Odd Symbols At Top ï»¿

fan4chevy · April 29, 2010

Hi,

I all of a sudden started getting this code at the top of my checkout_shipping.php page. I have never seen it before. On this page it will show all of the page correct with this symbol above the header.

When I click continue which should go to checkout_payment.php it instead goes to a blank page with the ï»¿ at the top left of the page.

If I go to checkout_payment.php on its' own by typing it in the address bar then I have no problems on that page.

Your help is appreciated.

Charles

MrPhil · April 29, 2010

In some file somewhere, you had the UTF-8 "Byte Order Mark" added to the beginning of a file, probably by a Microsoft editor (they're notorious for doing that). If it doesn't appear when going directly to checkout_payment.php, it's probably in some file upstream of that. Did you edit any files recently? Check all of them for the BOM. Read http://www.catskilltech.com/freeSW/SMF/faqs/index.html#bom

fan4chevy · April 30, 2010

In some file somewhere, you had the UTF-8 "Byte Order Mark" added to the beginning of a file, probably by a Microsoft editor (they're notorious for doing that). If it doesn't appear when going directly to checkout_payment.php, it's probably in some file upstream of that. Did you edit any files recently? Check all of them for the BOM. Read http://www.catskilltech.com/freeSW/SMF/faqs/index.html#bom

Thank you. I have managed to get rid of the odd text by reuploading the file and setting from 'Western European' to 'Unicode UTF-8. However, after clicking on the continue button in the checkout_shipping.php page it goes to a blank page of checkout_payment.php, rather than to the checkout_payment.php page. However, if I go to checkout_payment.php by typing it in the browser it looks in order. I checked and reuploaded all files recently changed as well.

<?php
/*
 $Id: checkout_shipping.php 1739 2007-12-20 00:52:16Z hpdl $

 osCommerce, Open Source E-Commerce Solutions
 http://www.oscommerce.com

 Copyright (c) 2003 osCommerce

 Released under the GNU General Public License
*/

 require('includes/application_top.php');
 require('includes/classes/http_client.php');

// if the customer is not logged on, redirect them to the login page
 if (!tep_session_is_registered('customer_id')) {
   $navigation->set_snapshot();
   tep_redirect(tep_href_link(FILENAME_LOGIN, '', 'SSL'));
 }

// if there is nothing in the customers cart, redirect them to the shopping cart page
 if ($cart->count_contents() < 1) {
   tep_redirect(tep_href_link(FILENAME_SHOPPING_CART));
 }

// if no shipping destination address was selected, use the customers own address as default
 if (!tep_session_is_registered('sendto')) {
   tep_session_register('sendto');
   $sendto = $customer_default_address_id;
 } else {
// verify the selected shipping address
   if ( (is_array($sendto) && empty($sendto)) || is_numeric($sendto) ) {
     $check_address_query = tep_db_query("select count(*) as total from " . TABLE_ADDRESS_BOOK . " where customers_id = '" . (int)$customer_id . "' and address_book_id = '" . (int)$sendto . "'");
     $check_address = tep_db_fetch_array($check_address_query);

     if ($check_address['total'] != '1') {
       $sendto = $customer_default_address_id;
       if (tep_session_is_registered('shipping')) tep_session_unregister('shipping');
     }
   }
 }

 require(DIR_WS_CLASSES . 'order.php');
 $order = new order;

// register a random ID in the session to check throughout the checkout procedure
// against alterations in the shopping cart contents
 if (!tep_session_is_registered('cartID')) tep_session_register('cartID');
 $cartID = $cart->cartID;

// if the order contains only virtual products, forward the customer to the billing page as
// a shipping address is not needed
 if ($order->content_type == 'virtual') {
   if (!tep_session_is_registered('shipping')) tep_session_register('shipping');
   $shipping = false;
   $sendto = false;
   tep_redirect(tep_href_link(FILENAME_CHECKOUT_PAYMENT, '', 'SSL'));
 }

