When looking for extra lines and spaces in php files...

When looking for extra lines and spaces in php files, what excactly are they talking about
I've the Rss feed addon and have to look for white spaces and lines in the begining and the end of files cause I get an error .

My question : what should I be looking for ?

This is reaaly a stupid question for most of you but I'm not familiar with php

Blank lines and spaces at the beginning or end of a php file can cause all sorts of problems with the php processor. Your php files should begin with

<?php 

and end with

?>

There shouldn't be any blank lines or spaces before or after those.

I found a script that looks for these and it says I have a blank space at the end of this file:

//DEBUG: echo '<!-- I SEE cat: ' . $current_category_id . ' || vs cpath: ' . $cPath . ' || page: ' . $current_page . '

|| template: ' . $current_template . ' || main = ' . ($this_is_home_page ? 'YES' : 'NO') . ' -->';
?>

Where is the error?

It's impossible to tell this way. Open the file in question in a good text editor like Notepad++ or Crimson Editor (regular Notepad will do as well). Position your cursor after the closing ?> and delete any extra lines or spaces.

This is the end of my html_header.php file:

}

//DEBUG: echo '<!-- I SEE cat: ' . $current_category_id . ' || vs cpath: ' . $cPath . ' || page: ' . $current_page . ' || template: ' . $current_template . ' || main = ' . ($this_is_home_page ? 'YES' : 'NO') . ' -->';
?>

Where to look?

lieven23:

This is the end of my html_header.php file:

}

//DEBUG: echo '<!-- I SEE cat: ' . $current_category_id . ' || vs cpath: ' . $cPath . ' || page: ' . $current_page . ' || template: ' . $current_template . ' || main = ' . ($this_is_home_page ? 'YES' : 'NO') . ' -->';
?>

<?php echo rss_feed_link_alternate(); // RSS Feed ?> </head> <?php // NOTE: Blank line following is intended: ?>

Where to look?

The file you have listed is intended to have a extra line (blank after it). Language files become "broken" when an additional linebreak or spaces follow the closing ?>

Like this

This is good

?>

This is not

?>[I]space[/I]
or [I]space[/I]

~Melanie

Another method I use is to highlight the code. You can use 'Select All' or just press the left mouse key and scroll over the area. You will see the White space at the end of lines or at the bottom of the code as blank blue space.

this is a try.

Just left click over the above from the beginning to the end. The white space shows as blank blue.

Hope that makes sense.

If I edit a file or install a new add-on, sometimes my website will just show blank pages so I have to go thru almost all files to look for these extra empty lines. I do it but it takes me an eternity. I have two questions.

1. Why do these extra lines appear?
2. Is there an easier way of finding these extra empty lines?

Article on finding problems causing blank pages: https://www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/index.php?article=82