QUESTION:

I changed a tag in my page template (or form), now the page is completely blank!
A large portion of my page is missing



ANSWER:

This usually means an error has occured but is not displayed because you’re running in Live mode. Setting the Production Status preference to Live suppresses all error messages. When a fatal error occurs in Live mode, the result is a blank page.

Go to textpattern > admin > preferences, and set Production Status to Testing, then view the problem page again. You should see a more informative error message this time.

It’s always a good idea to use Testing mode when editing templates and forms. Switch to Live mode only when you’re certain everything works.

(Debugging mode is intended only for developers; it’s normal to see some spurious messages in this mode)

If you’re still seeing a blank page even in Testing mode, the most likely cause is a syntax error in one of your <txp:...> tags. Common problems to look for include:

  • unclosed tags
  • <txp:else> instead of <txp:else />
  • </txp:foo /> instead of </txp:foo>
  • <txp:foo instead of <txp:foo>