User Tools

Site Tools


debugging

This is an old revision of the document!


Cannot Login

Turn debug mode on and also check /path/to/getsimple/data/other/logs/errorlog.txt for errors Report these in forums, make note of any recent changes and plugins in use especially user related ones, like ktblock and multi users.

Debugging

There are several things that can cause errors on your site. Before requesting assistance in the forums, it is helpful to understand and them and attempt to narrow down the issue.

White Screen with no output

This is commonly referred to as PHP white screen of death. It typically occurs when php error reporting is off, but can occur even when it is on. This is usually the result of a fatal php compile error, eg. missing function, missing required file, or a syntax error etc. The best way to check this is to enable debugmode in gsconfig and check for output again. PHP will throw errors with details that may even include the file and line number the error occurs on. As you can imagine this greatly helps troubleshoot these issues.

To turn on debugging, uncomment the GSDEBUG line in /path/to/getsimple/gsconfig.php to enable full PHP errors output to help debug in your browser.

All PHP errors are also written to a log,regardless of the GSDEBUG setting, check /path/to/getsimple/data/other/logs/errorlog.txt

500 error in browser

This can also be caused by a fatal or compile fail PHP error, checking the errorlog is typically required here as no output will be available on compile errors in php. The best place to find out absolutely what caused this is to check your host webserver error log, your host usually provides this in your control panel or ftp log folder. This file will reveal any issue with a bad .htaccess file or misconfiguration. The next thing to suspect after php is .htaccess if you are on apache. Through the process of elimination comment line in your main .htaccess file or rename it temporarily to see if the issue gets resolved.

Ugly PHP notices and warning errors in browser

These are non fatal warnings and notices just as they say, they are typically ignored when php error reporting is turned off or debug mode is off. Error reporting should never be enabled on a production server, if you see these errors on a live site have your host disable php errors. We do provide GSSUPPRESSERRORS in gsconfig and will attempt to shunt these errors if you specify. These kinds of notices typically alert you to possible issues in the php script.

Client Side Javscript errors

These are usually noted by missing elements on a page, or non responsive buttons etc. Check your browsers development console to detect these.

Enabling debug mode

Open gsconfig.php, this file should be in the root of your GetSimple installation. (If you only have temp.gsconfig.php rename it to gsconfig.php and open that one.)

Search for this line: #define('GSDEBUG', TRUE);.

Remove the #-sign.

Disabling debug mode

Open gsconfig.php, this file should be in the root of your GetSimple installation. (If you only have temp.gsconfig.php rename it to gsconfig.php and open that one.)

Search for this line: define('GSDEBUG', TRUE);.

Add a #-sign in front of the line.

Note: Setting GSDEBUG to FALSE does not disable debug mode in GetSimple versions prior to 2.03.

How do I know if debug mode is enabled?

http://zegnat.net/getsimple/debugmode.png

When you are logged in to your admin panel it will display a small red notice in the top-right corner.

When should I enable debug mode?

If you want to see PHP errors displayed on the website you will need to enable debug mode. This would apply to you if you are working with PHP, for instance when developing a theme or plugin .

We also urge you to enable debug mode if you go looking for help on this forum. “White pages” or missing content can be signs of fatal PHP errors. It is easier to get to the bottom of a problem if you provide us with the error messages and those only show if debug mode is enabled.

Link to Zegnåt's post in the forum: http://get-simple.info/forum/topic/937/about-debug-mode/

debugging.1413293767.txt.gz · Last modified: 2014/10/14 13:36 by shawn_a