Less than superb support.

[stomain]

The following is an excerpt of a chat support session i held with a vortech rep named steve. You can see the help i recieved was, well, not that helpful. Hope you all get a laugh.

Nick Bello: Hey, if you have another minute i have another question
Steve: Yes. You can
Nick Bello: Is there any way to log the php errors on my server, or to get them to display on the page? Cuz it's a major pain in the ass having a white screen with not logging all the time
Nick Bello: *no logging
Steve: What type of php errors you have faced?
Nick Bello: none... i just get a blank screen
Nick Bello: is there any way to output the erros on the screen
Nick Bello: ?
Steve: There are many Error Handling and Logging Functions in php.
Steve: They allow you to define your own error handling rules, as well as modify the way the errors can be logged. This allows you to change and enhance error reporting to suit your needs.
Steve: With the logging functions, you can send messages directly to other machines, to an email (or email to pager gateway!), to system logs, etc., so you can selectively log and monitor the most important parts of your applications and websites.
Nick Bello: right... but your server seems to prevent the logging functions from working
Steve: Yes, it takes more resources to execute. And for large Servers, it is highly difficult to manage.
Nick Bello: I understand that.... but is there a way for me to overwrite that so i get some sort of error message? or now
Nick Bello: *no
Steve: Yes, you can but there should be some sort of limitation which you face.
Nick Bello: how do i overwrite it?
Steve: For example , your recent problem of uploading the files.
Nick Bello: I just need to know how to enable error logging for my server
Nick Bello: that's it
Steve: The error reporting functions allow you to customize what level and kind of error feedback is given, ranging from simple notices to customized functions returned during errors
Steve: This is a coding issue which we are unaware of it. Because it ranges from site to site.
Nick Bello: steve... is there an easy way to turn on php error reporting for my server... or must i do it in the code
Steve: Yes , it is conern with coding part only.
Steve: For this you have to use error logging and error reporting functions which seems to be used in coding part.
Nick Bello: Steve, i know it can be done in the code... but in php you can also configure the php core to enable error output
Nick Bello: do i have control over this or not?
Nick Bello: for my own server
Steve: I am not sure about it. But you can do the settings on your servers.
Nick Bello: how would i change the setting on my server?
Steve: I suggest you to contact your adminstrator with a detailed description on this.
Steve: If you require further investigation regarding this, I request you to submit the ticket regarding this issue.
Nick Bello: no problem... thanks you for help
Steve: You are Welcome.
Steve: Have a nice time Nick.
Steve: Bye.
Nick Bello: you too...
Nick Bello: see ya

In short i still have no idea if there is any way to enable displaying errors on the screen for php. Oh well. It almost seemed as if steve was having a seperate conversation than i was.

By the way.... vortech is supposed to be my server administrator!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[bootNumlock]

i would guess he was assuming you were asking about controlling a server that was YOURS -- off the vortech network... I have not used the live chat yet, but i would treat it just like the ticket system... let the tech know your url in question, which box it is on, which other boxes [mail or db] and any account names associated with the boxes that can be of help to the tech.

it was an entertaining and very circular read, but it looks like a simple misunderstanding to me

BTW... did you know when you said thanks at the end that you did not have your answer? shouldn't let the tech off the hook then complain that you did not get an answer.

just my .02

[admin]

Remember as well 99% of the time you have level 1 support on live chat, it's purpose is not to replace our ticket system. Also to answer your question you can do this on windows I think with a custom php.ini and I think the custom php.ini also work on windows now but not 100% sure that would be a good question in the ticket because if they work you can turn them on.

[stomain]

BTW... did you know when you said thanks at the end that you did not have your answer? shouldn't let the tech off the hook then complain that you did not get an answer.

Yeah i know.... i was just too frustrated. You are correct though.... a major misunderstanding. Don't get me wrong about level one people just yet, i had a guy named Jef in the chat the one time, he was phenomenal.
Admin, I'm running on a shared unix server, not windows. It's not even a huge issue thought, it just became comical after a while that i could not get a straight answer out of the guy.

[admin]

Jef is level 2. They are on Live chat but they only get them if all level 1 is busy or not online.

[awen]

I'm surprized he even entertained the questions. I didn't realize Vortech offered support for scripting questions. I need to get my money's worth!
:-)

stomain, you can enable PHP error logging with this directive:
log_errors = On
And you can display them in the "broken" script's output with this one:
display_errors = On

On windows servers, make or upload a php.ini and put it in your web root. On Unix servers, add the directives you need to your .htaccess in your web root.

Your best bet is downloading a php.ini from here:
http://www.vortechhosting.com/downloads/php.ini
This way, you get all the directives in context with comments so you know what's going on. Just change the directives you need and upload it to your web root for windows, or copy and paste the directives you need into your .htaccess for Unix.

[stomain]

Jef would it be out of line for me to say i worship the ground you walk on?

[mresell]

Ordinarily, I would agree that scripting support may be more than called for, however, the flavor of php VT runs makes this complicated. Techs don't know everything for sure. Spending hrs trying to do something in php that you thought u could do only to find out you can't... can be frustrating.

[stomain]

Here is the .htaccess file code for all who are wondering. Just cut and paste.
1 = on, 0 = off. On a productions server set php_value display_errors to 0 put keep php_value log_errors to 1 so you can still see if you hit any hiccups.

<IfModule mod_php5.c>
php_value log_errors 1
php_value display_errors 1
</IfModule>
<IfModule mod_php4.c>
php_value log_errors 1
php_value display_errors 1
</IfModule>