Getting warning "Creating default object from empty value when enabling extended profiles"

[clamoreaux]

I originally posted this here: http://buddypress.org/support/topic/creating-default-object-from-empty-value-when-enabling-extended-profiles/ but decided it may be a bug.

I am getting this warning on the member’s pages when I enable extended profiles:

Warning: Creating default object from empty value in C:\Users\C\Documents\Websites\findreelconnections.dev\wp-content\plugins\buddypress\bp-members\bp-members-template.php on line 662

I am using WordPress 3.8 and BuddyPress 1.9.1 with a custom theme. I don’t recall seeing this error before I updated both WP and BP. Any ideas what is going on and how to fix this?

[DJPaul]

Hi clamoreaux,

I can't recreate this, which suggests the problem is in the interaction with your theme. Which theme are you using? One you built, or something you downloaded?

[walbo]

I also get this warning when I use bp_member_profile_data( 'field=About Me' );

[M-BP]

Dear all

I would like to confirm walbo's comment.

In the template ...buddypress\members\single\member-header.php starting on line 49 it is possible to print xProfile field data (e.g. bp_member_profile_data( 'field=About Me' ); ). Doing so always results in the above mentioned warning (has also been the case in older versions of BP).
This issue seems to be independent of the theme. I have tried it with multiple themes (incl. Twenty Fourteen and calling the field via the bp-legacy templates) and always received back the same warning.

[boonebgorges]

Yes, I can see how this would happen if you were using this function outside of a bp_has_members() loop. If we're going to support this use (and it seems like we are, since we accept a 'user_id' param), then we should fix the reported issue. Probably the easiest is just to do the $members_template->member->profile_data setting only if isset( $members_template->member ); there's no need to cast it as new stdClass and then set this global if we're outside a loop (and in fact it could potentially cause problems).

[M-BP]

@boonebgorges

I have tried to implement a solution based on your comment above. Tried multiple codes in..\buddypress\bp-members\bp-members-template.php on lines 660-667 (error gets caused by line 662 of that file) but to no avail. I managed to make the error disappear but then it was not possible to retrieve the field value anymore either.

Do you have a fix ready in mind? Or some more details that could point me into the right direction?

Thanks a lot for your help.

P.S. I didn't dare to change the priority but for me this is important. I think printing some values of profile fields in member-header is likely to be a pretty common request and makes sense to do.
Version: 1.9.2

[boonebgorges]

I think printing some values of profile fields in member-header is likely to be a pretty common request and makes sense to do.

If you're seeing notices show up on the front end of your public site, you should turn down the PHP error reporting level on your site.

This will be fixed for the 2.0 release.

[templaries]

Is there any temporal solution for this?

I added bp_has_members() before bp_member_profile_data() to fill the global variable "$members_template".

bp_has_members();
bp_member_profile_data('field=MY EXTENDED FIELD');

But this is still showing the warning message

I've used this for temporal solution:

$profile_data = BP_XProfile_ProfileData::get_all_for_user( bp_displayed_user_id() );
$field = "MY FIELD";
$data = xprofile_format_profile_field( $profile_data[$field]['field_type'], $profile_data[$field]['field_data'] );

[boonebgorges]

We will fix this one way or another for 2.0.

In the meantime, it's a harmless warning. If it's displaying to your users, then you should turn down error reporting on your public site. Put the following in wp-config.php:

error_reporting( 0 );
@ini_set( 'display_errors', 0 );

[boonebgorges]

In 8081:

Improve variable naming in bp_get_member_profile_data()

The overuse of the $user_id variable, combined with the ill-advised use of
explode(), was resulting in situations where it was impossible to pass a custom
value of $user_id to the function.

See #5334

[boonebgorges]

In 8082:

Improve behavior or bp_member_profile_data() when used outside of members loop

Our documentation suggests the use of bp_member_profile_data() to pull up
miscellaneous pieces of user profile data anywhere in a template. Technically,
this works, but the internals of the function made a few assumptions that it
would only be used in the context of a bp_has_members() loop. This would result
in needless PHP notices when using the function outside of a loop context.

This changeset introduces checks to ensure that the $members_template global
is only manipulated if it exists, making the function safe to use anywhere.

Fixes #5334