Blank White Catalog Page After Installing

[Eversale]

p.s.
I'm runnign PHP 5.1.6-27.e15 on a CENOS install
i see that the function filter_var() is supported in 5.2 onwards.
anyway round this ?
why did the install script not check my php version and warn if this is such a fatal issue ?

Michale,
I just got my ISP to upgrade from 5.1.6, to 5.2.4, and now everythign is workign fine.
Why oh WHY, does the install srcipt check for PHP version at the incorrect level ?
you have function here that require 5.2.0 and you dont check for it ????
thsi has cost me... i've been down for 3 days....

[pgmarshall]

Ultimate SEO URLs is new code for v2.5 and is also an optional install. This is probably why it has slipped through the net as we are still testing the release now - however, it is great to hear you have a live store running on the alpha version.

If you are moving server environments I would make sure things are running fine before switching the DNS over ... Something always breaks! (In my experience!)

What probably needs to go in is a check for the enabling of SEO URLs to check PHP version > 5.2 rather than blocking the install for < 5.2.

Regards,

[ridexbuilder]

Aaargh! Flash animation splattered all over the opening page.
Glad I block it! Doesn't half make for a scrappy looking page...

[Eversale]

nice personal comments.

anyhow, one erorr left. any ideas?

Couldn't fopen _categories.ser.ser
is this a define that is missing or a corrupt file ?

[ridexbuilder]

nice personal comments.

Constructive criticism Not everyone views your site in the same way.

Couldn't fopen _categories.ser.ser
is this a define that is missing or a corrupt file ?

I have no idea what that file is.

[Don't get me started on actual personal comments... spell checker, anyone? ]

[michael_s]

p.s.
Michale,
I just got my ISP to upgrade from 5.1.6, to 5.2.4, and now everythign is workign fine.
Why oh WHY, does the install srcipt check for PHP version at the incorrect level ?

Because v2.5 BETA 1 is beta software. It was specifically released so that issues like this could be identified and corrected before the stable release. If you use beta software in production, you assume all risk associated with that risky decision. You and everyone else have been warned against using the beta on a live production site. If you choose to do so, you will have some bumps along the way.

you have function here that require 5.2.0 and you dont check for it ????
thsi has cost me... i've been down for 3 days....

Hopefully you have learned your lesson. If not, let me spell it out for you:

1. Never use beta software in production if you cannot afford a few bumps along the way.

2. Never switch live server environments without first doing thorough testing of your application in that new environment. Simply doing one test installation and running through the basic cart functions would have tipped you off to a problem with your new server. Perhaps 20 minutes of forethought to save you 3 days of downtime.

[Eversale]

Yes, you are all correct, and thanks for your kind words to a complete noob who was reaching out for help in desperation. And yes, my first thought should have been to spell check my entry rather than trying to get my site working.

I found out what the errors were for future amateurs:
1) In Lunux, you need file access to your current user (not root), and group access to apache
2) You need write access for self and group to the images folder
3) And the error ‘fopen _categories.ser.ser’ is because you enabled the SEO pop-out menus, and you need to have write access to the /cache/ folder for group ‘apache’
Enabling the htaccess to write PHP errors to a log file, and to change the application_top for all errors works great to diagnose blank pages.