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The WordPress Plugin Review team released Plugin Check. They use it to scan all plugin submissions to wordpress.org, and encourage all authors to run it before uploading plugins to the directory.

PLUGIN_CHECK_PHP_BIN Error Message

One error asks us to create a constant:

Cannot find the PHP Binary file, please define it using the `PLUGIN_CHECK_PHP_BIN` constant

It’s asking for the path to PHP so it can scan plugin code. Here is some PHP code to create the constant with a sample value of “path/to/php”.

if ( ! defined( 'PLUGIN_CHECK_PHP_BIN' ) ) {
	define( 'PLUGIN_CHECK_PHP_BIN', 'path/to/php' );
}

How to Find the Path

In your local environment or while logged into a remote server, use the whereis php command to reveal the path to the PHP binary. In this example from my computer, the path is not the only text output by the command:

$ whereis php
php: /opt/homebrew/opt/[email protected]/bin/php /opt/homebrew/share/man/man1/php.1

Where to Run the Command

If you’re on macOS, open Terminal, type or paste the whereis php command, and press Enter.

Define the Constant in wp-config.php

The path is very likely to end in bin/php. Here’s what I added to wp-config.php files running on my computer:

if ( ! defined( 'PLUGIN_CHECK_PHP_BIN' ) ) {
	define( 'PLUGIN_CHECK_PHP_BIN', '/opt/homebrew/opt/[email protected]/bin/php' );
}

Run the Plugin Check again. If you successfully created the constant with the correct path, your Plugin Check report may be a bit longer.

Sites running WordPress 6.3 and plugins that add the post__not_in query variable on the parse_query hook are breaking the lists of posts and pages in the Dashboard. I found this bug because I built and maintain a plugin that did exactly this.

Example pages with errors after updating to WordPress 6.3

• wp-admin/edit.php
• wp-admin/edit.php?post_type=page
• wp-admin/edit.php?post_type={custom_post_type}

Why?

The post__not_in query variable makes it easy for developers to hide posts and pages from dashboard users. The parse_query hook is one of the last hooks before the main query runs, and a handful of hide-page-tutorials recommend using it to exclude specific posts or pages from the query.

How to Fix

Follow this advice: Avoid post__not_in

How to find out if a plugin is causing the errors

Disable all plugins one at a time and check the broken pages. This is the way to troubleshoot almost every problem on a WordPress site. If you cannot deactivate all plugins for this plugin conflict test, create a duplicate copy of the site to use during the test.

WordPress core provides developers with a handful of functions to escape string content and enable translations into other languages.

Translatable Strings

Access the translated version of text used in plugins or themes with one of the following functions.

<?php
echo __( 'Hello', 'text-domain' );
_e( 'Hello', 'text-domain' );
echo _x( 'Hello', 'The welcome message', 'text-domain' );

The first, __(), returns the text.

The “e” in _e() stands for echo. This function outputs the text.

The “x” in _x() stands for context and accepts an argument to explain to translators the context of the text.

Escape for HTML

Escapes strings so they are not parsed as HTML. Characters like < are converted to <.

<?php
echo esc_html( 'Hello' );
echo esc_html__( 'Hello', 'text-domain' );
esc_html_e( 'Hello', 'text-domain' );
echo esc_html_x( 'Hello', 'The welcome message', 'text-domain' );

Example

<p><?php esc_html_e( 'Hi there! >:)', 'my-plugin' ); ?></p>

The above code will render the following HTML:

<p>Hi there! &gt;:)</p>

Escape for HTML attributes

Escape strings used in HTML attributes like class="" so they do not break the HTML.

<?php
echo esc_attr( 'Value' );
echo esc_attr__( 'Value', 'text-domain' );
esc_attr_e( 'Value', 'text-domain' ); // Outputs the value.
echo esc_attr_x( 'Value', 'The control value', 'text-domain' );

Example

<p><input type="text" value="<?php esc_attr_e( 'Something seems "off"', 'my-plugin' ); ?>" /></p>

The above code will render the following HTML:

<p><input type="text" value="Something seems &quot;off&quot;" /></p>

Escape a URL

Escape strings inside href="" or src="" attributes.

<?php
echo esc_url( 'https://coreysalzano.com/' );

Escape for textareas

Prevents the text content of a <textarea> from closing the element early.

<?php
echo esc_textarea( 'WordPress core provides developers with a handful of functions to escape string content and enable translations into other languages.' );

Blocking spam on WordPress websites is heavy work. Akismet comes pre-installed on every site, but it’s not free for businesses or the only way to stop spam.

1. OOPSpam https://www.oopspam.com/
2. CleanTalk https://cleantalk.org/
3. Stop Forum Spam https://www.stopforumspam.com/
4. Project Honey Pot https://www.projecthoneypot.org/
5. Zero Spam https://www.zerospam.org

There are a ton of anti-spam WordPress plugins. The criteria for this list of alternatives is “offers an API.”

Thanks to Austin and Kerch for inspiration and help creating this list.

If you’re building blocks for WordPress, and the error TypeError: c is not a function is logged in your browser’s developer console, you may have created a TextControl component and failed to include both value and onChange attributes.

This code will cause the error:

<TextControl
	label={ __( 'Cash/trade', 'invp-payment-calculator' ) }
	id={ 'trade' }
	onChange={ changeTradeValue }
</TextControl>

This is a correct syntax:

	label={ __( 'Cash/trade', 'invp-payment-calculator' ) }
	id={ 'trade' }
	value={ attributes.trade }
	onChange={ changeTradeValue }
</TextControl>

If you see the default “Thanks for contacting us! We will get in touch with you shortly.” even if you’ve created a custom confirmation for your Gravity Form, your entry may have been marked as spam.

All entries deemed spam are shown the default message. Login and try again–logged in users will not get caught in the spam filter.

Also, visit the Entries list in the dashboard, and look for the Spam folder. Your entry may have been saved with the other Spam.

Where in the Gravity Forms source code does this happen?

plugins/gravityforms/form_display.php line 3894

If you’re building blocks for WordPress, and the error TypeError: b.map is not a function is logged in your browser’s developer console, you may have created a SelectControl component and failed to wrap the options in brackets to create an array.

This code will cause the error:

			<SelectControl
				label="Minimum Rating"
				value={ attributes.minimumRating }
				options={ 
					{ label: 'Great Deal', value: 'GREAT_PRICE' },
					{ label: 'Good Deal', value: 'GOOD_PRICE' },
					{ label: 'Fair Deal', value: 'FAIR_PRICE' }
				 }
				onChange={ onChangeMinimumRating }
			/>

This is the correct syntax:

			<SelectControl
				label="Minimum Rating"
				value={ attributes.minimumRating }
				options={ [
					{ label: 'Great Deal', value: 'GREAT_PRICE' },
					{ label: 'Good Deal', value: 'GOOD_PRICE' },
					{ label: 'Fair Deal', value: 'FAIR_PRICE' }
				] }
				onChange={ onChangeMinimumRating }
			/>