Blank first page

[zopemgr]

This looks like a great product for my needs, but I'm struggling at the first stage.

I've reached the point where dataface_info.php says "INSTALLED CORRECTLY" and have configured the index.php and conf.ini files manually (having no command line access).

When I run the index.php I get no error messages at all, and a totally blank html file other than head and body tags.

This must be something really basic, but what?

[shannah]

The dataface_info.php file has been known to give false positives (as in this case). Essentially all it checks is that the /Dataface/templates_c directory is writable.

I can't think off the top of my head what would cause this problem, but it sounds to me like it could be permissions related. Sometimes when I untar things it applies some weird permissions to files. Make sure that pretty much everything is at least readable by the web server.

If this is not the problem, let me know a few things about the system like version of PHP, MySQL, OS, Web Server, and possibly cut and paste your index.php file in here so I can take a look and make sure that there is nothing obviously wrong.

Also it may also be helpful to make error reporting as verbose as possible by setting error_reporting(E_ALL); at the beginning of your index.php file.

Let me know how it goes.


Steve Hannah
shannah@sfu.ca

[zopemgr]

Well, that certainly showed up some results.

Does this shed any light for you? It looks fairly fatal to me...

Warning: ini_set() has been disabled for security reasons in /data/members/paid/...htdocs/www/dataface/config.inc.php on line 149

Warning: ini_set() has been disabled for security reasons in /data/members/paid/...htdocs/www/dataface/config.inc.php on line 151

Warning: main(Dataface/PermissionsTool.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /data/members/paid/...htdocs/www/dataface/Dataface/Application.php on line 92

Fatal error: main(): Failed opening required 'Dataface/PermissionsTool.php' (include_path='.:/data/apache/php/mmp_lib:/data/session') in /data/members/paid/...htdocs/www/dataface/Dataface/Application.php on line 92

[shannah]

OK. Looks like your hosting provider has disabled the ini_set() function for security reasons. This was necessary to add dataface and dataface/lib to your include path. This seems like a pretty tight security restriction. I have worked with quite a few shared hosts and haven't run into one that disables this function. However a quick search on Google for this error indicates that there do exist hosts that disable it.

It might be worth checking with your host to see if they can enable this function. They may not be aware that it is disabled right now. Note that this is not a safe mode restriction. ini_set() is allowed in safe mode, which is the mode used by most web hosts.
See http://www.php.net/manual/en/features.safe-mode.functions.php for information about safe mode limitations.

In case the host is unaware of this function being disabled, it is likely disabled in the php.ini file using the "disable_functions" directive.
See http://www.php.net/manual/en/features.safe-mode.php#ini.safe-mode-include-dir and do a find for "disable_functions" for information about this directive.

If they are unwilling to remove this restriction, it will be difficult to get around this, because dataface absolutely needs to have the dataface and dataface/lib directories in the include path. It is also supposed to be possible to set the include paths from an .htaccess file but it is common for this feature to be disabled.

i.e., your best bet is to get your host to un-disable the ini_set() function or find a new host.

Hope this helps a little.

Best regards

Steve Hannah

[zopemgr]

OK. I was actually testing it out on my personal site before putting it onto another site I'm working on, so I'll try it out on that host and see what happens.

Thanks for your quick responses, it's really appreciated.