installation errors when PHP warnings enabled

[betagirl]

Hello -

I am working with a developer to customize a Pligg installation for us. He is not familiar with Pligg and prior to giving a quote, has done a test install of his own. After following the installation instructions to the letter (he has the proper permissions set on the necessary dirs; he is running PHP 5.0.2) he gets copious errors and warnings. He wonders if this signals some loose coding of Pligg, or if there is something else at play here. I do not know what to tell him and haven't the time to investigate (I successfully did a test install of my own, albeit without warnings enabled). He is skeptical of using the platform given the errors he is seeing.

So, if someone could review the info below, and if you can take a look at the screenshots he's sent in the attached zip file, I would appreciate it. I need this installed on a large site, with a large and active community and would prefer to not have to go back to the drawing board and find another solution or a custom solution. Pligg looks great and serves 90% of our needs. Any help is appreciated.

Thanks so much!

------------ info from developer ---------
I attempted a fresh install, and followed the directions to the letter
(along with setting the appropriate permissions for each folder /
file). After proceeding to the login page, I already get one warning
(see "Picture 2.png"):
Notice: Undefined variable: errors in
/Library/WebServer/Documents/pligg/install/install1.php on line 25

Then after installing the database has completed I'm presented with the
following warnings (see "Picture 3.png):
Notice: Undefined variable: errors in
/Library/WebServer/Documents/pligg/install/install2.php on line 38

Notice: Undefined variable: output in
/Library/WebServer/Documents/pligg/install/install2.php on line 39

Along with this message:
There were no errors, continue onto the next step...

That message is pretty funny: of course there were no errors... the
"errors" index wasn't even set :)
Clicking the next button brings up two more warnings (see "Picture
4.png"):

Notice: Undefined variable: errors in
/Library/WebServer/Documents/pligg/install/install3.php on line 13
Notice: Undefined variable: errors in
/Library/WebServer/Documents/pligg/install/install3.php on line 51

After proceeding to the login area, I'm presented with 5 notices (see
"Picture 5.png" and "Picture 6.png"):
<br /><b>Notice</b>: Undefined index: login_username in
<b>/Library/WebServer/Documents/pligg/class.template.php(674) :
eval()'d code</b> on line <b>15</b><br />
<br /><b>Notice</b>: Undefined index: login_username in
<b>/Library/WebServer/Documents/pligg/class.template.php(674) :
eval()'d code</b> on line <b>37</b><br />
Notice: Undefined index: request_category in
/Library/WebServer/Documents/pligg/class.template.php(674) : eval()'d
code on line 37
Notice: Undefined index: request_category in
/Library/WebServer/Documents/pligg/class.template.php(674) : eval()'d
code on line 37
Notice: Undefined index: enable_tags in
/Library/WebServer/Documents/pligg/class.template.php(674) : eval()'d
code on line 37

After logging in, I'm presented with 10 more warnings.

I agree that it seems a bit odd that the programming would be this bad.
After briefly searching through the pligg forums it seems that others
have faced the same situations. Quite a number of people who reply to
the problem claim they don't have the problems themselves, and state
that they're using XAMMP. This isn't that surprising to hear as XAMMP
doesn't have warnings enabled by default (at least in my experience
with it).

The warnings certainly aren't crippling... the platform will still
work, however it's pretty horrible coding. That being said, there may
be something I'm missing?
I have PHP 5.0.2 running and followed exactly what the instructions
say. Any ideas?
--------- end info from developer -----------------

[kbeeveer46]

When you get those errors it's because error reporting is on too high. If you notice, they aren't errors, but notices. Since you did not see the notices your error reporting is on a different level than the developers. We are trying to fix as many of them as we can over time but the easiest thing to do is configure the error reporting.

[jitgos]

KB is right. I was just working on these the other day and fixed a couple very small ones. Most are just notices and nothing to worry about, but it would be good to be 100% "strict" compliant so we'll continue to chip away at them.

Just change the reporting level in php.ini to get rid if the notices for now.

[viulian]

I can't change my php.ini so I had to manually patch two files:

Smarty.class.php
libs/utils.php

I have added these two lines at the beginning, after the comments:

# disable notices
error_reporting(E_ERROR | E_WARNING | E_PARSE);

I have also noticed that if you do not add them as soon as possible, html pages containing the warnings need to be refreshed, otherwise they are served from a cache and still containing the Notify messages even if the php code is updated.

[phpbbx]

i have exactly the same problem !!