Skip Navigation

This thread is resolved. Here is a description of the problem and solution.

Problem:
The client is experiencing issues with the SimpleXML extension, which is necessary for the WPML translation editor to work. Despite meeting the minimum requirements for WordPress, PHP, and MySQL, they encountered a fatal error indicating that the function

simplexml_load_file()

is undefined.

Solution:
We recommend that the client contacts their hosting provider to enable or reinstall the PHP XML extension on their server. This should resolve the error related to the SimpleXML extension not being active. A re-installation of the XML extension is often necessary when encountering such issues. For more information on this error and how to address it, please refer to the following Stack Overflow discussion:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/49447168/call-to-undefined-function-simplexml-load-file.

Please note that this solution might be irrelevant if it's outdated or not applicable to your case. If after checking with your hosting provider the issue persists, we highly recommend that you open a new support ticket. Additionally, it's important to check related known issues at https://wpml.org/known-issues/, verify the version of the permanent fix, and confirm that you have installed the latest versions of themes and plugins. If you need further assistance, please contact us in the WPML support forum.

This is the technical support forum for WPML - the multilingual WordPress plugin.

Everyone can read, but only WPML clients can post here. WPML team is replying on the forum 6 days per week, 22 hours per day.

This topic contains 1 reply, has 2 voices.

Last updated by Ilyes 1 year, 2 months ago.

Assisted by: Ilyes.

Author Posts
February 8, 2024 at 9:14 pm #15283406

emmah-7

Hi WPML support,

We verified the minimum requirements:
· WordPress 4.7 or later (We currently have WordPress 6.4.2 installed on our site)
· PHP 7.0 or above with memory limit of at least 128MB (We currently have PHP 7.4.33 with PHP memory limit set to 256M)
· MySQL 5.6 or above. Alternatively, you can use MariaDB 10.1 or greater. (We currently have extension: mysqli server version: 8.0.35-0ubuntu0.20.04.1 and client version mysqlnd 7.4.33)
We seem to be having issues with the SimpleXML extension, but nothing changed as it was working smoothly in the past.

Enabled the debug display function in the wp-config.php and reproduced the issue and here's the error message:

[24-Jan-2024 15:42:46 UTC] PHP Notice: PHP's XML extension is not available. Please contact your hosting provider to enable PHP's XML extension. in /var/www/html/storytelling/wp-includes/IXR/class-IXR-message.php on line 48

In the frontend WordPress admin dashboard, we are getting the following error message but managed to disable the plugin to make it work again:

Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Call to undefined function simplexml_load_file() in /var/www/html/storytelling/wp-content/plugins/sitepress-multilingual-cms/vendor/otgs/installer/includes/class-wp-installer.php:886 Stack trace: #0 /var/www/html/storytelling/wp-content/plugins/sitepress-multilingual-cms/vendor/otgs/installer/includes/class-wp-installer.php(106): WP_Installer->load_repositories_list() #1 /var/www/html/storytelling/wp-content/plugins/sitepress-multilingual-cms/vendor/otgs/installer/includes/class-wp-installer.php(87): WP_Installer->__construct() #2 /var/www/html/storytelling/wp-content/plugins/sitepress-multilingual-cms/vendor/otgs/installer/includes/functions-core.php(6): WP_Installer::instance() #3 /var/www/html/storytelling/wp-content/plugins/sitepress-multilingual-cms/vendor/otgs/installer/installer.php(15): WP_Installer() #4 /var/www/html/storytelling/wp-content/plugins/sitepress-multilingual-cms/vendor/otgs/installer/loader.php(228): include_once('/var/www/html/s...') #5 /var/www/html/storytelling/wp-incl in /var/www/html/storytelling/wp-content/plugins/sitepress-multilingual-cms/vendor/otgs/installer/includes/class-wp-installer.php on line 886

Could you please inform us of the next step to fix this issue?

Thank you

February 9, 2024 at 9:01 pm #15287577

Ilyes
Supporter

Languages: English (English ) French (Français ) Arabic (العربية )

Timezone: Pacific/Easter (GMT-06:00)

Hello,

Thank you for contacting WPML support team,

Uncaught Error: Call to undefined function simplexml_load_file() , this function belongs to The SimpleXML extension, necessary for WPML translation editor to work. It is not active on your server and forcing a re-install of XML should solve this.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/49447168/call-to-undefined-function-simplexml-load-file

This is something your hosting provider should know how to re-install.

I hope this answered your question,