Continuation (or rebirth) of this thread:

https://wordpress.org/support/topic/woocommerce-3-6-2-upgrade-breaks-wordpress-popular-posts/#post-11490608

Here’s the thread on the WordPress Popular Posts support page:

https://wordpress.org/support/topic/stopped-counting-stats/

Short version: Upgrading Woocommerce to 3.6.2 breaks the WordPress Popular Posts plugin, and it stops tracking stats.

Kind of a big deal, as lots of people are using the WPP plugin with Woocommerce.

I cloned my site and gave Hector Cabrera, the developer of WPP, access to the test site to trouble shoot the problem.

Diagnosis: It’s a combination of Woocommerce 3.6.2 and Woocommerce PayPal Checkout Gateway 1.6.11 that is causing WPP to break.

I’ll add Hector’s description of the problem:

So I just spent a good chunk of the day debugging this. Here are my findings:

At first everything worked normally with just WPP and WC 3.6.2 enabled:

http://retro-marketing.com/temp/wpp_problem/wpp_screenshot1.png

What you’re seeing above is the first visit I made to one of your products while browsing your site in Incognito Mode. I visited a few more products a few times and every time WPP tracked the views correctly.

Then I randomly enabled a few of your plugins and after a short while the REST API started rejecting WPP’s requests again:

http://retro-marketing.com/temp/wpp_problem/wpp_screenshot2.png

I disabled all of the plugins except for WPP and WC but unfortunately the problem persisted: WPP kept getting 403 responses from the REST API.

Then I checked the site using a different browser (Microsoft Edge) with just WPP and WC enabled and WPP tracked my visit just fine:

http://retro-marketing.com/temp/wpp_problem/wpp_screenshot3.png

Enabling the plugins again triggered the issue again:

http://retro-marketing.com/temp/wpp_problem/wpp_screenshot3.png

So, the problem is -as stated by the REST API- cookie related.

After a bit of trial & error, I found that the problem manifests itself when these plugins are active at the same time:

WooCommerce 3.6.2
WooCommerce PayPal Checkout Gateway 1.6.11
WordPress Popular Posts 4.2.2

So, in short, it seems it’s WooCommerce PayPal Checkout Gateway what’s causing the problem.

Steps of reproduction:

1. Enable all three mentioned plugins and check one of your posts. The REST API will respond with a 403 status.
2. Disable the WooCommerce PayPal Checkout Gateway plugin, clear your browser’s cookies and check one of your posts. The REST API responds with a 200 status.
3. Enable the WooCommerce PayPal Checkout Gateway plugin, clear your browser’s cookies and check one of your posts. The REST API responds with a 403 status again.
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So, what do we do here?

I’m not the only one having this problem; I’m just the lucky soul who found it.

Do you guys want to discuss this with Hector directly? Or I can provide access to my test site to your development team, if necessary.

Please advise.

Charlie

The page I need help with: [log in to see the link]