[FX.php List] PHP Notices OK?

[Andrew Denman]

When distributing your solutions I would definitely work to avoid all error
and notice messages, as your client may not be able to change those settings
on the web server they are using.  As mentioned before, there are some
admins that just won't change their PHP settings for various reasons.  It is
not that difficult to avoid them once you see what the causes are and start
programming to avoid them from the start.  Also, as PHP versions get
upgraded it appears they are becoming more strict on how
clean/exact/explicit the code is.

Alternatively, you could use the error_reporting() function at the top of
all your pages:
http://us.php.net/manual/en/function.error-reporting.php

Andrew Denman

-----Original Message-----
From: fx.php_list-bounces at mail.iviking.org
[mailto:fx.php_list-bounces at mail.iviking.org] On Behalf Of Jonathan Schwartz
Sent: Wednesday, December 12, 2007 11:38 AM
To: Roger Price; FX.php Discussion List
Subject: Re: [FX.php List] PHP Notices OK?

Roger,

Thanks for the perspective.

Here's why I am asking the question today.  I just provided a modest 
solution to a third party, instructing him to turn off Notices to 
stop the reporting.  I'm just trying to figure out if making that 
request is a reasonable and/or professional request or, it's like 
turning the lights down real low in a restaurant with dirty 
silverware. ;-)

If there is any question, I will take the code back and work thru the 
error corrections.

So what's the vote tally now?   Only ggt says its OK?


Jonathan



At 5:07 PM +0000 12/12/07, Roger Price wrote:
>Jonathan
>
>I fell 'foul' of undefined variable notices a few weeks ago when I 
>was given a right earhole bashing by my University hostmaster.
>
>PHP takes these in its stride but the reporting feature was switched 
>on. I use many include files (some nested and on evey page), so 
>adding another include file called 'define.php', which check every 
>variable that appears in the log and if undefined sets it to zero or 
>null - whatever is appropriate. This does not appear to degrade the 
>performance of the pages too much and keeps the hostmaster happy. 
>However given the choice I would just turn 'notices' off but that is 
>not an option for me!
>
>Roger
>
>
>----- Original Message ----- From: "Jonathan Schwartz"
<jschwartz at exit445.com>
>To: "FX.php Discussion List" <fx.php_list at mail.iviking.org>
>Sent: Wednesday, December 12, 2007 4:39 PM
>Subject: RE: [FX.php List] PHP Notices OK?
>
>>OK. That's fair.
>>
>>To be honest, I never knew about these things since I have 
>>developed on my own server and Notices are turned off....until now. 
>>;-)
>>
>>One step further...my notices appear to be of the Undefined 
>>Variable type. I did see your suggestion from last week, to add in 
>>if(isset($variable)) rather than "surprise" PHP when an undeclared 
>>variable appears.  Is another alternative to simply declare the 
>>variable at the top of he page? If so, how is that best done?
>>
>>Thx
>>
>>Jonathan
>>
>>At 4:15 PM +0000 12/12/07, Steve Winter wrote:
>>>Hi Jonathan,
>>>
>>>Well I guess that one is rather 'up to the conscience of the individual
>>>church goer' ;-)
>>>
>>>For me, personally, no, it's not acceptable, as it means that something
>>>isn't 100% correct, which means you can't be 100% sure that when it runs
on
>>>a client server, or you move it from one server to another, that it will
>>>still behave correctly...
>>>
>>>My staging server has every level of error reporting possible turned on,
and
>>>when that gives no messages, notices, errors, or unexpected twitches,
then I
>>>feel reasonably sure that my code will run at the very least, on similar
>>>versions of PHP, if not on all...
>>>
>>>My 2p worth...
>>>
>>>Cheers
>>>Steve
>>>
>>>-----Original Message-----
>>>From: fx.php_list-bounces at mail.iviking.org
>>>[mailto:fx.php_list-bounces at mail.iviking.org] On Behalf Of Jonathan
Schwartz
>>>Sent: 12 December 2007 16:05
>>>To: FX.php Discussion List
>>>Subject: [FX.php List] PHP Notices OK?
>>>
>>>Hi Folks,
>>>
>>>Is it acceptable for a solution to produce NOTICES (for undefined
>>>variables) and then essentially hide them by turning off
>>>error_reporting NOTICES?
>>>
>>>Or at minimum, should the solution run clean without notices?
>>>
>>>
>>>Thx
>>>--
>>>Jonathan Schwartz
>>>Exit 445 Group
>>>jonathan at exit445.com
>>>http://www.exit445.com
>>>415-381-1852
>>>_______________________________________________
>>>FX.php_List mailing list
>>>FX.php_List at mail.iviking.org
>>>http://www.iviking.org/mailman/listinfo/fx.php_list
>>>
>>>
>>>_______________________________________________
>>>FX.php_List mailing list
>>>FX.php_List at mail.iviking.org
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>>
>>
>>--
>>Jonathan Schwartz
>>Exit 445 Group
>>jonathan at exit445.com
>>http://www.exit445.com
>>415-381-1852
>>_______________________________________________
>>FX.php_List mailing list
>>FX.php_List at mail.iviking.org
>>http://www.iviking.org/mailman/listinfo/fx.php_list
>>
>
>_______________________________________________
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-- 
Jonathan Schwartz
Exit 445 Group
jonathan at exit445.com
http://www.exit445.com
415-381-1852
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