Quote Originally Posted by joecooper View Post
However, within the Zen Cart environment, these are not displaying, and zen cart seems to suppress this in terms of a 500 error. The error log doesn't show anything on the error.
ZenCart isn't suppressing the error messages, and the Zencart error logs won't give any info about '500' errors.

The reason is simple. The '500' errors are generally clearly indicated as being a SERVER error. This means things are 'dying' before ZenCart/PHP even gets a look in.

Server errors are distinct from PHP errors, where the *server* is working perfectly, but the fault is with the PHP code itself.

Knowing/understanding this is quite important. SERVER errors are generally the result of

1) File or Folder Permissions (Too strict, or too relaxed)
2) Mod_security rules being triggered
3) Something amiss with the server configuration itself.

I can't offhand think of any PHP (or other) coding issue that will cause a SERVER error. Of these 3 possibilities, the only one that the user can 'fix' is the file/folder permissions. The others will need help from the hosting provider to resolve.

On the other hand, PHP and/or other *coding* errors are rarely ever going to be the cause a server to 'die' in such a way that the cause won't show up in the ZenCart (and/or other) error logs.

What I'm trying to impart to you here is that whatever the cause of the problem, you are not likely to find the fault with your actual code. Your best course of action would be to first check the the file/folder permissions, and if they seem ok, contact your host. They will have access to the log file that will detail *exactly* what and where the problem is, and they will *probably* even have to fix it for you when identified anyway.

If unsure about file folder permissions. Files should be '664', Folders should be '775'

There are often recommended exceptions to these values, but in my experience I don't recall ever coming across a situation or server where these values would cause a problem due to being either too relaxed or too restrictive at least from the *server* perspective.

If/when I come across a site with a problem that looks like it may be permissions related, those are the defaults I set to get things functional again, and then I'll tweak those that need something different by the given application.. eg: Zencart config files will need '444' (or similar)


Hope this helps put you on track.

Cheers
RodG