Why am I getting a “Call to undefined function curl_init()” when I try to use the Sociable plugin?

Question

I have a wordpress blog at

http://www.1000irritatingthings.com

I had the sociable plugin working for a while, but now when I try to configure it, I get the following error in the admin panel when I select Sociable classic:

Fatal error: Call to undefined function curl_init() in

D:\(WEBSITES)\1000irritatingthings.com\www\wp-content\plugins\sociable\includes\sociable_output.php on line 28

I'm not a PHP guy, so I'm clueless.

I promise that I haven't altered anything manually, I'm totally a "Manage it from the Admin Panel and not touch anything below the surface" kind of guy.

Answer 1

Is it your host?

Test if cURL is installed. If not: Go and talk to your host.

Here you got a small plugin. Drop it in your MU-Plugins folder and reload any page, or drop it into your plugins folder, activate it and then reload the page.

/* Plugin Name: _CHECK IF cURL INSTALLED */
function wpse61626_can_I_haz_cURL()
{
    if ( ! in_array ( 'curl', get_loaded_extensions() ) )
        echo '<img src="http://i.imgur.com/rAo4V.png" />';

    echo '<img src="http://i.imgur.com/vZY62.png" />';
}
add_action( 'shutdown', 'wpse61626_can_I_haz_cURL', 9999 );

Help(desk) available!

I send you one from my helpdesk stuff along with the plugin, to give you a better feedback. He's called »Astro«, one of my best employees.

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Important

No animals were hurt during writing this answer.

Answer 2

How long is "a while" and what other plugins have you installed since Sociable stopped working?

It's possible your web host changed php configs. curl is a php include and needs to be enabled in php.ini. I'd ask the web host, who appears to be live-servers.net

http://php.net/manual/en/curl.installation.php