Title: Another blank wp-comments-post.php problem…
Last modified: August 19, 2016

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# Another blank wp-comments-post.php problem…

 *  [vaguely_clear](https://wordpress.org/support/users/vaguely_clear/)
 * (@vaguely_clear)
 * [16 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/another-blank-wp-comments-postphp-problem/)
 * Hi! Right, brace yourselves. This is going to be a long post.
 * So I’m having the same problem that so many others have had. When I try to post
   a comment I am directed to a blank wp-comments-post.php page. Looking through
   Firebug reveals that no html or css is present. This happens every time whether
   I am logged in or not, and the comment never goes through. If I switch to a default
   theme, everything works fine, leading me to believe that there is a problem with
   my theme. Here’s where I started:
 * 1) [WordPress Theme Tutorial](http://themeshaper.com/wordpress-themes-templates-tutorial/).
   It’s an excellent, comprehensive tutorial for a newb like me. I followed it to
   the tee, got my blog sort of working, then spent awhile mastering the style sheet.
   By the way, my test installation is at this address: [http://www.gutenbergday.org/blog_0101](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/another-blank-wp-comments-postphp-problem/www.gutenbergday.org/blog_0101?output_format=md).
 * Now, however, the only thing not working that I really must have is comment posting.
   This is what I have tried:
 * 2) [This post](http://wordpress.org/support/topic/288615) identified a problem
   with this line of code missing:
 * `<?php comment_id_fields(); ?>`
 * That, however, is clearly present in my comments.php file.
 * 3) I tried the [phpMYadmin fix](http://www.princeblog.net/index.php/troubleshoot/wordpress-blank-page-after-posting-a-comment-wp-comment-post-php)
   too. The table was successfully repaired or checked out ok, but nothing has changed.
 * 4) Some have [had problems](http://wordpress.org/support/topic/330242?replies=2)
   with Akismet. The plug-in is not and has never been activated on my blog as far
   as I know. It is installed, but not running.
 * 5) One person [teetered on the verge](http://techbasedmarketing.com/tools/stressing-over-blank-comments-in-wordpress/723/)
   of a mental breakdown over this line of code:
 * `<input type="hidden" name="comment_post_ID" value="<?php echo $id; ?>" />`
 * That, it turns out, is exactly how the line looks in my comments.php. So I tried
   her other two alternatives:
 * `<input type="hidden" name="comment_post_ID" value="<?php the_ID(); ?>" />`
 * and
 * `<input type="hidden" name="comment_post_ID" value="<?php echo $post->ID; ?>"/
   >`
 * …success was met with neither.
 * 6) I removed white space at the bottom of wp-comments-post.php has per [this post](http://www.techpavan.com/2008/12/17/blank-page-comment-submit-wordpress/)
   to no avail.
 * 7) I tried replacing my comments.php with [this one](http://www.christianmontoya.com/2006/10/15/full-featured-commentsphp-template-for-wordpress/)
   as well as with the comments.php included with the two default themes. Nada.
 * 8) I also tried making a completely separate, fresh install and dropping in the
   theme I had developed. Fail to the power of 8.
 * So. Where should I go next? Any thoughts? No idea is too hair-brained or outrageous
   for me to consider.

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 19 total)

1 [2](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/another-blank-wp-comments-postphp-problem/page/2/?output_format=md)
[→](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/another-blank-wp-comments-postphp-problem/page/2/?output_format=md)

