2.2.1 Upgrade to 2.3 - Blank page

jhsim · November 2016

For 2 days I have repeatedly attempted to upgrade a fully functional v2.2.1 to v2.3. Once I got as far as seeing an 'Update Success' page, but then failed to get access to the forum or dashboard. Yes, I followed the troubleshooting instructions and any other guidance I could find here. In desperation I've even attempted a clean install into a new directory, but when I navigated to that folder in my web browser to complete the setup all I saw was a blank screen. Firefox Web Inspector showed the attached code for that page.

I've uploaded my backup of the 2.2.1 vanilla folder to the server and it's active again, fully operational.

Any clues to point me in the right direction please?

Host: 1and1.co.uk, shared hosting
Server: Apache
PHP: 5.6
SSL: Enabled

Thanks,
John

Linc · November 2016

Do you have access to your server error logs? A blank screen implies a 500 server error that could be any number of things.

As a sanity check, you might also drop a file with <?php phpinfo(); ?> in it into your webroot for a minute and check that your Apache module is running the PHP version you think it is.

jhsim · November 2016

Hi Linc, thanks for the reply. No access to server logs on this shared host unfortunately. I'll try the php check tomorrow.

Sorry I didn't notice the file upload here is for images, Firefox Web Inspector showed this code on the blank page:

<html>
<head>
        <meta charset="utf-8">
        <style type="text/css">
            html, body, #partner, iframe {
                height:100%;
                width:100%;
                margin:0;
                padding:0;
                border:0;
                outline:0;
                font-size:100%;
                vertical-align:baseline;
                background:transparent;
            }
            body {
                overflow:hidden;
            }
        </style>
        <meta content="NOW" name="expires">
        <meta content="index, follow, all" name="GOOGLEBOT">
        <meta content="index, follow, all" name="robots">
        <!-- Following Meta-Tag fixes scaling-issues on mobile devices -->
        <meta content="width=device-width; initial-scale=1.0; maximum-scale=1.0; user-scalable=0;" name="viewport">
    </head>
    <body>
        <div id="partner"></div>
        <script type="text/javascript">
            document.write(
                    '<script type="text/javascript" language="JavaScript"'
                            + 'src="//sedoparking.com/frmpark/'
                            + window.location.host + '/'
                            + '1und1parking5'
                            + '/park.js">'
                    + '<\/script>'
            );
        </script><script type="text/javascript" language="JavaScript" src="//sedoparking.com/frmpark/www.wnsc.co.uk/1und1parking5/park.js"></script>

</body>
</html>

Linc · November 2016

That output is not from Vanilla, it's from your host.

jhsim · November 2016

I was afraid it might be. This is going to get painful.

River · November 2016

@jhsim said:
For 2 days I have repeatedly attempted to upgrade a fully functional v2.2.1 to v2.3. Once I got as far as seeing an 'Update Success' page, but then failed to get access to the forum or dashboard. Yes, I followed the troubleshooting instructions and any other guidance I could find here. In desperation I've even attempted a clean install into a new directory, but when I navigated to that folder in my web browser to complete the setup all I saw was a blank screen. Firefox Web Inspector showed the attached code for that page.

I've uploaded my backup of the 2.2.1 vanilla folder to the server and it's active again, fully operational.

Any clues to point me in the right direction please?

Host: 1and1.co.uk, shared hosting
Server: Apache
PHP: 5.6
SSL: Enabled

Thanks,
John

in addition to following the steps in the Readme when installing, here are some other additional steps and troubleshooting ideas.

follow the steps in this link. Even though it says 2.1 to 2.2 - the logic and troubleshooting will potentially help you solve problem.

where it says 2.1 think of it saying 2.2 and where it says 2.2 think of it saying 2.3

https://vanillaforums.org/discussion/31153/tutorial-a-fool-proof-way-to-do-a-vanilla-upgrade-from-2-1-to-2-2

you can also use this plugin https://vanillaforums.org/addon/versioncheck-plugin to get phpinfo as well as located the newest version of plugins in the add-ons section (excluding github).

jhsim · November 2016

Hi River, found that upgrade guide earlier and followed it, but no joy this time. I think the problem lies with the host. I keep running into that blank page at every turn, sedoparking.com seems to be the clue.

vrijvlinder · November 2016

Your host needs to make sure you are using php7 also many plugins may not work , follow the protocol to update.

phreak · November 2016

@jhsim: It's a bit weird that SEDO-Parking is shown here. Because that would then also affect your 2.2.1 install i guess.

Some basic recommendations.

Are you sure you adressed the right URL regarding www. and non www? It's common to have the one or the other still in parking mode.

The SEDO page source code is an html page. Doublecheck if Vanilla's index.php is existent and if so, check if there is any setting in your Managed Hosting Admin, that prefers html over php.

Is the .htaccess in your fileserver webroot Vanilla's or the default of your host?

Basic but easily overlooked stuff.

jhsim · November 2016

Vanilla 2.3 is running on my website! It's taken another 8 hours of solid graft working through the guide one careful step at a time and faultfinding
https://vanillaforums.org/discussion/31153/tutorial-a-fool-proof-way-to-do-a-vanilla-upgrade-from-2-1-to-2-2

Embedding appears to the point of failure, probably due to javascript errors generated by incompatibility with the website theme (which is over 3 years old). The forum is currently running as a linked page, fortunately jsConnect is still OK.

Thanks all for your hints and encouragement

2.2.1 Upgrade to 2.3 - Blank page

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