Upgrading from Alpha versions renders empty page

The following issue: #1060320: Make Zones Renderable Arrays marks minor changes in page.tpl.php that require you edit your subtheme. (this edit IS required for the alpha > beta switch.

The following issue: #1060338: Omega > HTML5 marks how to update any custom templates you have in your subtheme to HMTL5 (which omega now fully supports)

Assuming you've made a new subtheme for your site called MYTHEME... you need to go into your sites/all/MYTHEME/templates folder

Edit page.tpl.php
It should look as follows:

<div id="page" class="clearfix">
  <?php if (isset($page['zones_above'])): ?>
  <div id="zones-above" class="clearfix"><?php print render($page['zones_above']); ?></div>
  <?php endif; ?>
  <div id="zones-content" class="clearfix">
    <?php if (isset($action_links)): ?>
      <div id="actions-container" class="container-<?php print $default_container_width; ?> clearfix">
        <div class="grid-<?php print $default_container_width; ?>">
          <ul class="action-links">
            <?php print render($action_links); ?>
          </ul>
        </div>
      </div>
    <?php endif; ?>
    <?php if (isset($messages)): ?>
    <div id="message-container" class="container-<?php print $default_container_width; ?> clearfix">
      <div class="grid-<?php print $default_container_width; ?>">
        <?php print $messages; ?>
      </div>
    </div><!-- /.container-xx -->
    <?php endif; ?>
    <?php if (isset($page['content_zone'])): ?>
      <?php print render($page['content_zone']); ?>
    <?php endif; ?>
  </div>
  
  <?php if (isset($page['zones_below'])): ?>
  <div id="zones-below" class="clearfix"><?php print render($page['zones_below']); ?></div>
  <?php endif; ?>
</div><!-- /#page -->

Notice the relevant changes which are changing the following:

$zones_above becomes $page['zones_above']
$content_zone becomes $page['content_zone']
$zones_below becomes $page['zones_below']

In the cases where the zones are printing.... they have changed from:

print $zones_above;

To

print render($page['zones_above']);

If you have not changed your page.tpl.php in your custom subtheme, you can simply paste the above code into your subtheme's page.tpl.php

I apologize that this needs to be changed, and YES does break sites until a few minor edits are made. This was required for the alpha > beta switch for flexibility moving forward, and will not need to be changed again. The Beta release(s) mark an API "freeze" where no structural changes will require any edits to templates to continue to function.

I'm changing the title of this so that others may find it easier, as you aren't the only one that will/has experienced this.

@Viking217

The best practice (with base themes like omega) is to make a copy of the starterkit, and rename items. There is info in the README.txt of Omega, and in the starterkit folder that describe the process... there are a few items to edit in your copy of the subtheme so that there are no naming conflicts... and your subtheme should be outside the main Omega folder... so if you have sites/all/themes/omega, your copy of the starterkit should go in sites/all/themes/YOURTHEME..

If you upgrade to Beta3 (latest download) everything should work...

One issue everyone keeps having (and not just with Omega) is using the automated update in Drupal.

It will mess up the folder structure.... so it is best to remove the omega directory in sites/all/themes and replace it completely with the new version...

This core bug is the culprit: http://drupal.org/node/986616 sometimes of some issues which will make omega buggy after an update because it will download omega to the wrong location and you will end up with a folder omega/omega/omega, containing 2 versions of the base theme.

Changing this title as it would also affect users going from Alpha > Stable as well.

The notice it returned in my case was:

Notice: Undefined variable: content_zone in include() (line 36 of /var/www/vhosts/domain.be/httpdocs/sites/all/themes/themename/templates/page.tpl.php).

Applying the code modification in #3 and clearing the cache afterward works indeed. Thanks.