 $total_weight = $cart->show_weight();
 $total_count = $cart->count_contents();

// load all enabled shipping modules
 require(DIR_WS_CLASSES . 'shipping.php');
 $shipping_modules = new shipping;

 if ( defined('MODULE_ORDER_TOTAL_SHIPPING_FREE_SHIPPING') && (MODULE_ORDER_TOTAL_SHIPPING_FREE_SHIPPING == 'true') ) {
   $pass = false;

   switch (MODULE_ORDER_TOTAL_SHIPPING_DESTINATION) {
     case 'national':
       if ($order->delivery['country_id'] == STORE_COUNTRY) {
         $pass = true;
       }
       break;
     case 'international':
       if ($order->delivery['country_id'] != STORE_COUNTRY) {
         $pass = true;
       }
       break;
     case 'both':
       $pass = true;
       break;
   }

   $free_shipping = false;
   if ( ($pass == true) && ($order->info['total'] >= MODULE_ORDER_TOTAL_SHIPPING_FREE_SHIPPING_OVER) ) {
     $free_shipping = true;

     include(DIR_WS_LANGUAGES . $language . '/modules/order_total/ot_shipping.php');
   }
 } else {
   $free_shipping = false;
 }

// process the selected shipping method
 if ( isset($HTTP_POST_VARS['action']) && ($HTTP_POST_VARS['action'] == 'process') ) {
   if (!tep_session_is_registered('comments')) tep_session_register('comments');
   if (tep_not_null($HTTP_POST_VARS['comments'])) {
     $comments = tep_db_prepare_input($HTTP_POST_VARS['comments']);
   }

   if (!tep_session_is_registered('shipping')) tep_session_register('shipping');

   if ( (tep_count_shipping_modules() > 0) || ($free_shipping == true) ) {
     if ( (isset($HTTP_POST_VARS['shipping'])) && (strpos($HTTP_POST_VARS['shipping'], '_')) ) {
       $shipping = $HTTP_POST_VARS['shipping'];

       list($module, $method) = explode('_', $shipping);
       if ( is_object($$module) || ($shipping == 'free_free') ) {
         if ($shipping == 'free_free') {
           $quote[0]['methods'][0]['title'] = FREE_SHIPPING_TITLE;
           $quote[0]['methods'][0]['cost'] = '0';
         } else {
           $quote = $shipping_modules->quote($method, $module);
         }
         if (isset($quote['error'])) {
           tep_session_unregister('shipping');
         } else {
           if ( (isset($quote[0]['methods'][0]['title'])) && (isset($quote[0]['methods'][0]['cost'])) ) {
             $shipping = array('id' => $shipping,
                               'title' => (($free_shipping == true) ?  $quote[0]['methods'][0]['title'] : $quote[0]['module'] . ' (' . $quote[0]['methods'][0]['title'] . ')'),
                               'cost' => $quote[0]['methods'][0]['cost']);

             tep_redirect(tep_href_link(FILENAME_CHECKOUT_PAYMENT, '', 'SSL'));
           }
         }
       } else {
         tep_session_unregister('shipping');
       }
     }
   } else {
     $shipping = false;

     tep_redirect(tep_href_link(FILENAME_CHECKOUT_PAYMENT, '', 'SSL'));
   }    
 }

// get all available shipping quotes
 $quotes = $shipping_modules->quote();

// if no shipping method has been selected, automatically select the cheapest method.
// if the modules status was changed when none were available, to save on implementing
// a javascript force-selection method, also automatically select the cheapest shipping
// method if more than one module is now enabled
 if ( !tep_session_is_registered('shipping') || ( tep_session_is_registered('shipping') && ($shipping == false) && (tep_count_shipping_modules() > 1) ) ) $shipping = $shipping_modules->cheapest();

 require(DIR_WS_LANGUAGES . $language . '/' . FILENAME_CHECKOUT_SHIPPING);

