Troubleshooting - Plugixa Recipe

Common issues and fixes. The plugin writes no log of its own; for anything not covered here, turn on WordPress’s own WP_DEBUG_LOG and read wp-content/debug.log.

Install / activation

“Class PlugixaRecipe\Activator not found”

The PSR-4 autoloader couldn’t find a class file. Check that:

The /includes/ directory is intact (no files deleted or permission-protected).
Your PHP version is 8.0+ (php -v).
spl_autoload_register isn’t disabled in php.ini.

Tables weren’t created on activation

Deactivate and reactivate the plugin. The activator (class-activator.php) runs dbDelta() - which is idempotent, so re-activation is safe.

If tables still don’t appear:

Check the MySQL user has CREATE TABLE privileges on the WordPress database.
Look for errors in wp-content/debug.log (with WP_DEBUG_LOG on).
Run the activator manually from a custom script:
```
\PlugixaRecipe\Activator::activate();
```

Frontend display

Shortcode shows “[plugixa_recipe]” text instead of the grid

WordPress isn’t processing the shortcode. Check:

The plugin is active.
You’re using [plugixa_recipe], not [plugixa-recipe] (the slug, not the plugin folder name).
The page content type accepts shortcodes (most do; some page builders disable this).

Grid is empty

Check Recipes → Recipes - is there any content?
Are recipes in status = published?
Are there recipes matching the category / cuisine / diet filter you passed?
Enable Settings → Advanced → Debug mode - the log will show the SQL query used.

Styles look broken / missing

The plugin enqueues its frontend CSS only on pages with [plugixa_recipe] or its widget shortcodes. If you render the grid via PHP (outside a shortcode), call:

PlugixaRecipe\Frontend\Shortcodes::enqueue_assets_static();

Or add the shortcode once on the page (empty div is fine) and it will enqueue for the whole page.

Images not showing

Check your WordPress media library for the images (via Media → Library).
Verify your image size setting in the view (Views → Edit → Image & Video) - full is heavy; try medium_large.
CDN / WPRocket may be blocking the media URLs - check with those plugins’ “image offload” settings.

Admin

React admin shows blank screen

Open DevTools → Console. A JavaScript error will explain.
Clear WordPress object cache: Settings → Performance → Flush caches.
If you’re developing locally, the HMR dev server might be down. Stop the plugin’s HMR by unsetting WP_DEBUG or by adding define('PLUGIXARECIPE_DISABLE_HMR', true) to wp-config.php.

“You do not have permission to view this page”

Your user lacks the plugixa_recipe_* capabilities. These are added to the administrator role on activation. If you’re on a custom role:

$role = get_role('editor');
$role->add_cap('plugixa_recipe_manage');
$role->add_cap('plugixa_recipe_edit');

Changes aren’t saving

Check the browser DevTools → Network tab. If you see 403 responses, the REST nonce expired - refresh the page.

AI Generator

“Your quota has been exhausted”

Your OpenAI / Google account is out of credits. This is a billing issue with the LLM provider - the plugin relays the error verbatim.

“Model gpt-4o not found”

The model id in Settings → AI is wrong (or the model was deprecated). Try gpt-4o-mini or gpt-3.5-turbo. For Gemini, use gemini-1.5-flash or gemini-1.5-pro.

Document upload fails

Check PHP upload_max_filesize is at least 20 MB.
Check post_max_size is bigger than upload_max_filesize.
Some hosts block PDF MIME types - enable image/*,application/pdf in the Allowed mime types filter.

Import / Export

Import shows “Invalid format”

The importer auto-detects the format from the JSON/CSV structure. If detection fails:

JSON files must have a top-level recipes array.
CSV files need a header row.
WPRM exports must come from the source plugin’s own export tool (partial JSON won’t match).

Images aren’t imported

Your host may be blocking outbound HTTP from PHP:

add_filter('pre_http_request', function ($pre, $args, $url) {
    if (!str_contains($url, $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'])) {
        error_log("Blocked outbound: $url");
    }
    return $pre;
}, 10, 3);

If outbound is blocked, import without images first, then re-import with image URLs replaced by local paths.

Reviews & submission

Reviews submit but don’t appear

Check Recipes → Reviews - are they status = pending? Approve them or enable auto-approve.
reCAPTCHA threshold too strict - lower the score threshold in Settings → Captcha.

Submission form shows nothing

The user role may be blocked by Settings → General → Who can submit.
If Require login is on, guests see a sign-in link instead of the form.

Performance

Slow page load with shortcode on it

Enable object cache (Redis / Memcached) if your host supports it. The plugin caches recipe queries under pxr_* keys.
Reduce limit - rendering 100 cards is heavier than rendering 12 + pagination.
Turn on lazy loading (Settings → Display).
Defer non-critical scripts (Settings → Performance).

Too many database queries

The single recipe page makes one query per feature (ingredients, instructions, nutrition, reviews, related). They’re cached under the object cache - a second view is a single cache hit.

If your recipes have 50+ steps / ingredients, consider simplifying or splitting into multiple recipes.

WPML / Polylang

Recipes show in the wrong language

The REST endpoint honours the active language - but if you see recipes bleed across languages, check:

language_code is populated on the recipe (not NULL).
WPML: the recipe post-type registration matches your WPML config.
Polylang: the current language detection works (visit /wp-json/plugixa-recipe/v1/recipes and watch the request headers).

Uninstall

“Also delete all plugin data” didn’t delete my data

Confirm Settings → Advanced → Delete all data on uninstall was switched ON before the plugin was deleted. It is a key inside the plugixa_recipe_settings option, not an option of its own, and uninstall.php reads it.
Confirm uninstall.php ran - some caching plugins hold that file open during deletion.
Manual cleanup: drop the 24 tables (prefixed wp_plugixa_recipe_) and the option plugixa_recipe_settings.

Getting help

Turn on WP_DEBUG_LOG in wp-config.php and reproduce the issue. The plugin writes no log of its own, so WordPress’s own wp-content/debug.log is the one to read.
Copy the last 50 lines, along with your WordPress, PHP and plugin versions.
Share them with support; that is usually enough to pinpoint the fix.

Recent searches