 *  Thread Starter [vaguely_clear](https://wordpress.org/support/users/vaguely_clear/)
 * (@vaguely_clear)
 * [16 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/another-blank-wp-comments-postphp-problem/#post-1339627)
 * Oh dear, I’m afraid I scared everyone off.
 * There are two of us working on this site at the moment. Combined we’ve spent 
   many hours googling for a solution. My compatriot and I are getting a bit discouraged,
   it seems like we tried everything known to fix the issue. Any thoughts? Anybody?
   I really don’t want to be left with just disabling comments forever.
 *  Thread Starter [vaguely_clear](https://wordpress.org/support/users/vaguely_clear/)
 * (@vaguely_clear)
 * [16 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/another-blank-wp-comments-postphp-problem/#post-1339691)
 * So I ran a page with comments through the validator:
 * [W3C Validator](http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gutenbergday.org%2Fblog_0101%2F%3Fp%3D1&charset=%28detect+automatically%29&doctype=Inline&group=0)
 * But I can’t figure out what the output means. It would seem that I have a character
   that is causing problems. Is there any chance this could be the cause of my commenting
   problems?
 *  [Mark / t31os](https://wordpress.org/support/users/t31os_/)
 * (@t31os_)
 * [16 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/another-blank-wp-comments-postphp-problem/#post-1339692)
 * Does your single.php include the comments file (as a PHP include) by any chance?
 *  Thread Starter [vaguely_clear](https://wordpress.org/support/users/vaguely_clear/)
 * (@vaguely_clear)
 * [16 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/another-blank-wp-comments-postphp-problem/#post-1339697)
 * I can’t see anything that is explicitly an include, like `<?php include(); ?>`
   or something like that. There is this line:
 * `<?php comments_template('', true); ?>`
 * Does that do the same thing? I apologize, I’ve gathered a pretty good grasp of
   CSS but PHP is still beyond me. Would it be helpful for me to post the whole 
   single.php file?
 *  [Mark / t31os](https://wordpress.org/support/users/t31os_/)
 * (@t31os_)
 * [16 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/another-blank-wp-comments-postphp-problem/#post-1339699)
 * Some older themes use to display that problem, and they were using include instead
   of `comments_template` .. it’s why i asked..
 * It’s quite evident the problem is with the theme, and if no amount of tickering
   with comments.php has proved useful (and replacing it didn’t help), then perhaps
   there’s something in the functions file that deals with comments..
 * Can you pop it open and have a look.. (functions.php of your theme, assuming 
   there is one)..
 *  [Robert Chapin](https://wordpress.org/support/users/miqrogroove/)
 * (@miqrogroove)
 * [16 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/another-blank-wp-comments-postphp-problem/#post-1339705)
 * There’s a lot of nonsense in the page source at the URL provided. Problem seems
   pretty obvious, there’s no value in comment_post_ID.
 * You need to delete any code you obtained in step 5, put in the code from step
   2, and if you got it right, you’ll be a mile closer to where you want to be.
 * If you’ve already triple-checked that the code from step 2 is present and valid,
   then your theme is actually screwing up that particular function call, probably
   by modifying the $id variable, failing to call the_post(), or some other silly
   thing like that.
 *  Thread Starter [vaguely_clear](https://wordpress.org/support/users/vaguely_clear/)
 * (@vaguely_clear)
 * [16 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/another-blank-wp-comments-postphp-problem/#post-1339709)
 * Thanks all for the help, I really appreciate it.
 * I’m quite certain that the code in step two is present. From step five, the code
   in my file is identical to what wordpress suggests. I did try the two alternatives
   from this step but I reverted when the did not work. Regardless, I will check
   both again in the morning just in case.
 * From reading both of your posts together, I have a feeling I will find a problem
   in functions.php. Admittedly, I know there is a good amount of code provided 
   by the tutorial that I will not employ, and I know that is not really a good 
   practice when it comes to coding anything. When I feel more secure about how 
   all the PHP works I might go through and try to clean it up.
 * Maybe searching for `$id` will highlight the problem? I’ll post what I find.
 * Thanks again!
 *  Thread Starter [vaguely_clear](https://wordpress.org/support/users/vaguely_clear/)
 * (@vaguely_clear)
 * [16 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/another-blank-wp-comments-postphp-problem/#post-1339722)
 * Checked items 2 and 5 again, they seem to be correct. I could not see anything
   in functions.php that looked like it was modifying `$id`, but I probably wouldn’t
   know it if I saw it. If you have the time, the functions.php from the tutorial
   is available on [Google code](http://code.google.com/p/your-wordpress-theme/source/browse/trunk/functions.php).
   As far as I can tell mine is identical.
 * [@miqrogroove](https://wordpress.org/support/users/miqrogroove/), you say that
   my theme might be failing to call `the_post()`. Where do you think I would find
   that? I searched comments.php for “the_post” and it returned nothing. Maybe it
   needs to be in there somewhere?
 *  [Robert Chapin](https://wordpress.org/support/users/miqrogroove/)
 * (@miqrogroove)
 * [16 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/another-blank-wp-comments-postphp-problem/#post-1339725)
 * That functions.php file looks fine. The problem is either in single.php, header.
   php, or one of your plugins.
 *  [Mark / t31os](https://wordpress.org/support/users/t31os_/)
 * (@t31os_)
 * [16 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/another-blank-wp-comments-postphp-problem/#post-1339727)
 * As miqrogroove said earlier, there’s no value for comment_post_ID , on top of
   that you’ve duplicated it to, it’s twice in the source when viewing your page..
 * Here’s the code from your source.
 *     ```
       <input name="comment_post_ID" value="" id="comment_post_ID" type="hidden">
       ```
   
 * Looking over your opening thread i can see you’ve altered this line to attempt
   to fix the initial problem.. (and duplicated it in the process)
 * Can you change this back to read..
 *     ```
       <input type="hidden" name="comment_post_ID" value="<?php echo $id; ?>" />
       ```
   
