Upgrading to PHP 5

New E_STRICT Error Setting

PHP 5’s new E_STRICT error setting issues a warning when you use deprecated features. Specifically, it complains when you:

• Create objects without a class definition

• Use a constructor named after the class instead of _ _construct( )

• Use var instead of public

• Use is_a( ) instead of instanceof

• Copy an object instead of making a reference (requires zend.ze1_compatibility_mode to be On)

• Statically invoke a nonstatic method

• Refine the prototype of an inherited method other than _ _construct( )

• Return a nonvariable by reference

• Assign the object returned by new by reference

All of these features work in PHP 5, but you should slowly modify your code to stop using them. Here are a few examples:

• This code automagically creates $person as an object without a class definition:

  $person->name = 'Rasmus Lerdorf';
  PHP Strict Standards:  Creating default object from empty value

• This Person class uses var instead of public (or, even better, private). It also defines two constructors:

  class Person {
      var $name;
      
      function _ _construct($name) {
          $this->name = $name;
      }
  
      function Person($name) {
          $this->name = $name;   
      }
  }
  PHP Strict Standards:  var: Deprecated. Please use the public/private/protected modifiers
                    PHP Strict Standards:  Redefining already defined constructor for class Person

E_STRICT is not enabled by default, nor is it part of E_ALL. To enable it, set your error_reporting configuration directive to E_ALL | E_STRICT. Setting E_STRICT within a PHP script using error_reporting( ...