Retrieving Error Messages

If Omeka Classic doesn't seem to be behaving correctly, for whatever reason, there are steps you can take to get more descriptive error messages. These are turned off by default, but can be used during the production of an Omeka site for troubleshooting.

Display Error Messages

You can change some configuration settings in Omeka to display error messages directly on the screen.

After enabling error messages, return to the page in Omeka that is causing the error. Do your best to repeat whatever originally caused the error, then send us the error message that is displayed on your screen. Be sure to disable these settings again once the problem is resolved.

The error display settings are different between Omeka 2.0 and older versions of Omeka:

Omeka 2.0 and newer

To turn on robust error messages, take the following steps:

  1. Go into the files for your Omeka installation on your server. You might do this using a FileManager from your hosting service, or SSH.
  2. Open the .htaccess file in the root directory of your Omeka installation. The root is the main directory, where you'll also find the plugins and themes folders.
    • You might need to turn on "see hidden files" in order to see the .htaccess file. If you're not sure how to do this, look in the directions for your file manager.
  3. Find the following line, and uncomment it (that is, remove the # sign): #SetEnv APPLICATION_ENV development. When you are done, it should read SetEnv APPLICATION_ENV development.
    • You might need to download the file in order to edit it. Be sure to upload the edited version and replace the older version.

If you're trying to debug a 404 ("Not Found") or 403 ("Forbidden") error, open application/config/config.ini, and change the value of debug.exceptions to true.

Omeka 1.5 and older

  1. Open the .htaccess file in the root of your Omeka installation, and change the value of php_value display_errors to 1.
  2. Open 'application/config/config.ini', and change the value of debug.exceptions to true.

Activate Error Logging

If you'd prefer to not have your error messages publicly displayed on your site, you can instead activate error logging. Activating error logging will log any errors encountered by Omeka to a file in application/log directory of Omeka. You can then post to the forum or email directly to us.

  1. Change permissions on your installation so that the following file is writable by your server: application/logs/errors.log
  2. Edit your application/config/config.ini file and change the value of log.errors to true.
  3. Do your best to repeat whatever originally caused the error, then send us the relevant contents of the errors.log file.