 $breadcrumb->add(NAVBAR_TITLE_1, tep_href_link(FILENAME_CHECKOUT_SHIPPING, '', 'SSL'));
 $breadcrumb->add(NAVBAR_TITLE_2, tep_href_link(FILENAME_CHECKOUT_SHIPPING, '', 'SSL'));
?>
<!doctype html public "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html <?php echo HTML_PARAMS; ?>>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=<?php echo CHARSET; ?>">
<title><?php echo TITLE; ?></title>
<base href="<?php echo (($request_type == 'SSL') ? HTTPS_SERVER : HTTP_SERVER) . DIR_WS_CATALOG; ?>">
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="stylesheet.css">
<script language="javascript"><!--
var selected;

function selectRowEffect(object, buttonSelect) {
 if (!selected) {
   if (document.getElementById) {
     selected = document.getElementById('defaultSelected');
   } else {
     selected = document.all['defaultSelected'];
   }
 }

 if (selected) selected.className = 'moduleRow';
 object.className = 'moduleRowSelected';
 selected = object;

// one button is not an array
 if (document.checkout_address.shipping[0]) {
   document.checkout_address.shipping[buttonSelect].checked=true;
 } else {
   document.checkout_address.shipping.checked=true;
 }
}

function rowOverEffect(object) {
 if (object.className == 'moduleRow') object.className = 'moduleRowOver';
}

function rowOutEffect(object) {
 if (object.className == 'moduleRowOver') object.className = 'moduleRow';
}
//--></script>
</head>
<body marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" topmargin="0" bottommargin="0" leftmargin="0" rightmargin="0">
<!-- header //-->
<?php require(DIR_WS_INCLUDES . 'header.php'); ?>
<!-- header_eof //-->

<!-- body //-->
<table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="3" cellpadding="3">
 <tr>
   <td width="<?php echo BOX_WIDTH; ?>" valign="top"><table border="0" width="<?php echo BOX_WIDTH; ?>" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2">
<!-- left_navigation //-->
<?php require(DIR_WS_INCLUDES . 'column_left.php'); ?>
<!-- left_navigation_eof //-->
   </table></td>
<!-- body_text //-->
   <td width="100%" valign="top"><?php echo tep_draw_form('checkout_address', tep_href_link(FILENAME_CHECKOUT_SHIPPING, '', 'SSL')) . tep_draw_hidden_field('action', 'process'); ?><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
     <tr>
       <td><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
         <tr>
           <td class="pageHeading"><?php echo HEADING_TITLE; ?></td>
           <td class="pageHeading" align="right"><?php echo tep_image(DIR_WS_IMAGES . 'table_background_delivery.gif', HEADING_TITLE, HEADING_IMAGE_WIDTH, HEADING_IMAGE_HEIGHT); ?></td>
         </tr>
       </table></td>
     </tr>
     <tr>
       <td><?php echo tep_draw_separator('pixel_trans.gif', '100%', '10'); ?></td>
     </tr>
     <tr>
       <td><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2">
         <tr>
           <td class="main"><b><?php echo TABLE_HEADING_SHIPPING_ADDRESS; ?></b></td>
