Template debugging #

This page is for designers whose template does not do what they expect. It lists the tools from quickest to deepest. For "my change does not show", start with Debugging a design (caches); for "which template is this", Template path comments.

Contents #

1. The debug output
2. Looking into a variable
3. Debug functions
4. Syntax check
5. Typical messages

The debug output #

On a test siteaccess, for your address only:

[DebugSettings]
DebugOutput=enabled
DebugByIP=enabled
DebugIPList[]=203.0.113.10

[TemplateSettings]
ShowUsedTemplates=enabled

Under the page appear the warnings and errors of the request, timing, database queries and, with ShowUsedTemplates, a table of every template used with the file it came from. Template warnings name the template and the line (compiler warnings carry the placement since the path-comments work of August 2026).

Looking into a variable #

{$node|attribute( show, 1 )}           {* the attributes of $node and their values, one level deep *}
{$module_result.content_info|dump( show, 2 )}

Remove these before committing: they print internal data to the page.

Debug functions #

From lib/eztemplate/classes/eztemplatedebugfunction.php, shown in the debug output, not in the page:

{debug-log msg='teaser part reached'}
{debug-log var=$items msg='items of the list'}
{debug-timing-point id='menu'} ... {/debug-timing-point}
{debug-accumulator} ... {/debug-accumulator}

debug-timing-point measures how long a part of the template takes.

Syntax check #

./console exp:eztemplatecheck extension/mytheme/design/mytheme/templates/
./console exp:eztemplatecheck -s mysite

reports each file as valid or with its parse error. It does not run templates, so it cannot find unknown operators or missing variables.

Typical messages #

Related pages #

• Template path comments
• Common template mistakes
• Free documentation: this page is free to copy, translate and improve under the GNU FDL 1.3.