You might find that you install the CabGrid basic edition or CabGrid Pro WordPress plugin and it does not function correctly. There are many reasons this may happen, but most likely it is a compatibility issue with your theme or other plugins.

Jump to Known Incompatibilities

Basic Troubleshooting

Hosting environment

For the purposes of this guide we are assuming your web site is running on an Internet accessible server. Running on localhost or a closed network may have unexpected consequences.

Ideally, the server hostname should match the WordPress Address (URL) value configured under WordPress Admin > Settings > General Settings.

Check your web server hosting meets the minimum requirements:

• PHP v5.4 or higher (PHP 7+ preferred for WordPress v5 and higher)
• CURL function
• MAIL function (See email troubleshooting)

Check your server configuration by calling the phpinfo() command, or use a plugin (such as PHP Info). Insure it meets the requirements above.

Are you running a recent version of WordPress?

CabGrid Pro has been tested on most recent versions of WordPress – from version 4 up to an including WordPress 6.0. The CabGrid Pro readme.txt file (included in the plugin’s folder) will indicate your version’s compatibility most accurately. Make sure you are running an up to date version of WordPress.

Note: WordPress Multisite installations are not currently supported.

Run the compatibility test

CabGrid has a built in compatibility test. This test can show incompatibility between the hosting environment and CabGrid Pro. It accessible from the BASIC edition of CabGrid and from CabGrid Pro v4 or higher.

See: How to run the CabGrid Pro compatibility tests.

Delete Cookies

Delete cookies associated with your site from your browser (and clear cache).

Are you running the most up to date version of the CabGrid plugin?

Determine what version of CabGrid you have installed from the WordPress Admin > Plugins > Installed Plugins page. The CabGrid item will give a version number under the details.

Check what the latest version is:

• CabGrid Pro v5 – check the latest readme.txt here.
• CabGrid Pro v4 (or before) – 4.5.16 (last version of this generation) [payment required to update to v5.]
• CabGrid (basic) – check the WordPress plugin directory, here.

WordPress should display a notification when an update to CabGrid is available. Updates can be installed from the WordPress Admin UPDATES page (or directly from the PLUGINS page).

If you have an earlier version installed and there is no update showing in the WordPress Admin, please contact us.

Check CabGrid Admin

Does the admin section of the CabGrid plugin work as expected? You should be able to enter and save prices and options.

If this isn’t working there could be a core issue with your WordPress installation or hosting platform. >> You could try re-installing WordPress.

Have you changed the address/URL of the WordPress admin? This is usually found at http://your-site.com/wp-admin but some security plugins allow you to change this address. This is ok as long as WordPress knows the address of the admin. CabGrid needs the admin address as it makes use of WordPress built-in AJAX functionality, the source of which is stored within the admin directory. If the price look up is failing, it could be that WordPress’ AJAX functionality is no loading properly. >> Try resetting the admin URL to the default location to see if this resolves the problem.

Disable web server caching

Insure you are viewing the most up to date version of your site by disabling any caching software or plugins.

Caching can be used to speed up load times for your visitors, but it usually relies on storing pre-processed versions of your site’s files. This may mean you are no looking at the latest version of your site – and hence troubleshooting changes are not being accurately reflected.

Disable auto-minify/auto-optimise

Plugins that purport to speed up your site by optimising code can cause problems. These plugins often rewrite code to make it smaller (minify) or load it in a different order (defer). Each of these functions can interfere with CabGrid’s functionality.

Insure you have entered data

Assuming the CabGrid Pro admin page is working, insure you have entered at least some data in the plugin as follows:

• at least two locations in the AREAS tab
• at least one vehicle in the VEHICLE tab
• at least one price in the PRICES tab

Visit your site when logged out

Try logging out of the WordPress admin and visiting your site. Most (if not all) of your visitors will not be logged in. Conflicts can be caused by plugins which load code specifically for the admin section. You could try in a private (or incognito) window.

Check the intended layout

If you are having layout issues (text appears wrong size or input fields are misaligned), have a look at the intended default layout to see if it differs. This could indicate a problem caused by outside influence (theme/plugin issue). We have created this page that simply displays the CabGrid Pro plugin in its most basic form. Have a look at it using different browsers and devices (such as a mobile phone or tablet) and see how it compares to your implementation of the CabGrid plugin on your website.

