spotweb: Fatal error: Uncaught Error: [] operator not supported for strings in PHP 7.1.0

Updated my system to PHP 7.1.0 and got this after a git pull to have most recent code:

[danny@server03 spotweb]$ php retrieve.php
Removing Spot information which is beyond retention period,, done
Last retrieve at Sun 04 Dec 2016 11:12:16 PM UTC
Retrieving new Spots from server xxxxxxxxxxx...
Appr. Message count:    2969126
First message number:   2
Last message number:    2969128
Current article number: 2968442

Retrieving 2968442 till 2969129PHP Fatal error:  Uncaught Error: [] operator not supported for strings in /home/danny/public_html/spotweb/lib/services/Format/Services_Format_Parsing.php:140
Stack trace:
#0 /home/danny/public_html/spotweb/lib/services/Retriever/Services_Retriever_Spots.php(492): