Herodotus

Pro

Herodotus Pro / Documentation

Troubleshooting & FAQ

Events Not Showing Up

Problem: No events appear on the page.

Check these in order:

  1. Are there events for today's date? Go to Herodotus - On This Day → All Posts and verify that at least one event has today's day and month set.

  2. Are the date fields complete? All three fields (day, month, year) must be set. Look for ⚠ icons in the admin list.

  3. Is the event published? Draft or scheduled events are not displayed. Make sure the post status is "Published".

  4. Check your timezone. Go to Settings → General → Timezone. If your timezone is wrong, "today" may be calculated incorrectly.

  5. Is caching interfering? Try setting the cache TTL to 0 temporarily (Herodotus - On This Day → Settings → Advanced).

  6. Is a full-page cache serving a stale page? Clear your page cache (WP Super Cache, W3TC, etc.) or check a page-cache exclusion or purge at the cache/CDN layer. An incognito window does not bypass server-side page caching.

Red Warning in the Editor

Problem: A red warning appears in the Herodotus Date metabox.

Solution: Set all three fields: day, month, AND year. The warning disappears once all fields have values.

⚠ Icon in the Posts List

Problem: Some events show ⚠ instead of a date or year.

Solution: Edit those events and set the missing date fields. Events with incomplete dates are excluded from date-based listings. A published individual event URL can still be accessible.

Events Show the Wrong Date

Problem: Events appear on the wrong day.

Check:

  1. WordPress Timezone: Settings → General → Timezone. Make sure it matches your actual timezone.
  2. Server Time: Your hosting server's clock may be off. Contact your hosting provider if you suspect this.

Images Not Showing

Problem: Events don't show images.

Check:

  1. Is show_image="false" set? Remove this attribute or set it to true.
  2. Is there a featured image? If not, the default placeholder should appear. Check Herodotus - On This Day → Settings → General → Default Image.
  3. Is the image URL broken? Check the Media Library.

Styling Issues

Problem: The events look different than expected.

Possible causes:

  1. Your theme's CSS may override Herodotus styles. Use browser DevTools to inspect elements.
  2. Add custom CSS via Appearance → Customize → Additional CSS.
  3. Herodotus uses these main CSS classes:
  4. .herodotus-container - container
  5. .herodotus-card - individual event card
  6. .herodotus-card__image-wrap - image container
  7. .herodotus-card__title - event title
  8. .herodotus-card__excerpt - excerpt text
  9. .herodotus-year-badge - year badge
  10. .herodotus-card__category-label - category label
  11. .herodotus-layout-compact - compact layout modifier

Duplicate Meta Tags

Problem: Seeing duplicate Open Graph or Schema.org tags.

Solution: Herodotus auto-disables its meta tags when Yoast SEO, RankMath, AIOSEO, or The SEO Framework is active.

If you use a different SEO plugin, you may need to disable Herodotus SEO output manually. (See Developer Reference for available filters.)

Cache Not Clearing

Problem: Old events still showing after changes.

  1. Wait for the cache TTL to expire.
  2. Or click Clear Cache Now under Herodotus - On This Day → Settings → Advanced; set TTL to 0 temporarily if needed.
  3. The cache should auto-clear when saving events - if it doesn't, check for object caching plugins (Redis, Memcached) that may hold stale transients.

WPML: Events Not Translated

Problem: Events don't appear in translated languages.

  1. Ensure you've created a translation for each event in WPML.
  2. Date meta fields should be automatically copied - verify in WPML → Settings → Custom Fields.
  3. Check that _herodotus_day, _herodotus_month, _herodotus_year are set to "Copy" in WPML.

Performance Concerns

Problem: Page loads slowly with many events.

  1. Enable caching - set a non-zero TTL.
  2. Limit events - use limit="10" to cap the output.
  3. Optimize images - use compressed featured images.
  4. Use a CDN - serve images via a CDN.

Common Questions

Q: Can I display events from a specific date (not today)?

A: The free version displays events for today only (date_mode="today" is the default behavior). Extended date modes - including a fixed date and an "around today" range - are available in Herodotus Pro.

Q: Can I use Herodotus without the Gutenberg block editor?

A: Yes. The shortcode [herodotus] works in the Classic Editor and anywhere shortcodes are supported.

Q: Does the plugin work with custom themes?

A: Yes. Herodotus outputs clean HTML with well-defined CSS classes. It should work with any properly coded theme.

Q: Can I change the URL slug?

A: The default slug is herodotus. Changing it requires code modification in the current version. A settings option for custom slugs may be added in a future release.

Q: Is there a REST API?

A: The custom post type is registered with show_in_rest enabled, so standard WordPress REST API endpoints are available at /wp-json/wp/v2/herodotus_post.

Pro Features Unavailable

Confirm both Free and Pro are active and Pro has an active licence or trial. Its modules do not load just because the ZIP is installed. Use a Shortcode block for layouts and attributes missing from the native block sidebar.

Upcoming Events Missing

Check the Upcoming Event flag on future events, complete dates and publication status. Today does not require the flag. The range is capped at 60 days; a fixed date takes precedence. Clear plugin and page caches after changes.

Grid-4 Shows Only Three Cards

Count events per date, not only visible cards. A date heading starts a new group. Three events on that date leave an empty fourth slot. At narrow widths responsive breakpoints also reduce columns.

Blurred Images

Use Free and Pro 1.6.8 or newer and purge stale HTML. Inspect the image file actually selected by the browser, not only the uploaded original. Version 1.6.8 replaces enlarged small thumbnails with responsive sources. A low-resolution original, CDN resize rule or forced third-party thumbnail can still limit quality.

Import Diagnostics

Check preview errors, recognized columns, encoding, row limit and duplicate settings before starting the import. TXT filenames must identify a day and have a resolvable month. Do not assume a row was imported when preview or completion reports it skipped. See Import and Export.

REST API and Date Fields

Use an authenticated standard WordPress REST request with context=edit to read date metadata. The user must be allowed to edit the event. POST accepts day, month, year and optional era under meta; successful writes synchronize the date query keys. Public view responses omit these date fields. Active Pro also provides the separate public read-only /wp-json/herodotus/v1/posts endpoint.

See REST API examples and validation rules.