Pro (X Theme) issue on XAMPP

[JvP]

Hey there,

For the past several weeks I've been trying to figure out why the WordPress Pro theme by Themeco (https://theme.co/pro/) is having some problems with my XAMPP installation.

Pro comes with brand new header and footer builders. Those are visual drag and drop builders specifically built to create amazing headers and footers. The problem is that some CSS attributes for some elements in those headers and footers aren't applied in the final output on the front end causing them to look broken and not work properly. They do look and work perfectly when you're in the actual builders.

Themeco support doesn't know what's up either because everything works fine on their end. They even replicated the setup in their own XAMPP installation and it worked for them. Looks like it's my specific setup. But I have no idea what to try or where to look at this point.

Here's some things I've tried that didn't work:

• Grabbing fresh copies of both WordPress and the theme and installing those in a new directory
• No other plugins or themes present, all browser addons disabled, caches cleared, etc.
• Happens in all major browsers on Windows and Mac
• Completely removed and re-installed XAMPP, no changes made except increased some PHP memory limits

This works:

• Installed another local dev environment (Local by Flywheel)
• Uploaded the site to a live server

So I think I've pretty much narrowed it down to XAMPP.

Does anyone have any idea what could possibly cause this in XAMPP?

Any help at all is greatly appreciated!

[Altrea]

Hi,

CSS magic is completely happening in your browser. So if your browser is able to get the CSS code (by http request or inline html), it can only be a browser issue like wrong browser cache configuration, wrong rendering engine (compatibility mode, etc). Especially often a problem (for internet explorer) is the zone the side is running. It makes a huge difference in the default configuration of Internet explorer if a page is served prom intranet or from web.

The other possible issue is a configuration issue in either Wordpress or the module itself so that for example the urls for the css are not generated correctly

So check if the css is being received correctly and then check your browser, try a different browser, etc. But i cannot see how this could ever be a xampp issue.

best wishes,
Altrea

[Nobbie]

Does anyone have any idea what could possibly cause this in XAMPP?

A to new PHP release? Is your WordPress Installation agreed to run properly on PHP 7.1.4?

CSS magic is completely happening in your browser.

Due to the description the CSS Code is incomplete in the generated HTML Output. Thats not an browser issue.

[JvP]

Hey guys,

Thanks for your replies!

I have tried all the browsers on two different platforms with all browser addons/extension disabled. It's a default WordPress installation without any major changes made to it.

If it helps, the builders rely heavily upon ember.js. The part that makes me believe it is a XAMPP issue is the fact that the same site works just fine on my live server and in another local development environment (Local by Flywheel)

The theme and builders are PHP 7.1 compatible and XAMPP, Local and the live server are all running it.

Thanks guys.

[Altrea]

I cannot see how we can really help to solve this issue.
If it is not a php compatibility issue, not a wordpress configuration issue, not a browser issue... i have no idea what this issue could be.
And i cannot spend $75 just to solve this issue.

[JvP]

I cannot see how we can really help to solve this issue.
If it is not a php compatibility issue, not a wordpress configuration issue, not a browser issue... i have no idea what this issue could be.
And i cannot spend $75 just to solve this issue.

Haha, no you shouldn't buy the theme just to help troubleshoot.

It's all very strange. I'm going to have to use an alternative dev environment in the meantime and hopefully this will be fixed one day.

[Nobbie]

The part that makes me believe it is a XAMPP issue is the fact that the same site works just fine on my live server and in another local development environment (Local by Flywheel)

Thats not a very logical conclusion. I would think, that there is an incompatibility between this Xampp release and this WordPress release - but i dont think, that this is an Xampp issue. Its mostly an issue of the software (WordPress or the Theme), which is not tested in such an environment. I have worked with WordPress in the past and i have searched the source very often for bugs etc. and in my mind the whole thing is horribly bad programmed. Its a pain to debug that code. Finally i had a backdoor trojan(!) in a WordPress plugin which hacked my Online server - that was the point were i definately decided to drop WordPress forever. I am glad about that decision. No more "why is my WordPress so slow, why does this plugin not work, why does this theme not display correctly" etc. etc., that is the WordPress world!

P.S.: Did Themeco really setup a Windows(!) PC with Windows 7 and Xampp in order to check that behaviour? Mostly the development takes place in a Linux environment and also most Server installations are running on Linux. And it is well known that the WIndows Server can behave very different to the Linux server, even if it looks that you use the same software (i.e. Xampp release). It maybe an issue with WIndows File System, it maybe an issue with PHP configuration, it maybe an issue with MySQL / MariaDB configuration etc.pp. - if they do not rebuild your PC precisely, they cannot reproduce that error. If I were you, I would setup a Linux PC and install Xampp and WordPress there. And then we will see, if it still does not run.

Last not least, you did not tell us anything about your Xampp installation? Is it a standard installation into c:/xampp? Is it unchanged? Where is your WordPress installation (path?)? Which URL do you use to run your installation? Etc. etc. etc. - maybe you have a problem with unsuffient rights or so. As we know nothing, we cannot say anything.

[JvP]

Thats not a very logical conclusion. I would think, that there is an incompatibility between this Xampp release and this WordPress release

Maybe, but it's at least somewhat logical since the only environment this issue is present on is XAMPP. The theme works as intended elsewhere. WordPress itself runs perfectly on XAMPP and is not really the issue. It's the header and footer builders that are part of the theme that have an incompatibility with something.

P.S.: Did Themeco really setup a Windows(!) PC with Windows 7 and Xampp in order to check that behaviour? Mostly the development takes place in a Linux environment and also most Server installations are running on Linux.

I suppose the support staff have a XAMPP installation handy since many of their customers use that and they'll use it to replicate reported issues. For the actual development of their software they'll most likely use something else. I happen to know they're using Macs for their development work and I don't think they're running VM's with Linux or anything.

Last not least, you did not tell us anything about your Xampp installation? Is it a standard installation into c:/xampp? Is it unchanged? Where is your WordPress installation (path?)? Which URL do you use to run your installation? Etc. etc. etc. - maybe you have a problem with unsuffient rights or so. As we know nothing, we cannot say anything.

Fair points

I've installed it on a HDD (D:/xampp) Default install. Only increased some PHP memory limits. The site is installed it its own directory in the htdocs directory (D:/xampp/htdocs/site-directory) In the browser I would got to localhost/site-directory. I run it as administrator. Never had any insufficient rights issues.

I understand it's super hard to troubleshoot something like this with limited info. Myself and everyone I've talked to about this are at a complete loss as to what's wrong. So any new idea for something to try or where to look is greatly appreciated.


Thanks for your time!