Freemius SDK Fails to Load Styles When Plugin Is Symlinked

[protibimbok]

Bug Report: Freemius SDK Fails to Load Styles When Plugin Is Symlinked

Summary:
When using the Freemius WordPress SDK with a plugin that is symlinked (instead of being physically located inside the wp-content/plugins directory), asset URLs for SDK styles are incorrectly resolved — causing CSS files not to load in the WordPress admin.

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Steps to Reproduce

1. Create a WordPress plugin outside the WordPress installation directory (e.g., ~/dev/plugin).

2. Initialize Freemius in the plugin as usual.

3. Create a symbolic link from your plugin directory into wp-content/plugins:

   ln -s ~/dev/plugin /path/to/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/my-plugin # Notice the different names

4. Activate the plugin in WordPress.

5. Open the WordPress admin area where Freemius styles should load. (Plugins page)

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Expected Behavior

Freemius SDK assets (CSS/JS) should load correctly using URLs relative to the site’s wp-content/plugins path, even when the plugin directory is a symbolic link.

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Actual Behavior

The asset URLs are generated incorrectly, resolving to an invalid path that includes the absolute file system path of the symlinked plugin.

Examples of generated URLs:

1. <wordpress-url>/wp-content/themes/<absolute path of plugin_dir>/vendor/freemius/wordpress-sdk/assets/css/admin/optout.css?ver=6.8.3
   

2. <wordpress-url>/wp-content/themes/<absolute path of plugin_dir>/vendor/freemius/wordpress-sdk/assets/css/admin/dialog-boxes.css?ver=6.8.3
   

3. <wordpress-url>/wp-content/themes/<absolute path of plugin_dir>/vendor/freemius/wordpress-sdk/assets/css/admin/common.css?ver=6.8.3
   

As a result, these CSS files fail to load.

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Environment

• WordPress Version: 6.8.3
• Freemius SDK Version: 2.12
• PHP Version: 8.4.5
• Operating System: Ubuntu 25.04
• Plugin Structure: Symlinked from outside WordPress root

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Plugin

• Name: WP Table Builder
• Slug: wp-table-builder
• Freemius ID: 6984