Due to the fact that my hosting provider encountered some trouble s with their PHP configuration my site is now crippled. Various plugins no longer work, including my own Mobypictures plugin. Also WordPress is no longer able to upgrade itself or to install plugin updates. So far my provider at least informed me about their problems. The email I received however contained the line “… Verder dient u bestanden en directory,s welke schrijfbaar moeten zijn aan te passen naar de rechten 777. …” Which translates more or less into “set permission level to 777 for files and/or folders to which write-access is requried.” Yeah, right! Everybody warns no to use permission 777 because it is BIG security issue.
Thus the reason why this site behaves oddly – for now. (I hope)
Fully operational again
Finally the problems with my site are solved! My hosting provider discovered that the problem was caused by their firewall settings. Fortunately they were able – and willing – to make the necessary configuration changes. It was an awkward situation that my own plugin was no longer working on my own website. I’m glad it is all resolved now.
However, the event painfully pointed out that I should invest some time to investigate how I can rewrite the plugin to use the API instead of the RSS feed. Maybe in the near future…