taxonomy_term_page() - Error: Creating default object from empty value taxonomy.pages.inc [#996124]

Over the past few days, completely unrelated to the taxonomy module, I have been trying to eliminate a nasty and elusive bug in a contributed module. In doing so -- for the first time in an age -- I resorted to tracing all PHP errors, warnings and notices into a log file. After accumulating trace messages for several hours on a production website, much to my surprise I learned that there were periodic entries related to the file taxonomy.pages.inc. The repeated messages read as follows:

E_STRICT: Creating default object from empty value in `modules/taxonomy/taxonomy.pages.inc':34
$current->tid = $tids[0];

In reviewing the code for taxonomy.pages.inc, it appears that somehow the query of line 20 is returning zero resulting terms and hence $tids[0] and $names[0] remain unset. I am unsure how in that event the code then enters the if block 'if ($names)' around line 27. [Perhaps the test should be 'if (!empty($names))'?]

I did not log any of the parameters in the calls to taxonomy_term_page(). Hence, I cannot recreate the condition(s) under which this log message is thrown. However, in looking at other log files, I am wondering if somehow a tid value of zero is being passed in.

For the moment, I have resolved this issue on my local copy of taxonomy.pages.inc by enclosing the entire breadcrumb creation code around line 34 in an 'if (isset($tids[0]))' block. Perhaps better programmers might have a better solution? This edge case probably needs to be addressed in core as well.

Let me know if you have any questions. Cheers!

Comment	File	Size	Author
#10	taxonomy.pages_.inc_.patch	708 bytes	petyovsky
#8	taxonomy.pages_.inc_.patch	526 bytes	petyovsky
#3	taxanomy.pages_.inc_.patch	583 bytes	RStrydom

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Comments

Comment #1

Lars Toomre CreditAttribution: Lars Toomre commented 12 December 2010 at 14:40

Whoops... I meant to say enclosed in 'if (!empty($tids[0]))' block. The isset() condition was falling through the condition and the NOTICE E_STRICT was still thrown.

Comment #2

TimmyT CreditAttribution: TimmyT commented 17 January 2013 at 16:24

Title:	Reference to undefined $tids[0] variable	» create default object from empty value
Version:	6.13	» 6.27
Assigned:	Unassigned	» TimmyT
Priority:	Minor	» Major

follow this post: http://drupal.org/node/1724096

Comment #3

RStrydom CreditAttribution: RStrydom commented 13 June 2013 at 09:58

Status:

Active

» Needs review

File	Size
taxanomy.pages_.inc_.patch	583 bytes

I had the same problem when I upgraded to php 5.4

The Fix on https://drupal.org/node/1724096 worked for me.

I have rolled it into a patch

Comment #4

zionduc CreditAttribution: zionduc commented 27 August 2013 at 14:25

Version:	6.27	» 6.28
Status:	Needs review	» Reviewed & tested by the community

Thank you for the patch file!
I'v tried it with drupal 6.28, and this patch fixes the problem for me.

Comment #5

rbosscher CreditAttribution: rbosscher commented 4 February 2014 at 10:01

I've tried it with drupal 6.30, and also this patch fixes the problem.

Comment #6

riteshsarraf CreditAttribution: riteshsarraf commented 15 February 2014 at 12:24

Issue summary:

View changes

3 years and no release. Also no comment whether it will have a release. As much as I hate to hand modify source files, I guess I don't have a choice here.

Comment #7

4 March 2014 at 07:41

Status:

Reviewed & tested by the community

» Needs work

The last submitted patch, 3: taxanomy.pages_.inc_.patch, failed testing.

Comment #8

petyovsky CreditAttribution: petyovsky commented 11 August 2014 at 12:32

Version:

6.28

» 6.33

File	Size
taxonomy.pages_.inc_.patch	526 bytes

Hi.

After upgrading to newest PHP (v5.5) a found a lot of same error messages:

Creating default object from empty value in `modules/taxonomy/taxonomy.pages.inc':34

everytime when someone filter content of nodes by taxonomy module.

I tried locate where is a problem and prepared some patch by the D7's taxonomy module.

