Social API : Could not instantiate mail function. Email could not be sent.

godstedlund

Hi,

We're experiencing a strange problem with the Social API in GK Paradise: - the "email a friend" function fails as shown in the screenshot here: -

This is particularly strange as the PHP mailer is verified as working both through the configuration test function and through paid version of FlexiContact Plus which is using the same function. We've not found any specific settings for this in GK Paradise so unable to do anything about it.

Could anyone please shed some light on this problem and how to resolve?

Thank you in advance!

saguaros

Hi godstedlund

Are you using latest version of template?

I just tested at my end to send email for an article of this template and it worked normally.

Could you share the URL + super admin account so I can test?

godstedlund

Hi Saguaros,

Thanks for your response.

No, we're not using the latest version of the template at this stage - mainly due to a lack of time to update. I reckon the changes made by you in relation to our previous post (https://www.joomlart.com/forums/d/35836-missing-translation-option-and-social-networks-functionality) would then be lost - and I'd need to have time enough to redo those changes in case they were lost when updating - so haven't gotten round to that yet.

I'm I correct in thinking that would be the case?

Anyway, I have updated this ticket with the URL + super admin account and would appreciate if you wouldn't mind having a look at it for us. Thank you very much in advance!

saguaros

Hi godstedlund

I tried to setup SMTP mail mailer with your site instead of PHP Mail mailer and the email was sent correctly:

It seems relate to mail function, not template issue here.

godstedlund

saguaros

Hi Saguaros,

Sorry for the much belated reply. :-) The mail problem above has now been resolved as we eventually updated the template to the latest version (2.0.1) and, somehow, that fixed it and that part is fine now, so we won't have to use SMTP after all.

However, updating the template has caused another (much more visually damaging) issue; all bullet points and social share icons have now been replaced by small boxes with question marks inside them - in certain browsers. The problem is visible in MSIE, MSEdge, Chrome and Brave browsers .. but strangely enough not in Firefox?

Please see screenshots: -

MSIE

MSEdge

Chrome

Brave

Firefox

I have so far not been able to determine what causing this. I have been using the inspector tool to try and locate the problem - and after playing around with font settings a lot it appears not to be font-related but it's still unclear exactly what the problem is. I have tried using other font families than FontAwesome and so on but to no avail.

To make sure it isn't a local / device issue, I have also checked on a separate laptop running MSEdge which has never visited the website before - and the problem is visible. On two Android mobile devices both using Brave browser there is no problem, also after clearing cache, etc. on both devices. So - the problem is definitely real but it doesn't show on every device / every browser.

Further to that I have extracted the complete template.css file from a backup made weeks ago, long prior to updating the template which I did yesterday and, as a test, replaced the entire template.css contents with that of the backup which I know was working fine - also without any success. So I'm stumped.

I have no idea what is causing this as I don't know what controls these bullet points and social icons, if it's not something within the CSS? And as I wouldn't know what to look for, I really hope you can help - this looks really bad on the site! :-(

Thank you very much in advance!

godstedlund

Strangely, the problem has seemingly resolved itself overnight .. :-)

Brave