WordPress Comments – IE8 HTTP 500 Internal Server Error

I have an interesting problem happening with this WordPress (version 2.8) Comments. This happens only in IE8. Here is what I noticed :

Whenever I submit a Comment to my posts while leaving blank any of the required fields (name, Email, comment textarea), I get the HTTP 500 error message. Even if I typed the name and comments but I typed an invalid email address, I still get the HTTP 500 error in IE8. Filling up all required fields (with a valid Email address) cause no errors and the comment will be added. Below is the error message that I get in IE8:

HTTP 500 IE8 Error

All other browsers: Mozilla/Firefox 3.6, Google Chrome 4, Opera 10, and Safari 4 work fine. When any of the required fields is left blank, or for an invalid Email address, these browsers display the appropriate error message as coded in wp-comments-post.php file.

So far I have NO solution for this and I don´t know how to solve it. The plugins installed, and the theme itself are not the cause for this problem. I deactivated all the plugins and I tried different themes and the problem persists. It seems to me that IE8 has an issue with the Error handling in wp-comments-post.php. However, when I test this on other WordPress run Websites, IE8 displays the appropriate error message. Weird!!!

If you know of a solution, please reply to this post. You can also follow this thread in WordPress Forum.

UPDATE: PROBLEM SOLVED

I found the solution to this problem. Now IE8 behaves the same like the other browsers. The fix lies in WordPress core code.

Go to: “wp-includes/functions.php”
Change “$defaults = array( ´response´ => 500 );”
To “$defaults = array( ´response´ => 200 );”

About the Author |
Boutros is a professional Drupal & WordPress developer, Web developer, Web designer, Software Engineer and Blogger. He strives for pixel perfect design, clean robust code, and user-friendly interface. If you have a project in mind and like his work, feel free to contact him. Connect with Boutros on Twitter, and LinkedIn.
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10 Responses to “WordPress Comments – IE8 HTTP 500 Internal Server Error”

  1. Stacey Souza says:

    The info is greatly appreciated.

  2. I just wanted to make a quick comment to say I’m glad I found your blog. Thanks.

  3. Jeff S. says:

    I randomly browse blogs on the internet, and I root your article to be informational. I have already bookmarked it on my browser, so that I can read your blog once more later.

  4. gataOntorry says:

    That is actually an awesome blog post. I am new to all this but I try to improve. Reading this blog post helped me very much. Thanks for making it available and keep up the good work.

  5. nice blog, thanks for the details.

  6. mark says:

    I am battling this problem right now. It’s very weird, I have two blogs affected but a third isn’t.
    One of the two blogs throws the error only with explorer, the other blogs affects firefox as well.
    I have tried your solution but it doesn’t seem to fix it.
    This is with ANY comment. It will add the comment but I get the 500 error soon after.

    • Hi Mark,
      It seems that your problem is somewhat different than mine prior to the fix (which led me to write this post). In my case, it used to throw a 500 error and it did not add the comment. Also, in my case IE was the only browser affected (not firefox).
      I am just wondering what version of WordPress you are running and whether an upgrade will fix your problem. Do all three blogs have the same version of WordPress?
      Another suggestion is to post your problem in the WordPress Forum (http://wordpress.org/support/), and see if you can get any help there.
      Good Luck!
      Boutros.

  7. Martin says:

    Hi
    I was having the exact same problem with a WordPress 2.9 installation. This worked wonderfully. Thank you. You made my day.

  8. Freeman Feng says:

    I am a newbie and from china. got the same problem appear with all ie6, ie7 and ie8! I tried the method of “http://wordpress.org/support/topic/status_header500-problem-with-ie6?replies=2″, but it did not help me.
    Today, this post is good for me. Thank a lot! My wordpress is 3.0.1!

  9. John K. says:

    Hi,
    Good Post. I think that this issue has been fixed with the new version
    of WordPress (version 3.0). Nothing needs to be modified in the core code.
    John