"This Powerful New WordPress Plugin Lets You Post 100's of Articles at Once, With Future Date Timestamps So Your Site Continues Growing Automatically For Months... Or Even Years To Come!"

ZipPoster Support & Technical Notes...

When you try to use a powerful tool like ZipPoster on a shared hosting account, you can sometimes encounter errors. And since not all website hosting servers and accounts are configured the exact same way, sometimes a little troubleshooting is needed. The purpose of this page is to give you a starting point, and try to help you know where to go from here if you've run into problems.

Functionality Overview...

This plugin allows users to upload a ZIP file which contains TXT files through an Admin screen in WordPress. That file is then opened, text files extracted from it, and the text files manipulated into WordPress posts. The posts are then entered into the WP database.

Files are uploaded to the default apache/php tmp directory.

Requirements...

  1. Working install of WordPress 2.6 on your own server. ZipPoster is designed to work with WordPress 2.6. It MAY work with 2.5 variations as well. This plugin cannot be used on freely hosted WP blogs.
    • PHP v4.0.7 or higher. Since this tool just automates existing WP functionality, the PHP version should not be an issue but I've posted it here for reference in case anyone's wondering.

  2. The PHP Zip Library. You webserver must have PHP compiled with the Zip library module in order to function properly.

DEBUG Mode...

If you need in depth details for troubleshooting, you can run ZipPoster in Debug mode. Just add "&DEBUG=true" (without the quotes) to the end of the ZipPoster admin screen URL. DEBUG must be in all caps. After running any part of the tool with Debug mode turned on, view source on the page to see the debug messages.

Error Messages...

ZipPoster has fairly easy to understand error messages built into it, but just in case you need clarification, I'm listing the most common ones here for you.

  1. "the php zip extension is not available" - This usually means the Zip Library has not been compiled with PHP or it's not enabled to allow uploading of zip files via scripts.
    • Solution 1: Ask the hosting company to install and enable the PHP Zip library
    • Solution 2: If they will not allow zip uploading, consider moving to another host
    • Solution 3: Don't use Plugins like ZipPoster

  2. "upload stopped by an extension" - This error is caused by a security setting on the server. Some hosting companies fear abuse of services if they allow shared hosting accounts to use a script like this, and some fear uploading files is a security risk. So they have a PHP extension installed which does not all the script to function properly, thus this error is produced.

    Note: Solutions to this error will vary from one server to another. Possible solutions include:

    • Explain the issue and error to your hosting company. Point them to this support page and/or allow their tech support to login to your WP so they can see how the script is supposd to work. Ask them to adjust whatever PHP extension or security setting they may have in place which is blocking the functionality of ZipPoster
    • Consider moving to another host or getting a separate account with another company
    • Don't use plugins like ZipPoster

  3. Other Errors - Other errors are fairly self explanitory, but if you come across one you don't understand, feel free to ask about it.

Hosting Companies With Known Issues...

NOTE: 99% of hosting companies work fine, including the cheapest "Baby Gator" package at Hostgator

We've been trying to track any problem hosting companies we can, but many of them fix the problems quite quickly so this list may not be 100% up to date at all times.

These hosting companies are still pending more information...
- HTTPme
- emcwebhosting
- Lunar Pages
- Power VPS
- vodahost
- webhostingbuzz

Disclaimer: I will do everything I can to help with technical issues or bugs related to the ZipPoster plugin. Please understand that there is no way I can provide in depth support for each and every hosting company or server configuration.

This Page Was Last Updated December 2, 2008. All content ©Kathy Burns-Millyard