theme as the active theme. However, I do have Genesis installed. Anyone else experience this issue?

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[David Chu]

Hi,
Wow, that's pretty hardcore, avoiding plugins - you must be a good coder!

Yes, I do have an idea. A bunch of Genesis plugins are coded so that the plugin checks for a particular version of Genesis. For instance, some of them are looking for Genesis "1.whatever", so they would balk at being installed on Genesis 2. If you look at the plug code, and find its install routine, there's a good chance you can just comment out 1 line and get the thing to install. Don't tell anyone I said that. 🙂

In fact, I have Genesis 1.9 and Genesis 2 coexisting on my local server, so I've jury-rigged things a bit, like using unexpected folders for stuff, so I run into this stuff for that reason, and I can easily code around it.

Dave

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Dave Chu · Custom WordPress Developer – likes collaborating with Designers

[thoughtwell]

Thanks David. No, I'm definitely not what you would call a good coder... but the idea is that by making myself do this when time permits, I will hopefully get there, lol. It's a long road, man.

I will try your suggestion and see if it works, but perhaps the plugin authors will eventually update the plugins for Genesis 2.0 now that it's been out for a few months... which is kind of one of the things about plugins... they just eventually lose support or things change, then my guess is you need to be a good coder if you want to keep on using them so you can debug/update on your own, especially the freebies.

The Genesis community has been great, though; so far very helpful, and there are a good amount of plugins at my disposal should I decide to take advantage.

[David Chu]

Interesting, just 10 minutes ago I installed the latest Genesis Featured Widget Amplified, and it's cruising on Genesis 2, although I had some little funny moments trying to select one option on its widget - might be one of my plugins!

So maybe you're running Genesis 1.something-or-other? If so, I have another avenue for you. On any plugin in the official WordPress repository, go the the Developers tab. There you'll see every version of the plugin, so you could try an older version to see if that will hook you up. So it's possible you may not have to hack anything!

Just that you're willing to code puts you WAY ahead of most people. I know they can't scare people when they're selling themes, but the truth is, for anyone who wants to make substantial changes to their theme, some coding ability (not a ton) is important, and may be required. And I know it's unheard of, but people can actually hire qualified people to help them, but in today's DIY world, 10 cents more is just too much to spend. 😉 I've blogged about these issues. And of course, all Themeforest themes try to be everything to all people: "Do everything imaginable to your site with no coding at all!" This is greatly exaggerated.

So you're ahead of those people!

Dave

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Dave Chu · Custom WordPress Developer – likes collaborating with Designers

[thoughtwell]

I checked out my version in the theme details and it says 2.0.1, so I think that should be correct. I also re-downloaded Nick's plugin again at version 0.8.1 from the WP Plugin Directory and tried reinstalling, but I still couldn't get it to work. I also tried opening the zip file and putting the entire plugin folder into my plugins directory, but still no luck.

I went into the actual plugin's file and I can see the function that checks the Genesis versioning. The variable, $latest is set to 1.8; I have 2.0.1 installed, so maybe it's something else, but I only have a very minimal amount of other plugins installed.

I think I have found the problem, though. In the plugin file, there is a statement that says something along the lines of if the templatepath is not set to genesis, the plugin forces deactivation and flags and error.

Soo...

Simple enough: You just have to deactivate your child theme, activate the Genesis parent theme, activate the plugin, then reactivate your child them.

This allowed me to activate the plugins. I still think it's strange I had to do this since I had Genesis installed the whole time; but I guess maybe there is something in my child theme that was conflicting that templatepath or whatever.

Thanks for your help on this... and I definitely agree that one must roll up their sleeves and dig a little deeper if they are going to create anything substantial. I think this rule applies across the board.

[David Chu]

How about that, I've never run into a situation where I had to activate the Genesis framework itself. It may have also worked if you just swapped out the Twenty-Whatever-It-Is-Right-Now. Yup, 0.8.1 is the plugin I have! You can never tell, something may have been out-of-synch, or something about your set-up is different. But you've proven your mettle!

See you "around town" here!

Dave

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Dave Chu · Custom WordPress Developer – likes collaborating with Designers

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