jQuery, Simple Lightbox, & WordPress

[mwdewitt]

I have installed a plugin called Simple Lightbox and it did not seem to be working. So, I contacted the group that created the plugin and they told me that I have an outdated copy of JQuery and I need the most recent one to run the Simple Lightbox plugin. I am using WordPress, so how do I update JQuery? Thank you in advance!

[simoncmason]

The plugin should reference the copy of jQuery inculded with WordPress so is your WordPress install up to date? (3.4.1)

If updating wordpress doesn’t fix it then the plugin isn’t really authored very well – you shouldn’t need to change anything to make it work. If you still want to use this plugin you can deregiser the included version of jQuery and register the most recent version (or you could link to Google’s CDN) but this could cause other plugins or theme functions to fail.

Maybe try a different lightbox plugin! Colorbox is quite good if you only want to have images in the lightbox.

If you want other content such as iframes or inline to display in the lightbox you are probably best adding it yourself via your theme functions file.

[mwdewitt]

Yeah, I have the most recent WordPress release (v 3.4.1) and I like Simple Lightbox because the developers are really nice, but I shall give jQuery Colorbox a try. Thanks for the tip!

[Archetyped]

Hi, I may be somewhat biased (being the developer of SLB), but I’d like to think Simple Lightbox is authored rather well :)

SLB uses the version of jQuery included with WordPress itself. However, themes or other plugins sometimes override the loading of WP’s version of jQuery with their own copy, which can cause issues with (ahem, _well-authored_) plugins that work in harmony with WP’s version.

The solution is to identify who is inserting an outdated version of jQuery (generally a plugin or theme).
The steps to do this are simple:

1.Switch your theme to the latest default theme included with WP (e.g. Twenty Eleven)

2.Deactivate all plugins (except for SLB)

3.Confirm that SLB is working properly (if not, come knocking at my door with flaming pitchforks)

4.Activate plugins one at a time until SLB stops working (which would mean that the plugin that was most
recently activated is the culprit)

5.Activate the custom theme (if SLB stops working at this point, then the culprit is the theme)

It may sound tedious, but it is one of the faster and simpler ways to identify rogue plugins/themes.

Let me know if you need any additional assistance.

[Caparico]

Thanks a bunch, Archetyped. Solved my problem with your easy to follow debugging steps.

[Archetyped]

Glad to help. I am currently working on _something_ that will make diagnosing issues like this much simpler.

[Author]

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