         </tr>
       </table></td>
     </tr>
     <tr>
       <td><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="2" class="infoBox">
         <tr class="infoBoxContents">
           <td><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2">
             <tr>
               <td><?php echo tep_draw_separator('pixel_trans.gif', '10', '1'); ?></td> 
               <td class="main" width="50%" valign="top"><?php echo TEXT_CHOOSE_SHIPPING_DESTINATION . '<br><br><a href="' . tep_href_link(FILENAME_CHECKOUT_SHIPPING_ADDRESS, '', 'SSL') . '">' . tep_image_button('button_change_address.gif', IMAGE_BUTTON_CHANGE_ADDRESS) . '</a>'; ?></td>
               <td align="right" width="50%" valign="top"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2">
                 <tr>
                   <td class="main" align="center" valign="top"><?php echo '<b>' . TITLE_SHIPPING_ADDRESS . '</b><br>' . tep_image(DIR_WS_IMAGES . 'arrow_south_east.gif'); ?></td>
                   <td><?php echo tep_draw_separator('pixel_trans.gif', '10', '1'); ?></td> 
                   <td class="main" valign="top"><?php echo tep_address_label($customer_id, $sendto, true, ' ', '<br>'); ?></td>
                   <td><?php echo tep_draw_separator('pixel_trans.gif', '10', '1'); ?></td> 
                 </tr>
               </table></td>
             </tr>
           </table></td>
         </tr>
       </table></td>
     </tr>
     <tr>
       <td><?php echo tep_draw_separator('pixel_trans.gif', '100%', '10'); ?></td>
     </tr>
<?php
 if (tep_count_shipping_modules() > 0) {
?>
     <tr>
       <td><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2">
         <tr>
           <td class="main"><b><?php echo TABLE_HEADING_SHIPPING_METHOD; ?></b></td>
         </tr>
       </table></td>
     </tr>
     <tr>
       <td><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="2" class="infoBox">
         <tr class="infoBoxContents">
           <td><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2">
<?php
   if (sizeof($quotes) > 1 && sizeof($quotes[0]) > 1) {
?>
             <tr>
               <td><?php echo tep_draw_separator('pixel_trans.gif', '10', '1'); ?></td>
               <td class="main" width="50%" valign="top"><?php echo TEXT_CHOOSE_SHIPPING_METHOD; ?></td>
               <td class="main" width="50%" valign="top" align="right"><?php echo '<b>' . TITLE_PLEASE_SELECT . '</b><br>' . tep_image(DIR_WS_IMAGES . 'arrow_east_south.gif'); ?></td>
               <td><?php echo tep_draw_separator('pixel_trans.gif', '10', '1'); ?></td>
             </tr>
<?php
   } elseif ($free_shipping == false) {
?>
             <tr>
               <td><?php echo tep_draw_separator('pixel_trans.gif', '10', '1'); ?></td>
               <td class="main" width="100%" colspan="2"><?php echo TEXT_ENTER_SHIPPING_INFORMATION; ?></td>
               <td><?php echo tep_draw_separator('pixel_trans.gif', '10', '1'); ?></td>
             </tr>
<?php
   }

