Correction on WP-Members 2.5.2 release

Well, it’s upgrade time once again.  And that is the time that I get the most feedback from users as to what went wrong with the upgrade 😉  Fortunately, I have understanding and appreciative users and I do my best to be responsive to that.  And I do my best to get things fixed as quickly as possible. 

Today, I had a fix for the sidebar that was slipped in at the last minute (thanks to quietOne who pointed out the problem – see discussion here).  As a result of the haste to get this in with the scheduled 2.5.2 release, some debugging code got left in.  Based on the watching the download stats on wordpress.org, I estimate that less than 200 users are effected by this.  The file has been corrected and any further downloads/upgrades will be fine.

How do I know if I’m effected?

If you use the WP-Members sidebar login widget, take a look at the front-end of your WP installation.  If you are getting some text right above the form that says “post to: ” followed by a url, then you need the fix. (NOTE: there are no security issues with this.  It is simply debugging code that got left in.  While embarrassing for me, and ugly for you, it is simply writing the url that the login form will post to, which should be the url you are currently on.)

What is the fix?

The fix is quite simple and there are three possibilities for you.

• Download the plugin again.  The file has been corrected in the current version.
• Download the offending file by itself: wp-members-sidebar.php.  You can either ftp transfer this file to your wp-content/plugins/wp-members/ directory, or use the plugin editor in the WP admin.
• Edit the file directly (a very simple fix if you are comfortable with it).

Editing the file directly

1. The offending file is wp-members-sidebar.php.
2. Line 79 has the debugging code.  It reads:
   } echo “post to: “.$post_to;
3. Remove “echo” and everything after that, leaving just the closing curly brace }  (Non-coders: It is vitally important to leave the curly brace!)
4. That’s it!