Magento 1.9 blank search page: Fatal error with getEntityTablePrefix() in EAV: Attribute/Abstract.php

Question

Search results page on magento showing up blank. HTML ends here:

Fatal error: Call to undefined method Mage_Catalog_Model_Resource_Product_Flat::getEntityTablePrefix() in /home/mysite/public_html/app/code/core/Mage/Eav/Model/Entity/Attribute/Abstract.php on line 510

The line in question is in the magento core files which was probably changed by a bad extension. I have recently tried out a couple of plugins to help with bundle items. I added them manually but they didnt work. Now this happens, I try to remove them manually but it doesnt seem to help. Here's the offending section in Abstract.php - what should it look like?

 /**
     * Get attribute backend table name
     *
     * @return string
     */
    public function getBackendTable()
    {
        if ($this->_dataTable === null) {
            if ($this->isStatic()) {
                $this->_dataTable = $this->getEntityType()->getValueTablePrefix();
            } else {
                $backendTable = trim($this->_getData('backend_table'));
                if (empty($backendTable)) {
                    $entityTable  = array($this->getEntity()->getEntityTablePrefix(), $this->getBackendType());
                    $backendTable = $this->getResource()->getTable($entityTable);
                }
                $this->_dataTable = $backendTable;
            }
        }
        return $this->_dataTable;
    }

This is the offending line:

if (empty($backendTable)) {
                    $entityTable  = array($this->getEntity()->getEntityTablePrefix(), $this->getBackendType());

EDIT: I ran a debug as outlined by the below answer and just got this back:

Fatal error: Class 'Mage_Core_Model_Abstract' not found in .../Abstract.php on line 36

Answer 1

Please try to put this code just before the offending call:

if(!is_callable(array($this->getEntity()),'getEntityTablePrefix'))
{
    mageDebugBacktrace();
    //debug_print_backtrace();
    exit;
}

will print out a call-stack that should point the offending code.

It seems that you have an extension and/or customization done that assumes you're not using the flat catalog data tables and wasn't coded to work with the flat table.

Note: Do not make changes in the core files (in your case, app/code/core/Mage/Eav/Model/Entity/Attribute/Abstract.php). For debugging, you can copy files from core codepool to local and customise.

Answer 2

Got help from someone on fiverr.com - he fixed it.

It looks like one of the modules you tried may have switched the catalog from EAV to flat data which is why you were getting the EAV error. By switching to not use flat data in System->Configuration->Catalog->Frontend the search is now working.