In my daily support of mojoPortal on the mojoPortal Forums, I see a lot of people asking for help with the standard mojoPortal error message that is displayed to users.
We're sorry but a server error has occurred while trying to process your request.
The error has been logged and will be reviewed by our staff as soon as possible. It is possible that the error was just a momentary hiccup and you may wish to use the back button and try again or go back to the home page.
This error message is intentionally vague to prevent those who would do your site harm from gaining important information about your site.
Many first-time adopters of mojoPortal and even some that have been around a while, don't realize that when this error message is displayed, the actual error is written to a log file within the mojoPortal installation. One can easily read the log by browsing to the Administration Menu and selecting the "System Log" option. If the error is not allowing access to that page, the log file can be found in the \Data directory, named currentLog.config. This log contains all of the warning and critical errors mojoPortal encounters. Keep in mind that the .config extension prevents the log from being downloaded by would-be attackers.
So, if you encounter the extremely generic message above, check out the \Data\currentLog.config file for the real error. Also, if you are working with your site skin's layout.master file and things go awry where everything is miss-placed or even a weird skin is shown instead of your own, check out the System Log... chances are you will find a hint as to the cause of the problem.
Need more information on the logs and troubleshooting? Check out the "Basic Troubleshooting" guide on the mojoPortal site.
Happy mojo-ing!
Joe D.
mojoPortal Community Manager