Simply add this to your localconf.php file (<root>/typo3conf/localconf.php):
$TYPO3_CONF_VARS['SYS']['devIPmask'] = 'your_ip_address,::1';
$TYPO3_CONF_VARS['SYS']['displayErrors'] = '2';
This should provide you with some meaningful error messages instead of blank pages.
$TYPO3_CONF_VARS[‘SYS’][‘displayErrors’] can have these values: -1, 0, 1, 2 which translates to:
| -1 | Default setting. With this option, you can override the PHP setting “display_errors”. If devIPmask matches the users IP address the configured “debugExceptionHandler” is used for exceptions, if not “productionExceptionHandler” will be used. |
| 0 | Do not display any PHP error messages. Overrides the value of “exceptionalErrors” and sets it to 0 (= no errors are turned into exceptions),the configured “productionExceptionHandler” is used as exception handler |
| 1 | Display error messages with the registered error handler, the configured “debugExceptionHandler” is used as exception handler |
| 2 | Display errors only if client matches TYPO3_CONF_VARS[SYS][devIPmask]. If devIPmask matches the users IP address the configured “debugExceptionHandler” is used for exceptions, if not “productionExceptionHandler” will be used. |
So we chose to display error messages only to certain IP adresses specified in $TYPO3_CONF_VARS[‘SYS’][‘devIPmask’].
Additionally we might want to add these flags to localconf.php file:
$TYPO3_CONF_VARS['SYS']['sqlDebug'] = '1';
$TYPO3_CONF_VARS['BE']['debug'] = '1';
$TYPO3_CONF_VARS['FE']['debug'] = '1';
$TYPO3_CONF_VARS[‘SYS’][‘sqlDebug’] sets sql debugging level. Possible values are:
| 0 | no SQL shown (default) |
| 1 | show only failed queries |
| 2 | show all queries |
$TYPO3_CONF_VARS[‘BE’][‘debug’] is new mode for debugging added with Typo3 4.5:
“A new mode was added to debug the backend with $TYPO3_CONF_VARS[‘BE’][‘debug’] = ‘1’; it disables the login refresh ajax call and instructs the page renderer not to merge the loaded javascript and CSS files, easing debugging with tools like Firebug.”
Source Typo3 Wiki.
$TYPO3_CONF_VARS[‘FE’][‘debug’] should enable frontend debugging.
Additionaly, Typo3 stores frontend and backend errors in sys_log database table. You might want to store these in some separate log file:
$TYPO3_CONF_VARS['SYS']['systemLogLevel'] = '0';
$TYPO3_CONF_VARS['SYS']['systemLog'] = 'error_log';
$TYPO3_CONF_VARS[‘SYS’][‘systemLogLevel’] defines verbosity levels:
| 0 | info |
| 1 | notice |
| 2 | warning |
| 3 | error |
| 4 | fatal error |
And $TYPO3_CONF_VARS[‘SYS’][‘systemLog’] defines logging method:
| file | file,<abs-path-to-file>[,<severity>] | log to a file |
| mail,<to>[/<from>][,<severity>] | send log entries via mail | |
| syslog | syslog,<facility>,[,<severity>] | use the operating system’s log. Facility may be one of LOCAL0 .. LOCAL7, USER (on Windows USER is the only valid type). |
| error_log | error_log[,,<severity>] | use PHP error log |
Remember to turn these off in production environment.