 * Then load the page, and see if the output is given an ID correctly..
 * If that doesn’t help, as mg said above it could be the header, comment out the
   get_header() line in single.php, test the page, see if that helps (don’t worry
   that the layout goes messed up, it’s simply a test, you can change it back after).
 *  Thread Starter [vaguely_clear](https://wordpress.org/support/users/vaguely_clear/)
 * (@vaguely_clear)
 * [16 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/another-blank-wp-comments-postphp-problem/#post-1339737)
 * 1) No plug-ins running. There are a few installed, like Akismet, but none are
   activated.
 * 2) I couldn’t find this line anywhere in comments.php:
    `<input name="comment_post_ID"
   value="" id="comment_post_ID" type="hidden">`
 * but I see that it is indeed showing up in the generated page source. Where else
   might this code be coming from?
 * 3) I tried removing the header and the footer individually, neither made a difference.
   I also tried removing both at the same time but to no avail.
 * I’m curious, is there something specific you are looking for that tells you there’s
   no value for `comment_post_ID`? Or is the blank page the indicator?
 * After trying this many different things, I’m starting to fear that the problem
   is a missing semicolon somewhere or something like that. :\ Is there anything
   left I can try?
 * By the way, I made a dumb mistake a bit ago and messed up my original install,
   so here is a [fresh new install](http://www.gutenbergday.org/testblog/?p=1) with
   my theme dropped in.
 *  [Mark / t31os](https://wordpress.org/support/users/t31os_/)
 * (@t31os_)
 * [16 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/another-blank-wp-comments-postphp-problem/#post-1339739)
 * This bit indicates it’s missing a value..
 *     ```
       value=""
       ```
   
 * That should look something like..
 *     ```
       value="64"
       ```
   
 * … or whatever it need be …
 * I assumed it’s comments.php, because that i have the same code.
 * Do you want me to take a look at it? .. under a temporary login..
 *  Thread Starter [vaguely_clear](https://wordpress.org/support/users/vaguely_clear/)
 * (@vaguely_clear)
 * [16 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/another-blank-wp-comments-postphp-problem/#post-1339740)
 * Well, I went looking for a private message service here on the forums so I could
   send you a temporary log-in but I see that none is present. Instead, here is 
   a .zip archive of my theme: [IanTest1.1](http://dl.dropbox.com/u/293302/iantest1.1.zip)
 * Was there something in the Control panel that you wanted to check out?
 *  [Robert Chapin](https://wordpress.org/support/users/miqrogroove/)
 * (@miqrogroove)
 * [16 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/another-blank-wp-comments-postphp-problem/#post-1339741)
 * Thanks for the zip, now we don’t have to play guessing games 🙂
 *  [Robert Chapin](https://wordpress.org/support/users/miqrogroove/)
 * (@miqrogroove)
 * [16 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/another-blank-wp-comments-postphp-problem/#post-1339742)
 * Now, please read very carefully.
 * In single.php, the function call named the_post() is missing. That call is literally
   the first part of “The Loop” in WordPress. Until that gets fixed all this other
   stuff will be broken.

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 19 total)

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 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 19 replies
 * 3 participants
 * Last reply from: [Mark / t31os](https://wordpress.org/support/users/t31os_/)
 * Last activity: [16 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/another-blank-wp-comments-postphp-problem/page/2/#post-1339775)
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