PHP production server - turn on error messages

Question

This question has been asked before in a more general way. I want to display error messages on a particular page on my production server, and I do not have access to the php.ini file. What is the best way to enable all errors and warnings on a particular PHP page on your production server?

I have tried ERROR_REPORTING(E_ALL);.

Answer 1

To enable errors, you must use error_reporting before the point where those are triggered (for example, at the beginning of your PHP script) :

error_reporting(E_ALL);

And to have the error displayed, you should configure display_errors :

ini_set('display_errors', 'On');

(This one should be disabled on a production server, which means you might have to enable it this way, even after having configured error_reporting)

Of course, all this can be encapsulated in an if block, to make sure only you can see the error messages -- especially if you are doing this on a live production website ; for instance :

if ($_SESSION['is_admin'])
{
    error_reporting(E_ALL);
    ini_set('display_errors', 'On');
}

And to get things a bit prettier, you might also want to configure html_errors :

ini_set('html_errors', 'On');