sudden php error problems on server

[delia]

Sure this is due to some sort of server change - the error is

[07-Jul-2011 09:39:25] PHP Warning: date() [<a href='function.date'>function.date</a>]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/New_York' for 'EDT/-4.0/DST' instead in /var/www/vhosts/twoscrapbookfriends.com/subdomains/zencart/httpdocs/includes/languages/english.php on line 16

Site was working fine til July 1, then getting an error in admin - blank page. uploaded 1.3.9h files for upgrade then getting the error on the catalog side as well.

We won't talk about their hosting company - it's that awful place we all hate. Already informed them the fix may be to move their hosting.

[RodG]

Sure this is due to some sort of server change.

http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showth...arning%3A+date

Cheers
Rod

[delia]

Thanks, I thought my search would have turned that up!

[RodG]

Thanks, I thought my search would have turned that up!

Effective use of search queries can be (is?) a very fine art.

If the search terms are too 'broad' you get too many (often irrelevant) results, and if too narrow, you get no results at all.

A handy tip (that many people don't know) is that placing a search query inside double quotes will, in most cases produce better results than the same query without the quotes.

Example: search the forums for:
"Warning: date" (without the quotes) and you'll get almost 300 results. Using the same text enclosed in quotes "Warning: date", and only four results are returned, all relevant.

The difference is that without the quotes the search looks for any postings that contain *either* word, but with the quotes it will search for the exact string (both words, in order).

Very simple, very effective, but strangely, not as well known/used as it could/should be.

This tip works with most search engines too, so don't restrict its use to just these forums.

Cheers
Rod

[delia]

I am still working on my forum searching skills. Most of the time if I plug in the error message I'll get some but got no results when I searched earlier - no telling what I did wrong! Thanks again.

Personally I wish there was a tutorials for forum searching. You would think vbulletin would have some helpl information for that.

[RodG]

Personally I wish there was a tutorials for forum searching. You would think vbulletin would have some helpl information for that.

As I mentioned previously, many search 'tricks' are applicable no matter where you are searching, whether it be vbulletin or google.

As for help information, I'm sure that with a bit of searching <big grin> you'll find several such tutorials.

The problem here though is that there really are quite a lot of search tips, variations and possibilities that they scare a lot of people away before they have chance to figure out which are the 'useful' ones to know.

The tip I gave you about enclosing the search string in quotes is still probably the most useful one that many people don't know about, and you should consider this discussion as being you own personal tutorial on the matter.

Most of the time if I plug in the error message

That is the CORRECT thing to do, BUT, being a "string" you need to enclose it in quotes, otherwise the search engines won't look for the "string", they will look for the *individual words* in the string, which is rarely ever what you actually want/need.

Seriously, if you just remember this ONE tip you will improve your search results *dramatically*. In fact this is so effective that many/most of the other hints/tips/options are simply a refinement of the initial results, and as such you probably don't even need to know about them (as they will only confuse you). Nothing personal.

Cheers
Rod

[delia]

Well it did happen to be one thing I did know! Thanks again.