Fix: WordPress 2.5 and Popularity Contest plugin

Many bloggers out there (including me) use the JAW Popular Posts widget plugin, that displays the most popular post somewhere in the sidebar. This widget requires Popularity Contest plugin in order to run. The problem is that Popularity Contest does not run on WordPress 2.5 (it causes a fatal error when activated). The fix is very easy (you just need to edit one file).

If you cannot wait until Alex King releases the next version of the plugin, you just have to download the latest version (1.3b3) of the plugin and

  • open the popularity-contest.php file with your favorite editor
  • find line 59 and replace
    require('../../wp-blog-header.php');
    

    with

    require('../wp-blog-header.php');
    
  • upload the file to wp-content/plugins/popularity-contest (or where the plugin files are located)
  • activate the plugin

If you are installing Popularity Contest for the first time on a WordPress 2.5 installation, you have to create some database tables first. Extended instructions on how to manage it can be found here.

2 thoughts on “Fix: WordPress 2.5 and Popularity Contest plugin

  1. Hi!
    there’s something need your help
    it’s that i’m the first time install this plugins
    my blog is worpress 2.5.1
    my question is which database need create
    Ths!

  2. @spider: If you run wordpress 2.5.1 and you are installing popularity contest for the first time (the current version of popularity contest is not compatible with wordpress 2.5.1, it causes a fatal error), you have to create some database tables using a databese administration tool like phpmyadmin. More information on which tables you need to create can be found here.
    Although this solution is not recommended for beginners or amateur users, because you may damage your database. Be aware of that and make a database backup before modifying anything 😉

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