Bug #821

Assignment to $this

Details

Submitted	2004-02-21 21:03 UTC
From	pear-qa at lists dot php dot net
Assigned	tuupola
Status	Wont fix
Package	Image_Remote
PHP Version	5.0.0b4 (beta4)
OS	Irrelevant
Roadmaps	(Not assigned)

Comments

[2004-02-21 21:03 UTC] pear-qa at lists dot php dot net

Description:
------------
## from the PEAR QA team ##
## quality-assurance related ##
## PHP 5 compatibility issue ##

Dear package maintainer,

your package makes use of the assignement of new values to $this. This methodis possible in PHP 4 but will throw an error with PHP 5 [1]. Please take care of this issue forPHP5 compatibility reasons.

Please answer to this bugreport directly through the PEAR bug tracker or the mailinglist pear-qa@lists.php.net .

With kind regards,
PEAR QA Team

[1] http://www.php.net/ChangeLog-5.php#5.0.0b4

Reproduce code:
---------------
Affected are constructs like:

FILE: '/php/pear/Image_Remote/Remote.php' :
/php/pear/Image_Remote/Remote.php(197): $this = new PEAR_Error($this->errstr);

Expected result:
----------------
The assignment to $this occurs mostly inside constructors (<Your_Package_Name>()). You should provide an static factory() or singleton() method for this.

To provide backwards compatibility you should work around the affected code pieces. This can be done by a version check:

if (version_compare(phpversion(), "5.0.0") == -1) {
// assign factoried method to this for PHP 4
// $this =& <Your_Package_Name>::factory();
$this =& <Your_Package_Name>::singleton();
} else {
// error handling for PHP5
// user has to use the factory()/singleton() method
}