Check the Embed feature (requires v5)

CabGrid Pro version 5 includes an “embed” feature that loads a vanilla version of the plugin. The embed page attempts to strip out ancillary functionality such as styling and functionality introduced by plugins or themes to display a simple implementation of the CabGrid Pro price calculator (or table).

Checking this page can help determine if the problem is related to other plugins or the theme. If the embed plugin displays correctly, it is then likely that the issue is compatibility with the active theme or another plugin. Details on identifying the specific culprit below…

See: How to access the CabGrid Pro embed feature.

Change your Theme

If you [temporarily] activate another WordPress Theme (- one of the built-in Themes like Twenty-Twenty, Twenty-Eleven, etc.), does the problem persist?

If changing themes solves the problem, there is a compatibility issue between your original theme and the CabGrid plugin. >> You should insure you have the latest version of your theme installed, or find another theme, or contact us so we can investigate.

CSS Styling Issues

Styles set by your theme or other plugins could override CabGrid’s built-in styling and cause appearance issues. You may need to add custom styles to override errors. See Styling CabGrid with Custom CSS and Troubleshooting CSS Styling Issues in CabGrid.

Disable other plugins

To determine if there is a plugin incompatibility causing the problem, disable all plugins other than CabGrid and check that the CabGrid price calculator is working as expected on your web site. The free Health Check plugin makes it easy to disable plugins (and themes) on the fly.

If disabling all other plugins resolves the problem, then you can re-enable the other plugins one by one and test until you determine which plugin is causing CabGrid to fail.

If you find a plugin that is incompatible with CabGrid, it could well be causing problems for other plugins too. >> You should contact the developer of that plugin for further assistance and delete or deactivate it on your web site. We would also be grateful if you would let us know the name of the plugin so we can also investigate.

[Temporarily] Disable customisations

CabGrid cab be customised in a number of ways. Temporarily disable or remove these customisations to insure they aren’t adversely impacting functionality:

• Remove custom CSS
• Remove custom booking form fields
• Insure standard booking form fields are visible and required
• Remove any advanced customisation set via _settings.php or temporarily disable the Defaults add-on plugin

Check .htaccess and permissions

CabGrid Pro needs access to its own files within the WordPress plugins folder. Some plugins/software modify the .htaccess file (at root level of the web server) to limit access to files in this folder. Check the .htaccess file to see if any additional directives have been added preventing access to the Plugins folder. This can be achieved using an FTP application to download and open the file, or using a file management plugin in the WordPress Admin. There are also plugins that restore the default WordPress .htaccess directives.

Also, check that the cab-grid-pro plugins folder and files within have the correct permissions assigned. Again, this can usually be done via FTP.

Temporarily remove shortcode attributes

Try implementing CabGrid on your page/post without any shortcode attributes. If this works, check and re-introduce attributes one by one making sure to use the correct syntax. If a particular attribute is failing, please contact support.

Disable sidebar widgets

In the WordPress admin, go to Appearance > Widgets and temporarily disable widgets by dragging them to the ‘Inactive Widgets‘ section. Test the site and then drag widgets back to the sidebar one by one to check which causes a conflict.

Enable CabGrid Pro logging

CabGrid Pro specific logging can be enabled by editing the _settings.php file: (or using the free Defaults Add-on)

$cabGridProLogEnable=1;

Complete some test bookings, then analyse the log file…

The log file can be downloaded via FTP or read using the WordPress plugin editor (if enabled):
WordPress Admin > Plugins > Editor > CabGrid Pro > log.txt

Other things to try

• Try re-initialising the CabGrid Pro plugin.
• Try re-installing the plugin from your original source files. You can follow the procedure for updating Cab Grid to achieve this.
• Try de-activating the plugin from the WordPress Admin > Plugins > Installed Plugins > Cab Grid Pro > Deactivate. Then reactivate it. This will insure any new feature hooks are run.
• Try re-saving permalinks from the WordPress admin > Settings > Permalinks. Click “Save Changes” at the bottom of the page to rewrite link structure and include any Cab Grid rules.
• Turn off friendly URLs.
• Check other troubleshooting posts or posts specific to certain error messages displayed on Cab Grid Pro admin pages.
• Check web server logs for error messages. Your hosting provider should be able to tell you how to access server error logs.

Known Incompatibilities

Tags: error message, not working, problems, troubleshooting