install.php is blank

[kuroi]

Hi,

I have an exactly the same problem as you had before. when i put in the http://www.mydomain.com/catalog/zc_install, the screen just went to blank.

How you fix this problem?
How you open the PHP error reporting?

lina

PHP error reporting is controlled through the php.ini file. Here's the relevant section with rhe two vital lines highlighted in red

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
; Error handling and logging ;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

; error_reporting is a bit-field. Or each number up to get desired error
; reporting level
; E_ALL - All errors and warnings
; E_ERROR - fatal run-time errors
; E_WARNING - run-time warnings (non-fatal errors)
; E_PARSE - compile-time parse errors
; E_NOTICE - run-time notices (these are warnings which often result
; from a bug in your code, but it's possible that it was
; intentional (e.g., using an uninitialized variable and
; relying on the fact it's automatically initialized to an
; empty string)
; E_STRICT - run-time notices, enable to have PHP suggest changes
; to your code which will ensure the best interoperability
; and forward compatability of your code
; E_CORE_ERROR - fatal errors that occur during PHP's initial startup
; E_CORE_WARNING - warnings (non-fatal errors) that occur during PHP's
; initial startup
; E_COMPILE_ERROR - fatal compile-time errors
; E_COMPILE_WARNING - compile-time warnings (non-fatal errors)
; E_USER_ERROR - user-generated error message
; E_USER_WARNING - user-generated warning message
; E_USER_NOTICE - user-generated notice message
;
; Examples:
;
; - Show all errors, except for notices
;
;error_reporting = E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE
;
; - Show only errors
;
;error_reporting = E_COMPILE_ERROR|E_ERROR|E_CORE_ERROR
;
; - Show all errors except for notices and coding standards warnings
;
error_reporting = E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE & ~E_STRICT

; Print out errors (as a part of the output). For production web sites,
; you're strongly encouraged to turn this feature off, and use error logging
; instead (see below). Keeping display_errors enabled on a production web site
; may reveal security information to end users, such as file paths on your Web
; server, your database schema or other information.
display_errors = On

However, in a shared hosting environment your ISP may not give you direct access to this. If so,you would need to talk to them about how to achieve this as there are several possibilities according to the way the ISP configures their servers.

[DrByte]

Did you try this?

Got it! Thanks to Google finding the Wiki on this :)

In my php.ini file, the include_path was wrong. Orginally, it was

"c:\php\includes;c:\php\PEAR"

(under the Windows setup) - and it should have been

".;c:\php\includes;c:\php\PEAR"

Note the addition of the ".;" right before the include path. I'm now at the installation page.

[doodlebee]

and thanks for posting the solution so that I (and others) will spot this if it happens to somebody else (or us personally!).

Glad to do so. There's nothing that irritates me quite as much as when I'm searching for an answer, find the answer (or think I have) only to find a "nevermind. figured it out!" - and nothing more - response. I want to track people like that down and throttle them! ;) (Does it really *never* occur to them that they wouldn't be the only one with the same issue?) I make it a definite point to share my answers if I've discovered one. I guess it's a "pet peeve" of mine!

Lina -

How you fix this problem?
How you open the PHP error reporting?

My issue was on a localhost server - which means I had set up PHP, MySQL and all my programs locally, on my own computer to run as a server that's not really on the internet. No daimn names or anything - I just access my own files and databases from my office and no one else really has access to it.

That being said, it's the same setup as your webhost - except your host has a server that you *can* access from the internet. So the way to solve your problem would require you to contact your webhost, as kuroi mentioned.

First you need to contact them and ask them to turn PHP's error reporting "on". Once it's been turned on, you'll be able to see the error messages that come up when you try to run things. If it's the same error, then you'll need to contact your webhost again amd ask them to change the PHP.ini file to the stuff I mentioned before in my previous post, and referenced to by DrByte: they need to add the ".;" at the beginning of the line for the include path.

Again, this is 1) for a Windows-based server running Apache and PHP. if your server is Windows and doesn't run Apache and PHP, you're in a whole new ballgame. If you're running a *nix server, then the include_path line I mentioned doesn't apply - that line is the next one down. And you *must* be sure that the error message youre recieving is the same one I came up with - if it's not, then you've got some other error that this solution won't fix.

Hope that gets you started!