"Your Site is Experiencing a Technical Issue" email from WP

[coder]

Not sure if this is the section you want this in, but the plugin keeps triggering these emails from WP.

The forum is currently in dev and not public. WP sign-up spam is so bad that even with plugins and other preventative measures, a spam sign-up or two occurs, then this email is sent apparently when the plugin tries to redirect and do what it's intended to do. After creating a test account, the same thing happened. When this occurs, the account is never created on the XF side, only on WP.

All plugins and WP core are current versions.

Howdy!

Since WordPress 5.2 there is a built-in feature that detects when a plugin or theme causes a fatal error on your site, and notifies you with this automated email.

In this case, WordPress caught an error with one of your plugins, XFtoWP.

First, visit your website (site) and check for any visible issues. Next, visit the page where the error was caught (site/wp-login.php) and check for any visible issues.

Please contact your host for assistance with investigating this issue further.

If your site appears broken and you can't access your dashboard normally, WordPress now has a special "recovery mode". This lets you safely login to your dashboard and investigate further.

site/wp-login.php?action=enter_recovery_mode&rm_token=ertDFGRT$5terG&rm_key=dfBK^&RTHrth56hedrg4

To keep your site safe, this link will expire in 1 day. Don't worry about that, though: a new link will be emailed to you if the error occurs again after it expires.

When seeking help with this issue, you may be asked for some of the following information:
WordPress version 5.8.2
Current theme: Main Child (version 1.2)
Current plugin: XFtoWP (version 1.3.1)
PHP version 8.0.13

Error Details
=============
An error of type E_ERROR was caused in line 451 of the file /public_html/wp-content/plugins/XFWP/requests/users.php. Error message: Uncaught TypeError: Cannot access offset of type string on string in /public_html/wp-content/plugins/XFWP/requests/users.php:451
Stack trace:
#0 /public_html/wp-includes/class-wp-hook.php(303): XFWP_Users_Requests->login_redirect()
#1 /public_html/wp-includes/class-wp-hook.php(327): WP_Hook->apply_filters()
#2 /public_html/wp-includes/plugin.php(470): WP_Hook->do_action()
#3 /public_html/wp-includes/user.php(110): do_action()
#4 /public_html/wp-login.php(1142): wp_signon()
#5 {main}
thrown

 

[Alex]

Hi @coder, thank you for the report and for posting the error message.

After creating a test account, the same thing happened. When this occurs, the account is never created on the XF side, only on WP.

I'm the most curious about the timing here because the code from the error stack is only triggered during user login, not at account registration. So if something has blocked XF user registration, it shouldn't be this error.

To confirm—with WP admin > XF > User sync > Enable user registrations turned on, and after you create a new user from Users > Add new, are both users created? Or are you registering from somewhere else?

WP sign-up spam is so bad that even with plugins and other preventative measures, a spam sign-up or two occurs, then this email is sent apparently when the plugin tries to redirect and do what it's intended to do.

Looking at the code in question, I can possibly see some room for improvement on limiting the function's scope as it may be running when it shouldn't be during user login. I presume you also have the auth scope added to your API key and confirmed in the XFtoWP Site Setup panel?

 

[coder]

To confirm—with WP admin > XF > User sync > Enable user registrations turned on, and after you create a new user from Users > Add new, are both users created? Or are you registering from somewhere else?

WP admin > XF > User sync > Settings > Sync user registrations is checked (all three options are checked).

I presume you also have the auth scope added to your API key and confirmed in the XFtoWP Site Setup panel?

WP admin > XF > Site setup > Connect > API user has the following permissions: all are checked except for: node:read, thread:read, thread:write.

It doesn't happen every time, but has happened several times.

Also running the Ultimate Member plugin, but I think that error came through even when that plugin was deactivated.

 

[Alex]

Ok, thanks for the extra details. I still can't say for sure as the error message you get isn't tied to user registration at all. Are you sure that is when the email is triggered, or when someone (even a spammer) tries to login?

Also running the Ultimate Member plugin, but I think that error came through even when that plugin was deactivated.

Without a direct integration to Ultimate Member, XFtoWP is most likely not running its sync actions on their custom register flow. I've downloaded it and will play around with it to see how it works

 

[coder]

Ok, thanks for the extra details. I still can't say for sure as the error message you get isn't tied to user registration at all. Are you sure that is when the email is triggered, or when someone (even a spammer) tries to login?

I think you are spot on with this. It's happening upon login. The spammer must have registered then attempted to login then the error was triggered.