   if ($free_shipping == true) {
?>
             <tr>
               <td><?php echo tep_draw_separator('pixel_trans.gif', '10', '1'); ?></td>
               <td colspan="2" width="100%"><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2">
                 <tr>
                   <td width="10"><?php echo tep_draw_separator('pixel_trans.gif', '10', '1'); ?></td>
                   <td class="main" colspan="3"><b><?php echo FREE_SHIPPING_TITLE; ?></b> <?php echo $quotes[$i]['icon']; ?></td>
                   <td width="10"><?php echo tep_draw_separator('pixel_trans.gif', '10', '1'); ?></td>
                 </tr>
                 <tr id="defaultSelected" class="moduleRowSelected" onmouseover="rowOverEffect(this)" onmouseout="rowOutEffect(this)" onclick="selectRowEffect(this, 0)">
                   <td width="10"><?php echo tep_draw_separator('pixel_trans.gif', '10', '1'); ?></td>
                   <td class="main" width="100%"><?php echo sprintf(FREE_SHIPPING_DESCRIPTION, $currencies->format(MODULE_ORDER_TOTAL_SHIPPING_FREE_SHIPPING_OVER)) . tep_draw_hidden_field('shipping', 'free_free'); ?></td>
                   <td width="10"><?php echo tep_draw_separator('pixel_trans.gif', '10', '1'); ?></td>
                 </tr>
               </table></td>
               <td><?php echo tep_draw_separator('pixel_trans.gif', '10', '1'); ?></td> 
             </tr>
<?php
   } else {
     $radio_buttons = 0;
     for ($i=0, $n=sizeof($quotes); $i<$n; $i++) {
?>
             <tr>
               <td><?php echo tep_draw_separator('pixel_trans.gif', '10', '1'); ?></td>
               <td colspan="2"><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2">
                 <tr>
                   <td width="10"><?php echo tep_draw_separator('pixel_trans.gif', '10', '1'); ?></td>
                   <td class="main" colspan="3"><b><?php echo $quotes[$i]['module']; ?></b> <?php if (isset($quotes[$i]['icon']) && tep_not_null($quotes[$i]['icon'])) { echo $quotes[$i]['icon']; } ?></td>
                   <td width="10"><?php echo tep_draw_separator('pixel_trans.gif', '10', '1'); ?></td>
                 </tr>
<?php
       if (isset($quotes[$i]['error'])) {
?>
                 <tr>
                   <td width="10"><?php echo tep_draw_separator('pixel_trans.gif', '10', '1'); ?></td>
                   <td class="main" colspan="3"><?php echo $quotes[$i]['error']; ?></td>
                   <td width="10"><?php echo tep_draw_separator('pixel_trans.gif', '10', '1'); ?></td>
                 </tr>
<?php
       } else {
         for ($j=0, $n2=sizeof($quotes[$i]['methods']); $j<$n2; $j++) {
// set the radio button to be checked if it is the method chosen
           $checked = (($quotes[$i]['id'] . '_' . $quotes[$i]['methods'][$j]['id'] == $shipping['id']) ? true : false);

