Plugin throwing TypeError after WordPress 4.5 update

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

I was able to resolve the issue. Turns out I was using an older version of JS composer. Updating to the newest version broke my site so I tracked down the error and updated the html2element function to

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()
        },

All is working well for me again! Hope this helps others.

Answer 2

I was still getting this error after trying the patch in Ben's answer: Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read property 'custom' of undefined

So I modified the html2element in composer-view.js as follows:

 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()
    },

Answer 3

@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()
    },