SFGate On The White Screen Of Death

The White Screen Of Death. How many of you have seen it? Chances are, just about everyone who visits WPTavern on a daily basis has at one time, seen the WsOD or have created it. The error is not caused by a single mistake but can be caused by any number of ways. The most common is a mistake in plugin PHP file or a non properly formatted WP-Config file. The most aggravating part of the WsOD is the lack of information to determine what caused the error. This is when setting Debugging to True within the WP Config file can be your friend. It should look like this: define(‘WP_DEBUG’, true); It’s not recommended that this be turned on all of the time since sensitive information regarding the server environment could be seen by the public.

SFGate takes a look at the WsOD issue and how WordPress 3.0 will help to combat the screen from appearing. The article includes quotes from both Mark Jaquith and Andrew Nacin.

“Our hands … are mostly tied here, especially since WordPress is extended through code from others,”

Interestingly enough, there is not a page in the WordPress Codex devoted to the White screen Of Death. I’ll see what the Doc team thinks about adding one and if it’s created, I’ll update this post.