           if ( ($checked == true) || ($n == 1 && $n2 == 1) ) {
             echo '                  <tr id="defaultSelected" class="moduleRowSelected" onmouseover="rowOverEffect(this)" onmouseout="rowOutEffect(this)" onclick="selectRowEffect(this, ' . $radio_buttons . ')">' . "\n";
           } else {
             echo '                  <tr class="moduleRow" onmouseover="rowOverEffect(this)" onmouseout="rowOutEffect(this)" onclick="selectRowEffect(this, ' . $radio_buttons . ')">' . "\n";
           }
?>
                   <td width="10"><?php echo tep_draw_separator('pixel_trans.gif', '10', '1'); ?></td>
                   <td class="main" width="75%"><?php echo $quotes[$i]['methods'][$j]['title']; ?></td>
<?php
           if ( ($n > 1) || ($n2 > 1) ) {
?>
                   <td class="main"><?php echo $currencies->format(tep_add_tax($quotes[$i]['methods'][$j]['cost'], (isset($quotes[$i]['tax']) ? $quotes[$i]['tax'] : 0))); ?></td>
                   <td class="main" align="right"><?php echo tep_draw_radio_field('shipping', $quotes[$i]['id'] . '_' . $quotes[$i]['methods'][$j]['id'], $checked); ?></td>
<?php
           } else {
?>
                   <td class="main" align="right" colspan="2"><?php echo $currencies->format(tep_add_tax($quotes[$i]['methods'][$j]['cost'], $quotes[$i]['tax'])) . tep_draw_hidden_field('shipping', $quotes[$i]['id'] . '_' . $quotes[$i]['methods'][$j]['id']); ?></td>
<?php
           }
?>
                   <td width="10"><?php echo tep_draw_separator('pixel_trans.gif', '10', '1'); ?></td>
                 </tr>
<?php
           $radio_buttons++;
         }
       }
?>
               </table></td>
               <td><?php echo tep_draw_separator('pixel_trans.gif', '10', '1'); ?></td> 
             </tr>
<?php
     }
   }
?>
           </table></td>
         </tr>
       </table></td>
     </tr>
     <tr>
       <td><?php echo tep_draw_separator('pixel_trans.gif', '100%', '10'); ?></td>
     </tr>
<?php
 }
?>
     <tr>
       <td><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2">
         <tr>
           <td class="main"><b><?php echo TABLE_HEADING_COMMENTS; ?></b></td>
         </tr>
       </table></td>
     </tr>
     <tr>
       <td><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="2" class="infoBox">
         <tr class="infoBoxContents">
           <td><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2">
             <tr>
               <td><?php echo tep_draw_textarea_field('comments', 'soft', '60', '5'); ?></td>
             </tr>
           </table></td>
         </tr>
       </table></td>
     </tr>
     <tr>
       <td><?php echo tep_draw_separator('pixel_trans.gif', '100%', '10'); ?></td>
     </tr>
     <tr>
       <td><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="2" class="infoBox">
         <tr class="infoBoxContents">
           <td><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2">
             <tr>
               <td width="10"><?php echo tep_draw_separator('pixel_trans.gif', '10', '1'); ?></td>
               <td class="main"><?php echo '<b>' . TITLE_CONTINUE_CHECKOUT_PROCEDURE . '</b><br>' . TEXT_CONTINUE_CHECKOUT_PROCEDURE; ?></td>
               <td class="main" align="right"><?php echo tep_image_submit('button_continue.gif', IMAGE_BUTTON_CONTINUE); ?></td>
               <td width="10"><?php echo tep_draw_separator('pixel_trans.gif', '10', '1'); ?></td>
             </tr>
           </table></td>
         </tr>
       </table></td>
     </tr>
     <tr>
       <td><?php echo tep_draw_separator('pixel_trans.gif', '100%', '10'); ?></td>
     </tr>
     <tr>
       <td><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
         <tr>
           <td width="25%"><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
             <tr>
               <td width="50%" align="right"><?php echo tep_image(DIR_WS_IMAGES . 'checkout_bullet.gif'); ?></td>
               <td width="50%"><?php echo tep_draw_separator('pixel_silver.gif', '100%', '1'); ?></td>
             </tr>
           </table></td>
           <td width="25%"><?php echo tep_draw_separator('pixel_silver.gif', '100%', '1'); ?></td>
           <td width="25%"><?php echo tep_draw_separator('pixel_silver.gif', '100%', '1'); ?></td>
           <td width="25%"><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
             <tr>
               <td width="50%"><?php echo tep_draw_separator('pixel_silver.gif', '100%', '1'); ?></td>
               <td width="50%"><?php echo tep_draw_separator('pixel_silver.gif', '1', '5'); ?></td>
             </tr>
           </table></td>
         </tr>
         <tr>
           <td align="center" width="25%" class="checkoutBarCurrent"><?php echo CHECKOUT_BAR_DELIVERY; ?></td>
           <td align="center" width="25%" class="checkoutBarTo"><?php echo CHECKOUT_BAR_PAYMENT; ?></td>
           <td align="center" width="25%" class="checkoutBarTo"><?php echo CHECKOUT_BAR_CONFIRMATION; ?></td>
           <td align="center" width="25%" class="checkoutBarTo"><?php echo CHECKOUT_BAR_FINISHED; ?></td>
         </tr>
       </table></td>
     </tr>
   </table></form></td>
<!-- body_text_eof //-->
   <td width="<?php echo BOX_WIDTH; ?>" valign="top"><table border="0" width="<?php echo BOX_WIDTH; ?>" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2">
<!-- right_navigation //-->
<?php require(DIR_WS_INCLUDES . 'column_right.php'); ?>
<!-- right_navigation_eof //-->
   </table></td>
 </tr>
</table>
<!-- body_eof //-->

