Plugin throwing TypeError after Wordpress 4.5 upda

Question

I'm debugging a visual composer plugin that broke after I updated Wordpress to 4.5 and I can't figure out why it is throwing a TypeError.

The error message in the console:

JQMIGRATE: Migrate is installed, version 1.4.0              load-scripts.php?....
Uncaught TypeError:     $template.get is not a function     composer-view.js?ver=4.1.1.1:73

The only occurrences of $template are found in the code below. I understand that this isn't very much context to go off of but, how can I resolve this error?

/**
 * Convert html into correct element
 * @param html
 */
html2element: function(html) {
  var attributes = {},
    $template;
  if (_.isString(html)) {
    this.template = _.template(html);
    $template = $(this.template(this.model.toJSON()).trim());
  } else {
    this.template = html;
    $template = html;
  }
  _.each($template.get(0).attributes, function(attr) { // **errors on this line**
    attributes[attr.name] = attr.value;
  });
  this.$el.attr(attributes).html($template.html());
  this.setContent();
  this.renderContent();
},

Update:

It looks like this might be a problem with jQuery. Wordpress 4.5 includes jQuery 1.12 which fixed a bug that allowed certain code to be run with incorrect syntax. I assume that the plugin code must have had incorrect syntax but ran nonetheless until now.

https://wordpress.org/support/topic/read-this-first-wordpress-45-master-list#post-8271654

Answer 1

@Ben This works perfect!

Cause: Admin was not loading the correct visual editor for js_composer plugin after updatethis plugins.

=====================================================

Error:

Error: TypeError: $template.get is not a function Source File: wp-content/plugins/js_composer_salient/assets/js/dist/backend.min.js?ver=4.10 Line: 4047

=====================================================

Solution Goto file /wp-content/plugins/js_composer_salient/assets/js/dist/backend.min.js around line 4045:

======> Replace the code =====================================================

    html2element: function(html) {
        var $template, attributes = {};
        _.isString(html) ? (this.template = _.template(html), $template = $(this.template(this.model.toJSON(), vc.templateOptions["default"]).trim())) : (this.template = html, $template = html), _.each($template.get(0).attributes, function(attr) {
            attributes[attr.name] = attr.value
        }), this.$el.attr(attributes).html($template.html()), this.setContent(), this.renderContent()
    },

======> Replace with this code ========================================

    html2element: function(html) {
        var $template, attributes = {},
        template = html;
        $template = $(template(this.model.toJSON()).trim()), _.each($template.get(0).attributes, function(attr) {
                attributes[attr.name] = attr.value}), 
                this.$el.attr(attributes).html($template.html()), this.setContent(), 
                this.renderContent()
    },

Answer 2

Noticed that code was not being passed into the html2element function, but did exist in the function calling it (render)

The following code has completely corrected my problems, I can load the page, add, clone, remove, etc

render: function () {
			var $shortcode_template_el = $( '#vc_shortcode-template-' + this.model.get( 'shortcode' ) );
			if ( $shortcode_template_el.is( 'script' ) ) {
				var newHtmlCode =  _.template( $shortcode_template_el.html(),
												this.model.toJSON(),
												vc.templateOptions.default );
				if(!_.isString(newHtmlCode)){
					newHtmlCode = $shortcode_template_el.html();
				}
				this.html2element( newHtmlCode );
			} else {
				var params = this.model.get( 'params' );
				$.ajax( {
					type: 'POST',
					url: window.ajaxurl,
					data: {
						action: 'wpb_get_element_backend_html',
						data_element: this.model.get( 'shortcode' ),
						data_width: _.isUndefined( params.width ) ? '1/1' : params.width,
						_vcnonce: window.vcAdminNonce
					},
					dataType: 'html',
					context: this
				} ).done( function ( html ) {
					this.html2element( html );
				} );
			}
			this.model.view = this;
			this.$controls_buttons = this.$el.find( '.vc_controls > :first' );
			return this;
		},

Answer 3

I'm using the theme Applay (2.1.3, a bit outdated). I've just updated WP and all the plugins to the most recent version (4.5.2) and came to this issue as well. I did not analyzed the flow of this component (js_composer), just this "broken" function (it's not really broken). I realized that this.template and $template are getting wrong object types (it needs another validation aside _.isString(html)). I solved it by adding a try & catch block as follows:

ORIGINAL

    html2element:function (html) {
        var attributes = {}, 
            $template;
        if (_.isString(html)) {
            this.template = _.template(html);
            $template = $(this.template(this.model.toJSON()).trim());
        } else {
            this.template = html;                                                                                                                                            
            $template = html;
        }
        _.each($template.get(0).attributes, function (attr) {
            attributes[attr.name] = attr.value;
        }); 
        this.$el.attr(attributes).html($template.html());
        this.setContent();
        this.renderContent();
    },

MODIFIED

    html2element:function (html) {
        var attributes = {}, 
            $template;
        if (_.isString(html)) {
            this.template = _.template(html);
        } else {
            try {
                this.template = _.template(html());                                                                                                                          
            } catch (err) {
                this.template = html;
            }   
        }   
        $template = $(this.template(this.model.toJSON()).trim());
        _.each($template.get(0).attributes, function (attr) {
            attributes[attr.name] = attr.value;
        }); 
        this.$el.attr(attributes).html($template.html());
        this.setContent();
        this.renderContent();
    },

Answer 4

Checkout below code for both $template.get is not a function and Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read property 'attributes' of undefined. Worked for me.

html2element: function(html) {
    var $template, attributes = {},
            template = html;

        $template = $(template(this.model.toJSON()).trim());
        if($template.get(0))
        {
            _.each($template.get(0).attributes, function(attr) {
            attributes[attr.name] = attr.value
        })};

        this.$el.attr(attributes).html($template.html()),
        this.setContent(),
        this.renderContent()
}