Another Wordpress Blog

ALinks has been cleared! Sort of. (And, at least I think it’s cleared!)

The difficulty was mostly due to a bug in PHP 5.2.2. The bug causes WordPress’s xmlrpc.php file to break down. For some reason I don’t quite understand, aLinks uses the xmlrpc.php. (Why aLinks uses this is a mystery. )

The fix was easy. I added this line to the top of xmlrpc.php in my blog directory.

$HTTP_RAW_POST_DATA = file_get_contents("php://input");

By “top”, I mean I placed it immediately after the <?php. ( If you cut and paste from a blog, retype the double quotes. These are sometimes replaced with slightly different quotes which will not work. Just retype.)

I found both the solution and a description of the problem at hughesfamily.net.au and red-sweater.com.

Does this problem affect more than aLinks?

Yes. The ‘xmlrpc.php’ file contains some functions associated with pinging. So, if you are noticing difficulties receiving pings (which I was) you may be having problems with this file. (Presumably, my problems will be cured now.)

Do I have to fiddle with my xmlrpc.php file to fix the bug?

No. WP 2.2.2 includes the work around for the PHP 5.2.2 bug. When you upgrade, things will be fixed.

Thanks Lord Matt for noticing that aLinks was getting all bogged up trying to ping and ping and ping and…. Now I think I have the problem licked.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 8th, 2007 at 8:08 pm and is filed under aLinks, Blog Hacks, Monetize, Plugins. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.