Why Does My Web Site Have a Blank Page?

So you've just installed a new component, module or plugin, or made some other change to your site's PHP code. You've enabled it on the Joomla backend and configured its settings just right. Then you browsed to your web site's home page and found that there is only a blank page displayed, a white screen with nothing else. Don't panic, you just have a PHP error. 

Turn On Error Reporting

The reason you have a blank white page is because you have a PHP error and you have Error Reporting set to None in your site's Global Configuration. You'll need to turn on Error Reporting to locate the error and then address the specific problem.

First go to your site's Global Configuration on the backend. Go to the Server tab and find the Error Reporting setting. Change Error Reporting to Maximum and click Save at the top right of the global configuration panel. This will make your server print out all PHP errors, notices and warnings so you can locate which file the error is coming from, which line causes the error, and what type of error it is.

Now browse back to your site's home page. This time you will see the PHP output of any errors, notices or warnings. Note the file, line number and type of error described. Now you can try to fix the code yourself, contact the extension developer for support, or uninstall the component, plugin or module in question.

Turn Error Reporting Back Off

I strongly suggest turning Error Reporting back to None when you have finished working out the issue. Error reporting is extremely helpful when trying to debug and solve errors, but it should not be turned on in a production environment because:

• It makes your site ugly! Any time a PHP variable isn't set correctly or is used improperly, you and your visitors will see errors and warnings. Even if an error doesn't completely break your web site, notices and warnings can break your layout and CSS validation. They make your web site look unprofessional and make you lose credibility with your audience. Your visitors will find errors and warnings that you aren't even aware of, so turn Error Reporting off.
• It makes your site a target for hackers! There are way too many jerks out there trying to find vulnerabilities on your site. They use scripts to automatically find exploits and will manually test your site.
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  Roughly half of the page requests here on JoomlaDigger.com are from hacking scripts written in PERL - check your own traffic logs if you don't believe me. If you have Error Reporting turned on then these people can find out information about what extensions you have installed, your PHP and server settings, Joomla settings, etc. The more a hacker knows about your site the better chance he has of breaking in, so leave Error Reporting off.