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Plugin info

Total downloads: 36,729
Active installs: 800
Total reviews: 8
Average rating: 5
Support threads opened: 0
Support threads resolved: 0 (0%)
Available in: 3 language(s)
Contributors: 2
Last updated: 6/26/2025 (188 days ago)
Added to WordPress: 2/22/2018 (7 years old)
Minimum WordPress version: 6.1
Tested up to WordPress version: 6.8.3
Minimum PHP version: 7.4

Maintenance & Compatibility

Maintenance score

Stale • Last updated 188 days ago • 8 reviews

40/100

Is Black Bar abandoned?

Likely maintained (last update 188 days ago).

Compatibility

Requires WordPress: 6.1
Tested up to: 6.8.3
Requires PHP: 7.4

Ratings

8
0
0
0
0See all reviews

Developers

Gemini Labs (Owner)3Paul3

Languages

Dutch (Belgium)10,363Chinese (Taiwan)6,927

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Description

Black Bar is an unobtrusive Debug Bar for WordPress developers. It collects and displays errors, executed SQL queries, slow actions and hooks, theme templates, global variables, and provides a profiler.

How it helps you with development:

  • Debug your code with the Console
  • Inspect global variables (COOKIE, GET, POST, SERVER, SESSION, WP_Screen)
  • Measure performance of your code with the Profiler
  • View any PHP errors that occur when loading a page in the Console
  • View executed MySQL queries along with execution time and backtrace
  • View template files of the active theme in loaded order
  • View the 50 slowest action and filter hooks along with callbacks ordered by priority

Installation

If you have never installed a WordPress plugin before, you can read instructions on how to do this here.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I add entries to the Console?

To add entries to the console, insert the following line of PHP anywhere in your code:

do_action('console', 'Enter something to debug here');

You can also add an optional log level like this:

do_action('console', 'Enter something to debug here', 'error');

The available log levels are: debug, info, notice, warning, error, critical, alert, and emergency.

How do I use the Profiler?

To use the profiler, insert the following lines of PHP before and after the code you are profiling:

Before:

do_action('timer:start', 'Enter a description of what you are profiling here');

After:

do_action('timer:stop');

How do I enable the plugin for non-administrators?

By default, Black Bar is only visible to administrator users. To enable it for all logged-in users, use this code snippet:

add_filter('blackbar/enabled', 'is_user_logged_in');

How do I change the number of slowest hooks displayed?

By default, Black Bar displays the 50 slowest action/filter hooks. To display all hooks, use this code snippet:

add_filter('blackbar/hooks/all', '__return_true');

Review feed

Anna Bansaghi
7/23/2019

Developer must have

Thank you for giving new life to BlackBox Debug Bar! Not only the usefulness of this plugin, but the beautiful PHP coding leads me to write this review. I have learnt a lot from your code.
informatux
4/14/2020

Indispensable / Essential

Il fait l'affaire haut la main, parfait ;-) It did the trick, perfect ;-)

Screenshots

No screenshots available

Changelog

4.1.4 (2024-05-08)

  • Added “blackbar/hooks/all” filter hook
  • Added highlighting of major WordPress hooks
  • Added support for static callables used for hook callbacks in Site Reviews
  • Change minimum PHP version to 7.4
  • Change minimum WordPress version to 6.1

4.1.3 (2024-05-08)

  • Added “blackbar/hooks/all” filter hook
  • Added highlighting of major WordPress hooks
  • Added support for static callables used for hook callbacks in Site Reviews
  • Change minimum PHP version to 7.4
  • Change minimum WordPress version to 6.1

4.1.2 (2024-05-08)

  • Added “blackbar/hooks/all” filter hook
  • Added highlighting of major WordPress hooks
  • Added support for static callables used for hook callbacks in Site Reviews
  • Change minimum PHP version to 7.4
  • Change minimum WordPress version to 6.1

4.1.1 (2024-05-08)

  • Added “blackbar/hooks/all” filter hook
  • Added highlighting of major WordPress hooks
  • Added support for static callables used for hook callbacks in Site Reviews
  • Change minimum PHP version to 7.4
  • Change minimum WordPress version to 6.1

4.1.0 (2024-05-08)

  • Added “blackbar/hooks/all” filter hook
  • Added highlighting of major WordPress hooks
  • Added support for static callables used for hook callbacks in Site Reviews
  • Change minimum PHP version to 7.4
  • Change minimum WordPress version to 6.1

4.0.3 (2023-10-11)

  • Fixed debugging of non-scalar values
  • Fixed display of console values with an Unknown log level

4.0.2 (2023-09-18)

  • Fixed PHP 7 support
  • Fixed console values which include HTML

4.0.1 (2023-03-04)

  • Added cache busting to enqueued assets
  • Added console level filter counts
  • Added HTTP_COOKIE value to INPUT_SERVER globals

4.0.0 (2023-02-13)

  • Added console level filters
  • Added sorting to Action/Filter Hooks
  • Added syntax highlighting to console entries
  • Added trace information to SQL queries
  • Beautified SQL formating
  • Changed Profiler usage (use the “timer:start” and “timer:stop” hooks)
  • Improved Profiler, it is now also more accurate
  • Refreshed UI
  • Requires PHP >= 7.3

See changelog for all versions.

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