Skip to:
Content
Pages
Categories
Search
Top
Bottom

WSOD on Register/Activity/etc Pages with Custom Theme Override

  • @kflux

    Participant

    Hello everyone,

    I’m trying to create a simple custom theme to override the BuddyPress (Nouveau) registration page, but I’m consistently running into a White Screen of Death (WSOD). I’ve been troubleshooting for a while and would appreciate any help you can offer.

    My Goal:
    To create a custom theme that overrides register.php from the BP Nouveau template pack.

    My Environment:

    OS: Windows

    Local Development Tool: DevKinsta

    Plugin: BuddyPress (latest version)

    The Problem:
    When I activate my custom theme, I get a WSOD when trying to access the site (e.g., mysite.local/register/).

    Here is a summary of the troubleshooting steps I have already tried:

    Enabled WP_DEBUG: I have set WP_DEBUG, WP_DEBUG_LOG, and WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY to true in my wp-config.php. However, no errors are ever displayed on the screen or written to the debug.log file. The page is just completely blank.

    Checked for PHP Errors: I initially had parse errors (an extra } bracket) in my functions.php and register.php files. These have been found and corrected.

    Checked for BOM: I have verified with my code editor (VS Code) that all my theme files are saved with UTF-8 encoding and do not have a Byte Order Mark (BOM).

    Reset Permalinks: I have gone to Settings > Permalinks and clicked “Save Changes” multiple times to rebuild the rewrite rules.

    Theme Deactivation Test: When I rename my theme’s folder to force WordPress to deactivate it, I can access wp-admin again. This confirms the issue is within my theme’s code.

    File Permissions: I received a security warning that /wp-content/ was too writeable. I have reset the permissions for my entire site folder on my Windows machine to ensure they are not too permissive.

    My Theme Structure and Code:

    My theme is very simple.

    1. Directory Structure for the Override:
    wp-content/themes/kfluxtheme/buddypress/members/register.php
    (The register.php file is an exact, unmodified copy from wp-content/plugins/buddypress/bp-templates/bp-nouveau/buddypress/members/)

    /*
    Theme Name: K-Flux Theme
    Author: My Name
    Version: 1.0
    */
    <?php
    /**
     * Theme functions and definitions.
     */
    
    if ( ! function_exists( 'kfluxtheme_setup' ) ) {
    	/**
    	 * Basic theme setup.
    	 */
    	function kfluxtheme_setup() {
    		// Add support for BuddyPress (ESSENTIAL)
    		add_theme_support( 'buddypress' );
    
    		// Let WordPress manage the document title.
    		add_theme_support( 'title-tag' );
    
    		// Enable support for Post Thumbnails.
    		add_theme_support( 'post-thumbnails' );
    	}
    }
    add_action( 'after_setup_theme', 'kfluxtheme_setup' );
    
    /**
     * Enqueue scripts and styles.
     */
    function kfluxtheme_enqueue_scripts() {
    	wp_enqueue_style( 'kfluxtheme-style', get_stylesheet_uri(), array(), '1.0' );
    }
    add_action( 'wp_enqueue_scripts', 'kfluxtheme_enqueue_scripts' );
    

    Despite all these steps, the WSOD persists when my theme is active. Since WP_DEBUG is not showing any errors, I’m running out of ideas on how to debug this further.

    Has anyone encountered a similar issue with DevKinsta or have any suggestions for what I might be missing?

    Thanks in advance for any help.

  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
Skip to toolbar