[RESOLVED] Page blank but no errors displayed

liquorvicar

I'm tearing my hair out on this one and I'm sure it's something simple.

I have a script that's just returning a blank page. So I'm guessing I've got an error somewhere. In fact I know I have because if I comment out one or two classes, I get an error message coming up. But why do I get a blank page at first? How come it's not giving me an error message for my obviously faulty class?

My error settings are:
display_errors on
display_startup_errors on
error_reporting 4095
log_errors off

Any ideas?

bpat1434

Hmm... have you tried using error_reporting 4096?

How are you setting the error_reporting level: php.ini or dynamic in your script?

What version of PHP are you using?

Have you tried using E_ALL for php4 or E_ALL & E_STRICT for php5?

Is anything logged in the Apache error log about the request?

liquorvicar

PHP is 5.0.4.
Doesn't look like 4096 exists in my version of PHP (http://uk2.php.net/manual/en/ref.errorfunc.php#e-all
- it was introduced in 5.2.0.
4095 is E_ALL & E_STRICT and I'm setting it in httpd.conf. There is nothing in Apache's error logs.

Some further info, it looks like the error was a syntactical error in an abstract class.

I had

abstract function function_name() {}

rather than

abstract function function_name();

Still, it'd be nice to get an error pointing me at the right line, as it took a load of commenting/uncommenting to discover this.

bpat1434

Well, for one thing the PHP error level is not set in httpd.conf, it's set in php.ini.

Secondly, I find it better to use the constants E_ALL & E_STRICT to set the error level. That way if there are inconsistencies, you still keep the same error level.

liquorvicar

You can set the PHP error level in httpd.conf. Because I have done it. And when you are setting it in httpd.conf you need to use the actual values and not the predefined constants.

From: http://uk2.php.net/manual/en/ref.errorfunc.php

Note: You may use these constant names in php.ini but not outside of PHP, like in httpd.conf, where you'd use the bitmask values instead.

bpat1434

Okay, but that's typically meant for use within the .htaccess file so you can have per-directory error reporting levels. I'm not saying what you're doing is wrong, but I personally like to keep my PHP config in the php.ini, that way if anything wrong with php happens, I know that there is only one place to look (php.ini) not httpd.conf for some items, and php.ini for others.

Did you also read this:

So in place of E_ALL consider using a larger value to cover all bit fields from now and well into the future, a numeric value like 2147483647.

Have you tried that?

I'd also suggest turning log_errors on. That way in case you don't see the error on your screen, you may have it logged.

liquorvicar

I like keeping the settings in httpd.conf as I have live and dev versions of the site on the same server. I make the default settings display errors off and then change them on a per-site basis for the dev site.

Anyway, did a bit of digging around. Copied the scripts with the error onto another server and hey presto! I get an error message. Went back to my original script and it turns out I was setting error_reporting to a different level in an include - my script level debugging didn't show this up as I put the debugging code before all the includes, doh!

Ta for responding, it helped me clarify it in my mind and work through the problem.

bpat1434

Ah, glad to hear you got it sorted!!