Editing the lib.php file in Moodle

Editing the lib.php file is one possible work around for resolving an issue with a Moodle installation completed through Fantastico in cPanel. Once the installation is complete and an administrator logs into Moodle, a blank white screen appears instead of the expected administration error. This error, caused by a PHP version mismatch can be resolved through either editing the lib.php file or manually installing an older version of Moodle that doesn't require PHP 5.3.

Before making changes, making a full backup is highly recommended.

Fortunately, editing the lib.php file can easily be done through the cPanel File Manager and we'll walk you through it:

1. Log into cPanel.
2. Click on "File Manager" and navigate to the question/engine subfolder inside your Moodle installation (i.e. public_html/question/engine, /public_html/moodle/question/engine or something similar depending on where you installed Moodle).
3. Select the lib.php, right click it and choose "Code Editor" to open the file for editing.
4. Find the following lines of code:

public static function get_behaviour_required_behaviours($behaviour) {
$class = 'qbehaviour_' . $behaviour;
return $class::get_required_behaviours();
}

5. Replace:

return $class::get_required_behaviours();

With:

eval('$ret = ' . $class . '::get_required_behaviours();');
return $ret;

6. The function should now look like this:

public static function get_behaviour_required_behaviours($behaviour) {
$class = 'qbehaviour_' . $behaviour;
eval('$ret = ' . $class . '::get_required_behaviours();');
return $ret;
}

7. Click the "Save Changes" button in the upper right of the window.

Now, when we go back to our site where Moodle is installed we can log in and see the Moodle administration area.