site-kit-wp: Error: Invalid site state null

Bug Description

One user is Multiple users are encountering a “Error: Invalid site state null” message when trying to connect the AdSense module. It occurs before OAuth, and without any browser console errors.

The initial user shared a recording of their experience within their support topic. This can be viewed here.

There is a page loader evident on their site, which may be contributing to checking their site. There may also be issues with the PHP version (8.1.10) which remains in Beta support for their version of WP, although during internal testing I wasn’t able to recreate this issue with PHP 8.1 and 2 subdomain sites.

Note also that this can occur when an AdSense account and site are approved, as evident from other reports (see below impacted users). This doesn’t stop ads from appearing, or stop Site Kit from placing the AdSense snippet.

One impacted user encounters this error on one subdomain site but not another.

• SH info from site impacted
• SH info from site not impacted, with AdSense set up complete

Based on the above user, who encounters this on one site, it looks like the response from the site check displays differently. Subdomain site where this doesn’t occur:

adsense_account_status: ready
adsense_site_status: ready
adsense_use_snippet: yes

Subdomain site where this does occur:

adsense_account_status: ready
adsense_site_status: none
adsense_use_snippet: yes

Steps to reproduce

Unable to recreate so far. Internal testing with various scenarios performed here.

Screenshots

Additional Context

• Original report
• PHP Version: 8.1.10 (Awaiting a user check with 7.4)
• Site Kit 1.83.0
• The users AdSense account status is “ready”
• No issues connecting the other modules
• Nothing output in their SH status
• SH info provided

Insights & Troubleshooting Checks performed

• Health Check & Troubleshooting plugin check - The same occurs with only SK active
• Front end check (mixed content, minified content, combined JS) - Nothing obvious, REST endpoints accessible
• No CND used
• Incognito mode - The same occurs
• Checked users Site Health info, no identified causes
• Additional .htaccess rules applied - Yes, additional rules applies
• Confirmed no modification of Site Kit placed snippet
• Uninstalled and reinstalled plugin
• User confirmed no ““Critical errors”” in their Site Health status
• Attempted setup/viewing dashboards from another device
• Temporary disabled WAF rules at host level - including ModSecurity
• Checked site setup and dashboard from another WordPress site on the same hosting platform
• Reset Site Kit (on the SK service)
• Disconnected Site Kit
• Disconnected impacted service and connected once more - The same occurs
• Reviewed error logs
• Reviewed XHR requests
• PHP 8.1 check - can’t replicate. AdSense completes set up fine.

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Acceptance criteria

• The AdSense module’s internal matching of an AdSense Site by domain should be updated as follows:
  • Only sites with a non-empty state should ever be matched
  • An exact match should always be attempted first
  • Matching a sub-domain to its parent domain site, should be enhanced to avoid false positive matches

Implementation Brief

• Update determineSiteFromDomain to fulfill all of the criteria from the AC
• Merge https://github.com/google/site-kit-wp/pull/7151

Test Coverage

• Update tests to cover new criteria

QA Brief

• This is a very specific scenario which is no longer possible to create on AdSense, so it requires an existing account with a list of sites that include a subdomain site where the subdomain is alphabetically sorted before the parent domain.
  • Alternatively, this can be consistently reproduced using development tools to control the API response (ask @aaemnnosttv)

Changelog entry

• Fix a bug that could prevent AdSense from being set up on a subdomain.