clean up form data in submit handler, not hook_nodeapi -- produces PHP Fatal Error

It helps if you repeat the problem here:

Drupal 6.13, Image 6.x-1.0-beta3

When attempting an import (that had worked flawlessly before) I get the following error on my server:

PHP Fatal error: Cannot unset string offsets in /var/www/html/sites/all/modules/image/contrib/image_attach/image_attach.module on line 343, referer: http://x.x.x.x/?q=admin/content/node_import/41

Can you confirm your line 343 is this:

      // Unsetting the "- None -" entry from the form select entries
      unset($node->iids[0]);

If so, I'm sure there are better places for this than hook_nodeapi -- it's dealing with a quirk of the form, whereas hook_nodeapi is meant to be general. We should move it to a submit handler perhaps?

On the other hand, apparently
"PHP 5 seems to have an error where it tries to treat strings as arrays instead of highlighting the error"
did you run update.php after upgrading to the latest image module?

Does commenting out that line fix the problem?

Thanks for confirming.
Better title.

Please could you test this patch?

You'll need either a clean copy of beta3 or the dev release to apply it to.

This patch also needs to be tested for regular use of image attach: creating and editing nodes normally, without node_import.

The drupal docs have a section on running a test server locally. This is a good idea to have in general, and is a lot easier to set up than it used to be: basically, xampp on Windows and mamp on a mac.

I recommend this for cloning your live site to your dev server: http://drupal.org/project/backup_migrate -- does it in about three clicks; an absolute breeze.

Subscribing

Hi I've tested the above patch on a production server and it seems not to fix the issue.

before

Tue Oct 20 14:09:37 2009] [error] [client 192.168.1.1] PHP Fatal error: Cannot unset string offsets in foobar/drupal-6.14/sites/all/modules/image/contrib/image_attach/image_attach.module on line 343

after

[Tue Oct 20 14:55:09 2009] [error] [client 192.168.1.1] PHP Fatal error: Cannot unset string offsets in foobar/drupal-6.14/sites/all/modules/image/contrib/image_attach/image_attach.module on line 332

So I'm left with a commented out version which does work.

Gah, what is node_import doing???
If it's triggering the form submit handler, then surely it's using the form in some way and so the values should be there.

What version of node_import are you using?
And could you post a sample node that causes this problem so I can try the import myself?

I can tell - with confidence - that node_import really is a mess. Hence, with a chance of 99% this bug is caused by node_import and the code in there needs to be fixed instead.

I was having the same problem with node_import and image_attach. I just added the conditional to test if that exists. Works great now. No more error.

I changed the following in /sites/all/modules/image/contrib/image_attach.module

(Image Module version 6.x-1.0-beta5)

Starting Line 396

/**
 * Extra submit handler for node forms.
 */
function image_attach_node_form_submit(&$form, &$form_state) {
  // Clear the 0 key in the iids array that arises from selecting the 'None' 
  // option. We do this here so image_attach_nodeapi() gets clean data.
    unset($form_state['values']['iids'][0]);
 }

To

/**
 * Extra submit handler for node forms.
 */
function image_attach_node_form_submit(&$form, &$form_state) {
  // Clear the 0 key in the iids array that arises from selecting the 'None' 
  // option. We do this here so image_attach_nodeapi() gets clean data.
  if ($form_state['values']['iids'][0]) {
    unset($form_state['values']['iids'][0]);
  }
}

I'm not going to make that changed because node_import should be calling node_save, not pretending to submit the form. That cleaning up of the 0 key has already been moved from the save hook to the form submit, which is where it belongs.

I didn't like having to make the change either, but I do like that node_import is finally working. I kept getting the PHP fatal error of this file at line 402.

Do you see a problem going with the change?

Node import should be Doing the Right Thing and either not pretending to submit a form, or pretending to submit it properly!

You can request to take over a project that's been abandoned -- there's a page all about it in the handbooks :)

I just ran into this same issue, but I don't have node_import on this site.

It happened when a user tried to edit a forum post. Edit as admin didn't triger the problem.

I applied the fix in 18 and now things are working.

Any ideas on how to track down what other module is not playing well with others?

> Any ideas on how to track down what other module is not playing well with others?

Try it on a fresh site and then add modules. Or disable modules on your current site.

