webform has some functions that take &$node as a by-reference argument. This is bad for two reasons:
- $node is an object. No need to pass it as a reference. It can even have undesired side effects to do so.
- The respective functions are called from form.inc, via call_user_func_array(). Typically, the arguments given to the call_user_func_array in form.inc are not by-reference. This makes a warning message in PHP 5.3.

PHP 5.3 is a bitch, but in this case, it's only logical to fix the respective functions.
Fixing the functions is easy, just remove the "&" in the argument list.

Functions that need to be fixed:
- webform_components_form($form_state, &$node)
- webform_client_form($form_state, &$node, $submission, $enabled = FALSE, $preview = FALSE)
- maybe others, I don't know.

Comments

donquixote’s picture

donquixote commented

EDIT:
At the time I created this issue I didn't know much about PHP 4. Fact is, PHP 4 needs objects passed explicitly by reference. or otherwise it will clone the object.
The issue needs to be taken care of, but it's not that simple.

drasgardian’s picture

drasgardian commented
Title: PHP 5.3 warning messages in webform » webform: by-reference arguments cause PHP 5.3 warning messages
Issue tags: +PHP 5.3, +call by reference

I ran into this issue using the latest stable release (6.x-2.7) and php 5.3.

Corrected by removing the "&" from the arguments lists of
webform_client_form($form_state, &$node, $submission, $enabled = FALSE, $preview = FALSE)
and
webform_component_edit_form($form_state, &$node, $component, $clone = FALSE)

I didn't need to change webform_components_form($form_state, &$node) - I guess the "&" must have been added to that in 6.x-3.x-dev

emscene’s picture

emscene commented

Thanks this worked for me. I had downgraded the php already to 5.2.8, but I have Drupal 6.14, maybe that was giving me trouble.

The webform_client_form($form_state, &$node, $submission, $enabled = FALSE, $preview = FALSE) you can find in modules/webform/webform.module

and webform_component_edit_form($form_state, &$node, $component, $clone = FALSE) you can find in modules/webform/webform_components.inc

berdir’s picture

berdir
Primary language German
Location Switzerland
commented

The correct way to fix these messages while keeping PHP 4 compatibility is to change the caller of those functions.

This is possible by telling call_user_func_array() which params are by-reference by assigning them with a & to the passed array. See http://api.drupal.org/api/function/drupal_execute/6 for an example (the line "$args[1] = &$form_state;").

quicksketch’s picture

quicksketch
he/him
commented
Status: Active » Fixed

Just a note that these problems have already been fixed in #588234: Webform causes error in PHP 5.3. We did not need $node to be passed in by reference in either situation, since we were not modifying it.

Status: Fixed » Closed (fixed)
Issue tags: -PHP 5.3, -call by reference

Automatically closed -- issue fixed for 2 weeks with no activity.

Issue tags: +PHP 5.3, +call by reference

Restoring issue tags, see #2125755: System messages removed all issue tags during D7 upgrade.