Magento

Ok so basically i had been getting the dreaded blank screens… not a very smooth move to do but i wont complain at this point.

After digging for hours on the forums for the solution i found a nice sureshot way of knowing whats going on with those blank screens and in turn fix the problem.

First it seems blank screens are Magento’s nice way of saying, hey! something went wrong… but you know what? i cant tell you what did so you cant fix it!

so this is the first thing you have to fix, being able to see whats going on, if you dont know whats wrong you cannot fix it.. so focus on finding your specific problem.

To do this, open your .htaccess file

go to the very bottom (to avoid syntax error chances) and paste the following command:

php_flag display_errors on

Voila! now white pages suddenly show their true ugly faces, and also show who was the %#$@%# that was causing your grief all along.

Now in the jargon of code, look for data that you might consider the “core cause”, so your next question is wth is the core cause?

basically when you get an error reading something like:

Strict Notice: Implicit cloning object of class ‘Mage_Core_Model_App’ because of ‘zend.ze1_compatibility_mode’ in /hsphere/local/home/tcs01/vistalove.com/magento3/app/code/core/Mage/Core/Model/App.php on line 453

you can straight off tell the text in RED is installation specific, so dont look for that, what you want to look is the text in BLUE, this is the text that will be the exact same on another error on another installation.

once you identify this, do a search on these forums for that exact error string, with some luck you will find the solution to your problem on threads with headers like OMG I DID IT!, (you would have never guessed the solution to your 6 hours of pain was in your face… because the name surely did not indicate it)

for me… once i found this out i was able to quickly end my torment and find the culprit of my problems.

a quick search of : zend.ze1_compatibility_mode revealed EXACTLY my problem on another thread which i would have never found it if i had looked at the titles.

a quick command called: php_flag zend.ze1_compatibility_mode Off was all it took to set me free lol but i never would have found it if i hadnt found the command to display debug output.

I hope this helps at least somone because it sure helped me!.

PS sometimes the instalation folder detection goes nuts, then that happens try calling the installer DIRECTLY instead of using the virtual directory, this is done by opening the url in this fasion:

http://www.yourdomain.com/)the magento install folder)/index.php/install/

I hope this helps someone