Affected file is:
modules/taxonomy/taxonomy.pages.inc.

Please maintainer apply this patch to the future releases of D6. Its a nasty bug. :-)

Thanks,
Peter

Comment #9

VM CreditAttribution: VM commented 12 August 2014 at 23:32

Version:

6.33

» 6.x-dev

This would need to be rolled against -dev.
The patch as it currently stands fails testing.

also of note: from https://www.drupal.org/requirements

Drupal 6: PHP 5.2.x only. Warning: support for PHP 4.x has been dropped. PHP 5.3 and later may produce errors or unexpected behaviour.

Considering the sun is setting on D6, I'm not sure how much work would go into testing D6 on newer versions of PHP.

Comment #10

petyovsky CreditAttribution: petyovsky commented 15 August 2014 at 13:33

File	Size
taxonomy.pages_.inc_.patch	708 bytes

Hi.

Ok no problem. I prepared new patch (but have absolutely same content) against 6.x-dev.
Please see attachments.

I know that sun setting down on the D6, but there is absolutely no reason why don't accept patch that fix
someone PHP bad programmers practice.

Please read and consider applying of this patch again.
Thanks,
Peter.

Comment #11

jwilson3

English

Ecuador

CreditAttribution: jwilson3 commented 29 October 2014 at 19:38

Status:

Needs work

» Reviewed & tested by the community

#10 RTBC. Thank you @petyovsky.

Comment #12

29 October 2014 at 19:40

The last submitted patch, 8: taxonomy.pages_.inc_.patch, failed testing.

Comment #13

10 November 2014 at 16:09

ajayg queued 10: taxonomy.pages_.inc_.patch for re-testing.

Comment #14

JamesK CreditAttribution: JamesK commented 20 November 2014 at 22:10

Looks good, thanks @petyovsky

Comment #15

joachim CreditAttribution: joachim commented 24 February 2015 at 13:46

Issue tags:

+Quick fix

Works for me too.

Tagging as Quick fix as this may help get attention from a core committer.

Comment #16

steinmb CreditAttribution: steinmb as a volunteer commented 6 June 2015 at 12:31

Title:	create default object from empty value	» taxonomy_term_page() - Error: Creating default object from empty value taxonomy.pages.inc
Assigned:	TimmyT	» Unassigned

Tested on 5.5.23.

RTBC from me too. This should also be safe on 5.1.x and 5.2.x -versions of PHP.

Comment #17

Michelle

she/her

English

Wisconsin, USA

CreditAttribution: Michelle at Mediacurrent commented 19 June 2015 at 18:10

Issue tags:

+PHP 5.3

Tagging so it shows up in the list of PHP upgrade issues.

Comment #18

Anybody

German

Porta Westfalica

CreditAttribution: Anybody as a volunteer and commented 2 December 2015 at 12:39

Has this patch ever been applied? It should be ...

Comment #19

Michelle

she/her

English

Wisconsin, USA

CreditAttribution: Michelle at Mediacurrent commented 2 December 2015 at 14:08

@Anybody: If you mean committed, no. It's still at RTBC which means the community thinks it is ready but it still needs a core committer to look at it and commit. Given that 6.x is EOL soon, I doubt it will ever happen.

Comment #20

2 March 2016 at 22:18

Status:

Reviewed & tested by the community

» Closed (outdated)

Automatically closed because Drupal 6 is no longer supported. If the issue verifiably applies to later versions, please reopen with details and update the version.

Comment #21

izmeez CreditAttribution: izmeez commented 16 December 2018 at 17:04

Project:	Drupal core	» Drupal 6 Long Term Support
Version:	6.x-dev	»
Component:	taxonomy.module	» Code
Status:	Closed (outdated)	» Reviewed & tested by the community
Issue tags:	-PHP 5.3	+PHP 5.4

The patch in #10 still applies to D6.46 without problems but does not appear to be needed with php 7.2 but may be needed for backward compatibility to earlier versions of php 5.4+ and since it was RTBC I am changing it back to that but wonder if it should be Closed as fixed.