This is a bug report. The plugin completely and totally fails on servers with WP_HTTP_BLOCK_EXTERNAL enabled
What?
On servers with WP_HTTP_BLOCK_EXTERNAL enabled, this plugin will not activate.
Upon clicking Activate, this plugin displays the following message, and the plugin fails to activate
Your WordPress server failed trying to send a request to the Font Awesome API server.
Steps to reproduce
To reproduce, install a fresh copy of the latest stable version of wordpress, and add the following to the wp-config.php file
define( 'WP_HTTP_BLOCK_EXTERNAL', true );
Then, download this plugin's latest stable release, extract the zip, and copy the font-awesome folder into wp-contents/plugins/ folder
In the wp dashboard in the web browser, go to the Plugins page, and click Activate under Font Awesome.
You'll see this error
Your WordPress server failed trying to send a request to the Font Awesome API server.
Why?
Security-hardened web browsers enable WP_HTTP_BLOCK_EXTERNAL to prevent their webserver from initiating requests, which significantly reduces the attack surface to secure a wordpress install.
For this reason, it's important to support a configuration where the plugin can serve requests, but it cannot initiate them
Solution
The solution is for this plugin to ship with a (stale) version of font awesome, which it will fall-back to providing to the user, if it's found that the plugin cannot initiate requests to the Internet.
This is a bug report. The plugin completely and totally fails on servers with
WP_HTTP_BLOCK_EXTERNALenabledWhat?
On servers with WP_HTTP_BLOCK_EXTERNAL enabled, this plugin will not activate.
Upon clicking
Activate, this plugin displays the following message, and the plugin fails to activateSteps to reproduce
To reproduce, install a fresh copy of the latest stable version of wordpress, and add the following to the
wp-config.phpfileThen, download this plugin's latest stable release, extract the zip, and copy the
font-awesomefolder intowp-contents/plugins/folderIn the wp dashboard in the web browser, go to the
Pluginspage, and clickActivateunderFont Awesome.You'll see this error
Why?
Security-hardened web browsers enable
WP_HTTP_BLOCK_EXTERNALto prevent their webserver from initiating requests, which significantly reduces the attack surface to secure a wordpress install.For this reason, it's important to support a configuration where the plugin can serve requests, but it cannot initiate them
Solution
The solution is for this plugin to ship with a (stale) version of font awesome, which it will fall-back to providing to the user, if it's found that the plugin cannot initiate requests to the Internet.