PHP errors can be caused by plugin conflicts, theme issues, custom code, or problems within WordPress itself. Some errors may not immediately produce a visible problem, but they can still affect website performance or cause certain features to stop working.
Siteligent includes a PHP Error Monitor that captures PHP notices, warnings, and critical runtime errors so you can review them from your Siteligent Dashboard.
How PHP Error Monitoring Works
The Siteligent Connector uses a lightweight error handler to capture PHP errors on your WordPress site.
Instead of relying on a continuously growing traditional PHP error log, the Connector temporarily stores captured errors in a secure WordPress database transient.
Siteligent also reduces unnecessary storage by:
Grouping similar errors together.
Deduplicating repeated entries.
Periodically removing older transient data during synchronization.
This keeps the local error data from unnecessarily increasing the size of your WordPress database.
Sync PHP Errors with Siteligent
Siteligent retrieves the errors from your WordPress site and stores them in your Siteligent account so you can review your error history.
Automatic Sync: PHP error information is synchronized through a daily background sync. The scheduler connects to your site, retrieves the compiled PHP error information, and archives it in Siteligent. This allows you to maintain an error history without keeping large amounts of error data inside your WordPress database.
Manual Sync: If you need to investigate an issue immediately, you can trigger a manual sync to retrieve the latest PHP errors rather than waiting for the next scheduled synchronization. This is particularly useful when you're actively troubleshooting a website problem and want to check whether a recent request generated a new error.
Clear the Error Log: You can also use Clear Log to remove the stored PHP error information. This clears both the local WordPress transient and the corresponding Siteligent archive.
Analyze Errors with Zyra AI
Siteligent includes an AI PHP Error Analyzer that can help turn technical PHP errors into easier-to-understand troubleshooting steps.
When the AI analyzer is available and configured, you can select Analyze Error next to an error entry. The analyzer examines the error and its context before providing an explanation and recommended actions.
File Context Analysis
The analyzer looks at the location of the file that generated the error and identifies what type of code is involved.
WordPress Core: If the error originates from
wp-adminorwp-includes, it is identified as a WordPress Core error. The analysis can recommend updating WordPress and explains why core files should not be edited directly.Plugins: If the error originates from
wp-content/plugins/, the analyzer identifies it as a plugin-related error. It can identify the plugin involved and recommend checking whether an update is available. Directly modifying plugin files is generally not a suitable long-term fix because those changes can be overwritten when the plugin is updated.Parent Themes: Errors originating from a parent theme are identified separately. The analyzer can recommend using a child theme when custom changes are required so that modifications aren't lost when the parent theme is updated.
Child Themes and Custom Code: Errors in child themes or custom code are identified as areas where the site's own code may be changed to resolve the problem.
Understand Where the Error Came From
The analyzer also distinguishes between different types of PHP errors.
User-Triggered Errors
These are errors deliberately generated by application code using PHP's trigger_error() mechanism.
Examples include:
E_USER_WARNINGE_USER_ERRORE_USER_NOTICE
These can indicate that a developer or plugin intentionally triggered an error during validation, debugging, or another application process.
Native Runtime Errors
These are generated directly by the PHP runtime.
Examples include:
E_WARNINGE_NOTICEE_DEPRECATEDE_ERROR
They can point to issues such as undefined variables, missing functions, deprecated functionality, or other coding problems.
Get Actionable Fix Steps
PHP stack traces can be difficult to understand, particularly if you aren't a developer. The AI analyzer converts the technical information into 3–5 plain-English steps explaining what the error means and what you can investigate next.
Where the available error information allows it, the analysis can reference:
The affected file
The relevant line number
Variable names
Code involved in the error
The likely source of the problem
Recommended next steps
This gives you a starting point for troubleshooting without requiring you to interpret an entire PHP stack trace manually.
A Practical Way to Use PHP Error Monitoring
When a website starts behaving unexpectedly, use the PHP Error Monitor as part of your troubleshooting process:
Sync the latest errors if you need the most recent information.
Look for errors that appeared around the time the problem started.
Check which plugin, theme, or part of WordPress generated the error.
Use Analyze Error to understand the error and review the suggested fix steps.
Check whether the affected plugin or theme has an available update.
After making a change, sync the errors again and check whether the problem has been resolved.
This can help you move from "something is broken" to identifying the specific code or component responsible for the problem.