PHP site keeps opening to blank page, no errors.

Question

First, the premises: PHP loaded on IIS6 on Win2003 STD R2 SP2, PHP_5213 using FastCGI, MySQL_5145.

Customer sent me the site files, which I unzipped to C:\InetPub\wwwroot\<site root>, then I created a new site in IIS, pointed to <site root>, added test.php to the site files for testing and it works, but visiting index.php produces a blank page with no errors. The readme.txt file present makes reference to application.php and explains root folder var and sets it to a non-existent file.

I don't know PHP syntax, but I tried several logical changes with zero results. At this point I'm not even sure if that is the problem anymore. With PHP, MySQL & site debugging have put in over 20 hours. Still confused, I have resorted to heavy drug use and purchased a small firearm, loaded with a single round (even this seemed to take an inordinate amount of time). I've given up all hope.

Someone please help save a new server and/or old administrator.

Answer 1

Edit your php.ini file and set the display_errors and display_startup_errors options to On so that you can have a chance to see what the problem is.

Answer 2

Possible problems:

server configuration, which might be due to php is not being executed , how can you tell, look at the source of the file on the browser.

If you have an error in the php file, it might not wr0k, you can add two lines of code to report errors.

error_reporting(E_ALL | E_STRICT);  
ini_set('display_startup_errors',1);  
ini_set('display_errors',1);

check your logs.

If you are not familiar with php configuration with FastCGI or IIS you can use lamp bundles for windows.