Microthemer and W3 Total Cache [preview won't load in editing window]

Tagged: ,

Author Posts

digwr7 October 29, 2015 at 4:21 am

Heads up! this post was created when Microthemer was at version 4. The current version is 7. Some references to the interface may be out of date.

Hi Sebastian, how are you?

I’ve been through the forum threads and found that many people are experiencing the same problem as I am: Microthemer just won’t work with W3TC active, meaning all the UI shows up, but it keeps “loading wordpress site…” forever. I cannot select anything…

I’ve already spotted that the issue only occurs when W3 Total Cache is active and I have already emptied all caches.

It’s the only cache plugin I use… All minify settings were disabled from the beginning.

I also noticed you saying in some thread that you use W3TC yourself so, if there was a conflict with it, you’d have noticed soon enough… however, it’s that plugin indeed causing the issue.

So, what could be happening here?

The website I have MT on is: http://caixapreta.empremaker.com

One thing I’d like to add is that I noticed you asked many customer for backend access, so it’d be nice if you could go back to the threads detailing what you did behind the scenes so that other customers could possibly find a fix for their issues without having to post a new thread or create a support ticket…

It’d save lots of time for you and everyone else. 🙂

Thanks in advance!

Sebastian October 29, 2015 at 12:00 pm

Hey, I do use w3 total cache with Microthemer. But I don’t enable every option. There’s a lot to configure in w3 total cache. You may be able to get things working by tweaking the settings. But I hear what you’re saying in terms of helping people help themselves. It’s been creeping up my priority list for a while, and I think your comment might be the final nudge I need.

I plan to introduce a feature whereby Microthemer detects when an action get’s stuck e.g. “loading wordpress site…”. When this happens, Microthemer will display a status update in the top right with instructions on how to solve common issues – or contact support for help. I will start work on this feature today.

When I login to the backend of a site, I generally do the following:

  1. Inspect the interface with Firebug or a native browser’s console. This often throws an error that gives a clue as to the source of the problem.
  2. If no error is generated in the console, I look at the HTML source code on the frontend of the site (the page in Microthemer’s preview). Occasionally something stops the necessary JS/CSS files from loading there.
  3. If there is still no clue, I disable all plugins to see if the error persists. I only do this with permission of the site owner. If the error does go away, it’s a case of re-enabling or re-disabling half of the plugins, then half again etc to home in on the problem plugin as efficiently as possible.
  4. Having identified the problem plugin (w3 total cache in your case) I look at plugin settings to see if something can be easily configured to solve the issue. If I find nothing, I look at ways the problem plugin could be modified to improve compatibility. I often find something, supply a fix, and then contact the plugin author with my fix.
  5. If the plugins aren’t the cause. It’s likely the theme. Sometimes I ask for a backup of the site site so that I can play around with the files on my testing server until I isolate the issue.
  6. Sometimes there is an error with Microthemer of course. In which case I find a fix and release an updated version.

I hope that helps with your own troubleshooting. If you do need my assistance I’d be happy to look at your site.

Cheers,
Sebastian

You must login or register to reply to this topic.