<!-- footer //-->
<?php require(DIR_WS_INCLUDES . 'footer.php'); ?>
<!-- footer_eof //-->
<br>
</body>
</html>
<?php require(DIR_WS_INCLUDES . 'application_bottom.php'); ?>

MrPhil · April 30, 2010

I have managed to get rid of the odd text by reuploading the file and setting from 'Western European' to 'Unicode UTF-8.

Um, what "setting"? Your database, language support files, and page display all need to be talking the same encoding: Latin-1/ISO-8859-1/Western European or UTF-8 are the most common choices. Don't go manually changing some things to a different encoding without changing everything consistently.

As for the White Screen of Death, that means you have a PHP syntax error somewhere in checkout_payment.php. Was this file edited, modified, or hacked recently? Go back to my FAQs page and take a look at "Blank Screen/WSOD". That you can run the file directly from the browser suggests that maybe it has bad data being passed in via GET or POST, which is causing an error. Bad data should be checked for and caught, or a different code path is probably being taken than when you run the script directly. Anyway, you need to find the error message giving the file and line number, as well as the error type.

fan4chevy · April 30, 2010

Um, what "setting"? Your database, language support files, and page display all need to be talking the same encoding: Latin-1/ISO-8859-1/Western European or UTF-8 are the most common choices. Don't go manually changing some things to a different encoding without changing everything consistently.

As for the White Screen of Death, that means you have a PHP syntax error somewhere in checkout_payment.php. Was this file edited, modified, or hacked recently? Go back to my FAQs page and take a look at "Blank Screen/WSOD". That you can run the file directly from the browser suggests that maybe it has bad data being passed in via GET or POST, which is causing an error. Bad data should be checked for and caught, or a different code path is probably being taken than when you run the script directly. Anyway, you need to find the error message giving the file and line number, as well as the error type.

Thank you for your help.

I use Dreamweaver and it has always been default to Western European. After the symbol appeared out of nowhere I then saved about 6 files as UTF-8 and it went away. However, the process still would not move from checkout_shipping.php to the appropriate checkout_payment.php. When clicking the continue it would create a blank page with no errors but showed it was in the address bar checkout_shipping.php.

I uploaded through wsftp a file that I know is working properly (as it is from another working cart) checkout_payment.php and it is still a blank page. However, going to checkout_payment.php manually it captures all the proper data and looks fine.

fan4chevy · April 30, 2010

In addition to my above post. Do you think it can be something that went haywire in WSFTP. Is there a setting that I need to change for transferring files?

Also in the code that I uploaded, do you by chance see that perhaps the continue button href is incorrect and not sending to checkout_payment.php?

MrPhil · April 30, 2010

If the browser address bar says "checkout_payment.php", that's where you are. If you have nothing but a white screen (the WSOD), it means that PHP is blowing up trying to run the code (usually a syntax error). My FAQs page has suggestions on what to look for to find the error responsible.

I would strongly suggest that you get away from Dreamweaver. It is not at all suitable for editing PHP files. Yes, it's possible, but it's easy to screw up, as you might have done. I would suggest that you learn a text file editor such as ViM or Notepad++. Is WSFTP a straightforward FTP client, or does it think it's smarter than you and try to do things behind your back? If the latter, I suggest another FTP client such as FTP Commander or Filezilla.

fan4chevy · May 1, 2010

If the browser address bar says "checkout_payment.php", that's where you are. If you have nothing but a white screen (the WSOD), it means that PHP is blowing up trying to run the code (usually a syntax error). My FAQs page has suggestions on what to look for to find the error responsible.

I would strongly suggest that you get away from Dreamweaver. It is not at all suitable for editing PHP files. Yes, it's possible, but it's easy to screw up, as you might have done. I would suggest that you learn a text file editor such as ViM or Notepad++. Is WSFTP a straightforward FTP client, or does it think it's smarter than you and try to do things behind your back? If the latter, I suggest another FTP client such as FTP Commander or Filezilla.

I really appreciate your time here. Hopefully this will help another down the road as well.

The odd thing is that I am using the same files that are working on another site. I have used Dreamweaver for about 7 years or so and never had an issue including 5 years of editing OSC. So it really has me puzzled.

I had managed to get rid of the symbols by following the UTF-8 part but it goes to the blank screen when it should go to checkout_payment.php. My question is why can I go to checkout_payment.php manually and all data for the product I am purchasing is kept in order but when clicking Continue in checkout_shipping.php it goes to the blank screen? Any ideas as to why it does not go to the checkout_payment.php?

Any other ideas are appreciated.

germ · May 2, 2010

Like Mr Phil said there is probably a PHP error and that's why it goes blank. Now why it doesn't do that all the time is a bit of a mystery.

