Fixing protocol errors in WordPress plugins

CodeProject, Web Development, WordPress 1 Minute

I recently started a new job as a full-time WordPress developer managing several websites and the myriad of custom themes, child themes, and plugins. This is a lesson learned from an issue I had with one plugin in particular.

Using Chrome on OS X, I get security warnings that a script wouldn’t load on a particular page. When I looked into it, I found it was because in wp-admin, my site url is set to http, but that page (and several others) is served from https. Since there’s a mix of protocols, good browsers will block scripts from running across SSL/non-SSL.

The plugin was using get_options('siteurl') to create the path string used to load scripts through wp_register_scripts. Switching to site_url(), which returns a string with the protocol that the page is being rendered on, lets me now safely load the scripts on any page in the site.

Here’s how it ended up looking:

$old_root_url = get_options( 'siteurl' );
$root_url = site_url();

$path_flash = "$root_url/wp-content/plugins/$pluginName/js/swfobject.js";

Hope that helps someone!

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Published by morganestes

My experience ranges from consulting with businesses on their web presence to building websites for multinational companies, and pretty much everything in between. I've been coding since the mid-80s, and built my first website from scratch in 1998, eventually deciding to focus on WordPress in 2009. Since then, I've been able to contribute to over a dozen releases of the core software, and several themes and plugins for the public and various clients. After 12+ years in the Navy, I graduated with Liberal Studies degree from Oklahoma Christian University, studying Information Systems, Business, Bible, and History. When not geeking out on code, I likes to visit the zoo with my wife and daughter, take photos I never do anything with, and choke back tears when a companion leaves Doctor Who.

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