 

[Alex]

I think you are spot on with this. It's happening upon login. The spammer must have registered then attempted to login then the error was triggered.

Ok, thanks for the confirmation. This should be a pretty easy warning message to resolve for XFtoWP 1.4!

I am curious about how you are working with Ultimate member, if you'd like to open another topic about it if you have any questions about the integration.

 

[coder]

Ok, thanks for the confirmation. This should be a pretty easy warning message to resolve for XFtoWP 1.4!

I am curious about how you are working with Ultimate member, if you'd like to open another topic about it if you have any questions about the integration.

Thanks for looking into it.

I have not done anything with UM yet. I don't even remember why I was planning to use it, but I think as a way to make it look nicer on the front end for logged in users. I will dig into it more to see if I'm still going to use it. As you know from my other posts here, it's really frustrating how difficult it is to create a decent content site with lots of user engagement and an area for active discussions. Been at this a long time and it's hard to believe it's still not easy to achieve.

 

[Alex]

I have not done anything with UM yet. I don't even remember why I was planning to use it, but I think as a way to make it look nicer on the front end for logged in users. I will dig into it more to see if I'm still going to use it. As you know from my other posts here, it's really frustrating how difficult it is to create a decent content site with lots of user engagement and an area for active discussions. Been at this a long time and it's hard to believe it's still not easy to achieve.

It still definitely takes some work but I think building it on top of WP + XF gives you the most freedom of any other solution. I am quite determined to take XFtoWP far and address the other parts of the seamless experience you've talked about before. In the past month I've helped two technology blogs/forums, a large gaming site, and even a cooking blog/membership site integrate XFtoWP into their workflows with success so the future is looking bright on this front.

It seems that outside of the combination of XF and WP the best all-in-one solutions out there are Invision Community and BuddyBoss. I've only used IP.Forum, but never BuddyBoss, so I am not speaking from direct experience. The biggest complaints I hear about those platforms is the price point, but why should something like that be inexpensive if there are no better solutions?

 

[coder]

It still definitely takes some work but I think building it on top of WP + XF gives you the most freedom of any other solution. I am quite determined to take XFtoWP far and address the other parts of the seamless experience you've talked about before. In the past month I've helped two technology blogs/forums, a large gaming site, and even a cooking blog/membership site integrate XFtoWP into their workflows with success so the future is looking bright on this front.

Will play around more with it. It's encouraging to hear your experience with helping those sites getting a decent workflow in their communities.

It seems that outside of the combination of XF and WP the best all-in-one solutions out there are Invision Community and BuddyBoss. I've only used IP.Forum, but never BuddyBoss, so I am not speaking from direct experience. The biggest complaints I hear about those platforms is the price point, but why should something like that be inexpensive if there are no better solutions?

Invision Community looks good, but not sure if they have self hosted options. Looked into Buddyboss after seeing you mention it. It seems good, but more so if you get the Buddyboss theme. Don't mind paying for it (what you said about price is true, if it's an excellent solution then it's ok to cost, especially if that ensures the longterm development), but not wanting to switch overall themes. It all comes back to sticking with XF I think. Discourse also looks good.

 

[coder]

Got the error again today. It also seems that whatever it is is also causing the site speed to reduce. With the plugin deactivated, things are back to normal. Is it strange that no one else is reporting this error or is it because they don't notice it or just don't bother posting about it?

 

[Alex]

Got the error again today. It also seems that whatever it is is also causing the site speed to reduce. With the plugin deactivated, things are back to normal. Is it strange that no one else is reporting this error or is it because they don't notice it or just don't bother posting about it?

I just haven't been able to reproduce this issue in my own testing, but I suspect a change I made for XFtoWP 1.4 (should be released today) will resolve the error. I don't mean to say I don't believe you, but I am highly skeptical this error would go so far as to slow down your website considering the code is only run for a specific user during a very small window of time.

Invision Community looks good, but not sure if they have self hosted options. Looked into Buddyboss after seeing you mention it. It seems good, but more so if you get the Buddyboss theme. Don't mind paying for it (what you said about price is true, if it's an excellent solution then it's ok to cost, especially if that ensures the longterm development), but not wanting to switch overall themes. It all comes back to sticking with XF I think. Discourse also looks good.

They do have self-hosted—a few of my WordPress clients use Invision for their forum. I used to be on IP for this very forum in the past but XF better suits my style. I could never get into Discourse because I just find the interface so uninspiring, which seems to trend well with the general bland designs of most websites anyways!