I can't tell any more -- did the patch above go in or not?

No sign of 589428 in the codebase.

@jriedel : do your users have the permission to attach images themselves?

@joachim

I put that change in #18 and that fixed the issue. Yes, my users can attach images.

Hello,
I have the same error "Fatal error: Cannot unset string offsets in /udata/WWW/test_zoi.utia.cas.cz/sites/all/modules/image/contrib/image_attach/image_attach.module on line 343".
Module Image Import is not enabled.
I got this error while tried to create a node programmatically. Node can have image attached, but i'm attaching none.
I tried to use patch, but in my file image_attach.module is not function image_attach_node_form_submit present.
My file version is image_attach.module,v 1.66 2009/09/08.
My user have permition to attach images.
Thanks for help.

Could you give more detail about how you're trying to create a node programmatically?

Here is code, for testing i run it from body of node:

     <?php
        $form_state = array();
        module_load_include('inc', 'node', 'node.pages');  
        $nodeTmp = array('type' => 'clovek'); 
       
        $form_state['values']['type'] = 'clovek'; 
        $form_state['values']['status'] = '1'; 
        $form_state['values']['title'] = "title"; 
        $form_state['values']['body'] = "body";
        $form_state['values']['name'] = 'username'; 
        $form_state['values']['op'] = t('Save');  

        // CCK fields and taxonomy 
        $form_state['values']['taxonomy'][1][0] = '5';
        $form_state['values']['field_foto_verejna']['value'] = "Ano";
        $form_state['values']['field_seznam']['value'] = "Ano";
        $form_state['values']['field_doktorand']['value'] = "Ne";
        $form_state['values']['field_aktivn']['value'] = "Ano";
        $form_state['values']['field_vedecky_pracovnik']['value'] = "Ano";
        $form_state['values']['field_oddlen']['value'][0] = "ZOI";
          
        $errs = drupal_execute('clovek_node_form', $form_state, (object) $nodeTmp);
        
        if (count($errs)) {
          echo "Person has NOT been created";
        }
        else{
          echo "Person has been created. Hurej!!!";
        }
    ?>

Yeah, that's wrong. Don't pretend to be a form -- or if you must, put in the values that the code expects; in other words, the ['iids'] key.

Better still, build your node object and do node_save().

Thank you for your quick response and advise :-)
i was trying to use node_save

<?php
$node = array(
  'title' => $title,
  'uid' => $uid,
  'body' => $body,
  'promote' => 0,
);

if ($node = node_submit($node)) {
  node_save($node);
}
?>

but i found somewhere here http://drupal.org/node/178506 , it is working only for drupal 5 (it work fine for 5, but not for 6)
and i use drupal 6 example from same site.
Do you have another example for drupal 6 I can use?

My solution is to add

$form_state['values']['iids'] = array();

Thanks again for help!

+1 for the fix in #18. Here it is in patch format.

#35: image-n589428-35.patch queued for re-testing.

Could someone please just commit the patch from #35 so this bug is fixed? The error is still happening in v6.x-1.1.

I need to look into this more, but my gut feeling is that it's Node Import's problem.

@joachim: Whatever the root problem, it should not be trying to unset a variable if it doesn't exist.

@DamienMcKenna: The variable does exist. And unsetting a non-existing array key also does not trigger a fatal error.

The fatal error is caused by Node Import passing a completely invalid variable having a different data type (not an array).

Is there a patch for Node Import already? I have commit access.

In my case I'm not using node_import, I'm making the following adjustment via hook_form_alter() based on certain conditions (only show the fields if the date on a CCK Date field has already elapsed):

$form['image_attach']['#access'] = FALSE;

With this line in place, when image_attach_node_form_submit() executes the $form['values']['iids'] value shows up as a string - I don't know why it becomes a string, that's just what it ends up as.

Also seeing this "cannot unset string offsets" error - this is on a live site and currently I can't debug it easily but Node Import is not installed.

Updating the title.

I've marked #1871218: Cannot unset string offsets in image_attach.module on line 457 as a duplicate of this.

I've also rerolled patch in #35 to use the new git patch format (#35 still applies, but there was also a 60 line offset that is now fixed).

Committed. Thanks everyone!

I'm going to check a few other patches needing review and then make a release soon.