I’m currently testing the Free Version of WP Total Cache. You have built a great plugin there. I’m thinking of trying the pro version soon too.
One thing that I have noticed so far and that bothers me a lot are two PHP warnings that keep appearing:
PHP Warning: Undefined variable $rewrite_rules in /home/users/name/www/www.example.com/public/wp-content/plugins/w3-total-cache/BrowserCache_Environment.php on line 97
PHP Warning: foreach() argument must be of type array|object, null given in /home/users/name/www/www.example.com/public/wp-content/plugins/w3-total-cache/BrowserCache_Environment.php on line 160
This Warnings appears on every single page load in the backend while im navigation through the “Performance” settings and also when I delete the cache from the admin bar.
I’m using the latest WordPress Version and also the latest WP Total Cache Version.
This is my configuration:
Page Cache: enabled (Redis)
Minify: enabled (Redis)
Mode: Auto
HTML Tidy
JSMin
CSS Tidy
Database Cache: enabled (Redis)
Object Cache: enabled (Redis)
Browser Cache: enabled
Let me know if you need some more information about my system.
Thank you for reaching out and I am happy to assist you with this.
Can you please share if you are on apache or Nginx? Also, Can you please share if your filesystem permissions allow writing to files and folders to allow W3TC to add the Browser Cache rules??
Thank you for your feedback. Can you please share if the Browser Cache is enabled in the General settings and let me know which settings are enabled in Performance>Browser Cache, and if the W3TC rules are in your .htaccess file?
Thank you for your feedback. Well this is odd! Can the .htaccess should have the W3TC rules for Browser Caching according to your settings? Can you please confirm you are checking the .htaccess in your website folder? Also, please check the Performance>Install section, which has all the rewrite rules according to your settings. You can manually add them to your .htaccess
Yes, I’m checking the correct .htaccess file. I suspect the rules disappeared because the .htaccess file was accidentally overwritten. So the missing rules shouldn’t be a bug in your plugin.
However, it would be nice if your plugin catches the errors in such a case and gives you the opportunity to restore the rules.
When I visit the page you suggested (Performance > Install) I get more errors. One of them is new:
[07-Mar-2023 08:54:59 UTC] PHP Warning: Undefined variable $rewrite_rules in /www/www.example.com/public/wp-content/plugins/w3-total-cache/BrowserCache_Environment.php on line 97
[07-Mar-2023 08:54:59 UTC] PHP Warning: foreach() argument must be of type array|object, null given in /www/www.example.com/public/wp-content/plugins/w3-total-cache/BrowserCache_Environment.php on line 160
[07-Mar-2023 08:54:59 UTC] PHP Warning: Undefined variable $other_areas in /www/www.example.com/public/wp-content/plugins/w3-total-cache/inc/options/common/header.php on line 372
[07-Mar-2023 08:54:59 UTC] PHP Fatal error: Uncaught TypeError: count(): Argument #1 ($value) must be of type Countable|array, null given in /www/www.example.com/public/wp-content/plugins/w3-total-cache/inc/options/common/header.php:372
Stack trace:
#0 /www/www.example.com/public/wp-content/plugins/w3-total-cache/inc/options/common/header.php(372): count()
#1 /www/www.example.com/public/wp-content/plugins/w3-total-cache/inc/options/install.php(8): require('...')
#2 /www/www.example.com/public/wp-content/plugins/w3-total-cache/Generic_Page_Install.php(28): include('...')
#3 /www/www.example.com/public/wp-content/plugins/w3-total-cache/Base_Page_Settings.php(71): W3TC\Generic_Page_Install->view()
#4 /www/www.example.com/public/wp-content/plugins/w3-total-cache/Root_AdminMenu.php(289): W3TC\Base_Page_Settings->options()
#5 /www/www.example.com/public/wp-includes/class-wp-hook.php(308): W3TC\Root_AdminMenu->options()
#6 /www/www.example.com/public/wp-includes/class-wp-hook.php(332): WP_Hook->apply_filters()
#7 /www/www.example.com/public/wp-includes/plugin.php(517): WP_Hook->do_action()
#8 /www/www.example.com/public/wp-admin/admin.php(259): do_action()
#9 {main}
thrown in /www/www.example.com/public/wp-content/plugins/w3-total-cache/inc/options/common/header.php on line 372
What I tried to restore the rules:
Deactivate and activate the Plugin. Didn’t help.
Changed various settings to force the plugin to re-modify the .htaccess. Didn’t help.
Run the Setup Guide again. Didn’t help.
Disabled and enabled the Browser Cache to force the plugin to re-modify the .htaccess. Didn’t help.
Again as a summary to avoid misunderstandings:
We are talking about the standard .htaccess file, which is located in the root directory of the WordPress installation.
This .htaccess file should have the file permission “644”.
This .htaccess file should contain a few rules created by your plugin.
Are these statements correct?
Is there a way to force the plugin to create the rules?
I tried to replicate the errors on a fresh installed WordPress system. I installed a few of the Plugins that are also installed on the system with the errors. However, only a few plugins that I considered critical (like Really Simple SSL Pro and Siteground Security). I couldn’t replicate the errors either.
Unfortunately, I cannot make the link to the affected page public. I’m also running out of time to do more research on this issue. So I would leave it alone for now.
There could be so many causes. The system is also a bit more complicated:
The system is a bit old (built in 2016).
The theme does not support Gutenberg (Classic Editor mode enabled).
It used to be a multisite and has been converted to a single site.
There are 33 plugins installed.
If I ever find the cause of the error, I’ll let you know. Thank you again for your commitment.
