Hello @jaycbrf,
I’m really sorry to hear about this unexpected experience with the plugin — especially since it happened suddenly and without obvious cause.
From the details you shared, this behavior is indeed unusual from a code perspective. To help us narrow it down, could you let us know:
- Were there any other site changes or updates made overnight before the issue appeared?
- Which WordPress core version is currently in use?
- Have you tried reinstalling the plugin fresh? Sometimes a database corruption or incomplete update can cause errors like this. In such cases, a full reset via the Advanced Settings tab or a complete remove/reinstall can often resolve it.
Once we have more details, we can better determine whether this is an isolated corruption (since it’s the first time we are seeing this one reported), or something else.
Looking forward to your update with great interest and I do hope you will give our plugin another shot!
Thanks for the quick reply. Here are the specifics.
- Other changes before it appeared
No manual changes overnight. The only recent actions prior to the error were: updating “Spam protect for Contact Form 7” and adding two small hardening snippets the prior evening. No core, theme, or server changes were made overnight.
- WordPress core version
WordPress 6.8.2. Oxygen Builder is in use, so wp‑admin shows “No Theme,” which is normal with Oxygen.
- Fresh reinstall attempts
Yes. I tried multiple clean installs:
- Installed latest WP Activity Log 5.4.2 fresh. Fatal error persisted on
/wp-admin/admin.php?page=wsal-auditlog.
- Rolled back to 5.4.1. Same fatal error.
- Switched PHP 8.2 → 8.1, retested both versions. Same fatal error.
- Used Health Check Troubleshooting Mode with only WP Activity Log enabled. Enabling the plugin produced “site failure occurred,” auto‑reverted.
- Ultimately removed the plugin and data. Replaced temporarily with Simple History, site stable.
Errors seen each time:
Uncaught Error: Class name must be a valid object or a string
in /wp-content/plugins/wp-security-audit-log/classes/Helpers/class-view-manager.php:483
Stack trace:
0 wp-includes/class-wp-hook.php(324): WSAL\Helpers\View_Manager::render_view_body()
1 wp-includes/class-wp-hook.php(348): WP_Hook->apply_filters()
2 wp-includes/plugin.php(517): WP_Hook->do_action()
3 wp-admin/admin.php(260): do_action()
4 {main}
Given that it fails even in Troubleshooting Mode with only WP Activity Log active, it looks like an internal edge case rather than a third‑party conflict on my install.
Hello again @jaycbrf,
Thank you for the follow-up and for providing the detailed steps you’ve taken.
We’ve run multiple tests but were unable to reproduce this issue, and this is the first time it’s been reported to us. Since it occurs even in Troubleshooting Mode with only WP Activity Log active, we’d like to take a closer look directly at your setup which might help us narrow it down even further.
If you’d like to continue the investigation, and you have a staging site we can access, please contact us via email at support@melapress.com with a note/reference of this ticket. We’ll then be able to exchange site specifications and other sensitive information safely and work with you to pinpoint the cause.
Looking forward to your update if you would like to proceed.
Thanks for the offer but I do not have ant more time to waste on this. I am running 2 businesses and I am a solo dad. I replaced the plugin and my site is stable. This is not my issue any more.
I found out, after several hours of testing and site errors, that the fault of the error was the recent update to the contact form 7 spam protection plugin. It also broke WooCommerce, WP Mail SMTP, and my dashboard.
I reinstalled your plugin and will continue to use it for it’s great features. Thank you and sorry for the confusion.
No problem at all @jaycbrf
Thanks a lot for updating the ticket. We are glad to read that the problem was not our plugin, and more importantly, that you solved the problem you were having.
May I ask you for a quick favour? Can you please spare a minute to rate our plugin and service? This just takes a minute and really helps the plugin.
Thank you for using our plugin. Should you have any other questions, do not hesitate to ask.
Have a great day.
