Enabling Logging

When something isn't working right with your galleries, the next step is checking for errors behind the scenes. Sunshine Photo Cart has built-in tools that make this straightforward — no file editing required.

Enabling PHP Error Logging

PHP errors like warnings, notices, and fatal errors often point to the root cause of a problem. Sunshine can capture these for you automatically.

1. Go to Sunshine > Settings > General > Data & Logging.
2. Check the box labeled Enable PHP error logging.
3. Save your settings.

Once enabled, two buttons appear on the settings page:

• Download error log — saves the log file so you can review it or send it to support.
• Clear error log — empties the log so you can start fresh.

The log file is stored securely and can only be accessed through these buttons. There's no need to dig through your server files.

Disable this when you're done troubleshooting. You don't want error logging running all the time on a live site.

Enabling Sunshine Activity Logging

Separate from PHP errors, Sunshine has its own logging system that tracks what the plugin is doing. This includes things like items added to favorites, data sent to payment gateways, order processing steps, and more.

1. Go to Sunshine > Settings > General > Data & Logging.
2. Check the box labeled Enable logging.
3. Save your settings.

The same download and clear buttons appear for this log as well. When we're helping you troubleshoot, we may ask you to enable both this and PHP error logging so we can see the full picture.

Disable this when you're done troubleshooting.

Advanced: WordPress Debug Logging

In most cases, the built-in options above are all you need. But if another plugin's support team asks you to enable WordPress debug logging, or you need to capture errors from across your entire site, you can enable it manually.

Using FTP or your web host's file manager, find your wp-config.php file and add the following:

define( 'WP_DEBUG', true );
define( 'WP_DEBUG_LOG', true );
define( 'WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', false );

Learn how to add this custom code to your WordPress website

This writes all PHP errors to a file at wp-content/debug.log. Some hosts restrict access to this file, so you may need to use FTP or your host's file manager to view it.

For Sunshine-specific issues, the built-in PHP error logging option above is the easier approach.