Blank screens aren't conducive to solving problems because they don't tell you where the problem is.

There is a thread here about how to get the site to write errors to a file for you (read the posts by steve_s). That thread is about admin problems but what he posted works on the catalog side just as well.

Or you could just change the error_reporting in /includes/application_top.php

You would change this:

// set the level of error reporting
 error_reporting(E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE);

To:

// set the level of error reporting
 error_reporting(E_ALL | E_STRICT);

And hopefully the server will spit out a useful error message for you.

May 2, 2010

I had managed to get rid of the symbols by following the UTF-8 part but it goes to the blank screen when it should go to checkout_payment.php. My question is why can I go to checkout_payment.php manually and all data for the product I am purchasing is kept in order but when clicking Continue in checkout_shipping.php it goes to the blank screen? Any ideas as to why it does not go to the checkout_payment.php?

Any other ideas are appreciated.

I had some similar problem here a while back and I used KissER to log errors to file. I found that I had spaces after the ending ?> in two files.

This is what Spooks said about it:

"very common issue after editing with the likes of filemanager, to add confusion, spaces at the end do not always cause issues at first, but issues can randomly occur later, maybe just through re-uploading the same file!! "

Hope this helps..

fan4chevy · September 29, 2010

Boy this is back to driving me nutz.

I have the ï»¿ showing up but only when checking out and getting to the checkout_shipping.php page. Just like before when you move to the next page that should be checkout_payment.php it hangs up checkout_shipping.php page but is blank.

I have tried changing any files I can think of to utf-8. The oddest thing is if I manually type in and direct my page to checkout_payment.php the ï»¿ mark goes away again. It is something between checkout_shipping.php to Checkout_payment.php.

Your help is appreciated.

Charles

MrPhil · September 29, 2010

I have tried changing any files I can think of to utf-8.

Don't do that, unless you are careful to change all page display encodings to UTF-8! Your basic problem is that you edited something in UTF-8 mode at some point, and the "helpful" idiot editor silently inserted a UTF-8 Byte Order Mark into the file. That gets displayed as those three funny characters, since it's outside any PHP content, and often causes "header" problems. Note that if your page is displayed in UTF-8, your browser may not show the BOM (although it can still cause problems, such as "Cannot modify header")! Switch your browser from UTF-8 to Latin-1 to see it.

If all your files have nothing but ASCII codes in them, either ISO-8859-1/Latin-1/Western European or UTF-8 encoding can be used. If any of your files have hardcoded (not HTML entity) non-ASCII characters in them, you need to have all your files edited in the same encoding, and use the matching display encoding. E.g., if you put a hardcoded ™ into a file rather than a "™", and you were in Latin-1 encoding, your entire site must be that way. If you put in hardcoded UTF-8 characters with an editor, your pages must be edited and displayed in UTF-8. You can't mix encodings.

For PHP code (logic) files, it's best to use HTML entities (either name or number) rather than letting an editor insert hardcoded byte(s). That makes them still pure ASCII, which is compatible with any display encoding you might typically use (ISO-8859-1 and UTF-8 are both supersets of ASCII). Non-English* language files are a different matter -- it's possible, but too much work, to make every accented or non-Latin character an HTML entity. In that case, you usually change over to UTF-8. Finally data stored in the database must be in a consistent encoding with the rest of the system (language files and page display encoding).

* British English can be Latin-1 or UTF-8, so that the £ can be displayed consistently.

If you are getting the WSoD on checkout_shipping.php or checkout_payment.php (what does the browser URL say?), you have a code error in the PHP code. Read my sig > FAQs > Blank Screen for suggestions on how to track down the error.

October 1, 2010

Boy this is back to driving me nutz.

I have the ï»¿ showing up but only when checking out and getting to the checkout_shipping.php page. Just like before when you move to the next page that should be checkout_payment.php it hangs up checkout_shipping.php page but is blank.

Have you tried searching your files for leading & trailing whitespace?

Odd Symbols At Top ï»¿

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