[Resolved] Clicking on a topic does not produce results

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[Focus on the Family]

Hello,
We’re encountering a sitewide problem on our main website, hidden link , in which search results are not being generated when a topic within a category is clicked on. When any topic is clicked on, the only thing that happens is a never-ending spinner gif which makes it appear as if results are being loaded, when in fact, they are not. The odd thing is, this error is occurring in our production site, and not on our staging site, and both sites are the same in terms of having the latest editions installed of all of our plugins. Those plugins include Toolset Types and Toolset Views.

We also see the same issue if, after clicking on a category, we scroll through the listing of articles and get to the bottom of the initial list. Rather than pulling additional articles, we instead get the never-ending spinner and all the articles in the list gray out.

Attached are screenshots of an example of the problem. On the same page in our production and staging sites, hidden link and hidden link , the screenshot labeled ‘spinner’ shows the difference – our front end site has the endless spinner while our staging site successfully loads the results of the topic that was clicked on.

Again, our research leads us to suspect that Toolset might be causing the error. We asked ChatGPT about this, and the screenshot of ChatGPT’s response (‘spinner3’) confirms that Toolset could be involved.

Thank you for your help!

Barney Royalty
Focus on the Family

[Waqar]

Hi Barney,

Thank you for contacting us and I'd be happy to assist.

Looking into the search on the production website, it seems that the AJAX request that is used to update the form and search is being blocked/restricted.

Are both these websites on the same server environment and using the same theme, plugins, and custom code? Is it possible that you have an extra security plugin or policy implemented on the production website?

If you can't think of any difference, you're welcome to share temporary admin login details of this production website, for further troubleshooting.

Note: Your next reply will be private and making a complete backup copy is recommended before sharing the access details.

regards,
Waqar

[Waqar]

Thank you for sharing these details.

During troubleshooting on your 'dev' website's clone, I noticed that the issue with the AJAX filtering is fixed when the 'WP-FormAssembly' plugin is deactivated.

Are all these websites using the same form through this third-party plugin?

[Focus on the Family]

Hello Waqar,
We use a large number of forms on the site which use the FormAssembly plugin. Also, I just confirmed that the same plugin is installed on the copy of the site where everything is functioning correctly, so I'm pretty sure it's not the culprit.

Thank you for your continued help.

Barney

[Waqar]

Thanks for writing back.

I shared the conclusion based on very careful testing and you can test the same on the 'dev' version of your website:

Test 1:
Deactivate the 'WP-FormAssembly' plugin and you'll see the issue will be fixed.

Test 2:
Keep the 'WP-FormAssembly' plugin active but, remove its form's shortcode ( [formassembly formid=597 server=hidden link; ) from the Elementor's footer. You'll see the issue will be fixed.

This will confirm that this particular form (ID: 597) is bringing in some code/script, which is causing other scripts to break, on websites that are affected.

[Focus on the Family]

Hello Waqar.
Thank you! The issue was with the fact that that specific form was being used in a pop-up CTA that appeared globally across the site. This included archive and search results pages, which is where the conflict occurred. When we excluded those kinds of pages from where the CTA could appear, the issue went away.

We really appreciate your help! Please feel free to go ahead and close this ticket.

Barney Royalty
Focus on the Family