If at any time you encounter a blank or partially rendered page in your WHASOLS installation, this indicates a fatal PHP error is occurring which stops the execution from being able to continue. This page covers the most common causes of these problems, how to identify them and methods for resolution.

The display of error information is disabled by default. For more information, see Error Management.

Enabling Display Errors while your installation is accessible to end users may lead to potential security risks due to the information within the error message details. Make certain to disable Display Errors when you finish debugging.


Getting Error Information

The WHASOLS Error Management system includes many useful options. Display Errors allows you to view additional information about critical errors.

When Should You Enable Display Errors
Display Errors provides additional information when you experience a critical error that results in one of the following issues:

  • Friendly "Oops!" pages
  • Entirely blank pages
  • Partially rendered pages
In most cases, use the Log Errors and SQL Debug Mode options first. These options will usually capture the same information that Display Errors renders. In the event that these options are not viable or do not yield any information, Display Errors is a good alternative.

Display Errors will show your error information to anyone who is encountering the same error condition. Avoid showing errors to visitors or non-privileged staff whenever possible.

Typical Causes

Some of the most common causes of "Oops!", partial, or empty page rendering include:

  • Missing or corrupted files or incomplete uploads.
  • The server doesn't meet the minimum system requirements.
  • PHP, Apache or ionCube Loader®-related errors.
  • Incompatible hooks or addons.
  • Syntax errors in custom modules, hooks, or templates.

Enabling Error Reporting

Enabling From The Admin Area
If possible, attempt the following steps to enable Display Errors via the Admin Area:

  • Go to Configuration  > General Settings.
  • Choose the Other tab.
  • Select Display Errors.
  • Click Save Changes.
  • Retry the steps that previously led to the blank or partially-rendered page. The system will display additional error information.
Remember to disable Display Errors when you are finished troubleshooting. Leaving error display enabled can be a security concern.

Enabling From Your Configuration File
If the error is severe enough, you may not be able to log in to the admin area. In those situations, there is a manual configuration file flag option that you can add to the ws-config.php file in the WHASOLS root directory to enable error reporting.

Add the lines to the end of the ws-config.php file. This will be immediately before the closing PHP tag (?>) if your ws-config.php file has one. If it doesn't, this will be after the last line in the file.

$wsConfig["ws_display_errors"]=false;
After adding the lines and saving and uploading the file, retry the steps that previously led to the blank or partially rendered page. The system will display additional error information.

Remember to disable Display Errors when you are finished troubleshooting. Leaving error display enabled can be a security concern.

Disabling Error Reporting

Disabling from the admin area
If you enabled error reporting via the admin area, make sure to follow the steps below after you finish troubleshooting:

  • Navigate to Configuration > General Settings.
  • Choose the Other tab.
  • Deselect Display Errors at the bottom of the page.
  • Click Save Changes.
Disabling from the ws-config.php file
If you enabled error reporting via the ws-config.php file, make sure to remove the following line from the ws-config.php file after you finish troubleshooting.

$wsConfig["ws_display_errors"]=true;    
or
$wsConfig["ws_display_errors"]=false; 
PHP Warnings and Notices
If the Display Error options are disabled and you're still seeing warning messages, it indicates the Error Reporting level in your server's PHP configuration is too high. This is a PHP configuration level issue. Shared hosting or reseller users may require the assistance of the hosting provider.

If you have sufficient access and have configured your server to use WHM for administration, follow these steps:

  • In WHM, navigate to Software >> MultiPHP INI Editor.
  • Click the Editor Mode tab.
  • Select your PHP version from the Select a PHP version menu.
  • Scroll down to the error_reporting setting.
  • Change the value to the following string:
E_ALL & ~E_WARNING & ~E_USER_WARNING & ~E_NOTICE & ~E_USER_NOTICE & ~E_STRICT & ~E_DEPRECATED & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED

Further Troubleshooting Steps

Client Area Only
If the admin area is loading correctly and only the client area is blank, the template folder may be missing or the /templates_c folder may have an invalid path or may not be writeable.

To resolve this:

  • Re-select the template at Configuration > General Settings and click Save Changes.
  • Ensure that the templates_c folder has the appropriate permissions and is writeable by the script (usually CHMOD 755, but in some environments may require CHMOD 777).
  • If the /templates_c directory has been moved to a custom location, ensure the path is correct in the ws-config.php file. For help, contact your hosting provider or system administrator.
Admin Login Page Only
The admin login page does not involve templates, so seeing a blank page here suggests a problem with the Ioncube configuration on your server. Download the Ioncube Loader Wizard and upload it to your WHASOLS directory, and visit it in your browser. For help resolving any errors, contact your hosting provider or system administrator.

If it reports Ioncube is installed correctly, ensure that display_errors is enabled in the server's PHP configuration. This can suppress error messages that WHASOLS is trying to output with the display_errors line in the ws-config.php file.

Problematic custom widgets may also cause a blank page. Try removing any non-standard files from the /modules/widgets directory.

Oops! or Blank Pages Elsewhere
If blank pages are occurring on all pages, try all the above steps, particularly enabling display_errors. If the problem persists, review any custom files in the following locations and ensure there are no blank spaces or carriage returns outside the tags:

  • /ws-config.php
  • /includes/hooks/
  • /modules/admin/
  • /modules/addons/
  • /modules/registrars/
  • /modules/servers/
  • /modules/widgets/
  • /modules/auth_sign/
  • /modules/security/
  • /modules/sms_gateways/
  • /modules/exchange_rates/
  • /modules/emailers/
  • /modules/gateways/
  • /language/
  • /language/overrides/
  • /admin/language/
  • /admin/language/overrides/
It may be necessary to remove any custom files from these locations temporarily, if doing so resolves the issue then you can add them back one-by-one until the problem re-occurs, you can then contact the vendor of the offending file for a fix.

If none of the steps on this page fix the problem, contact our support team with a description of the troubleshooting you have done, reproduction instructions, and FTP/SFTP access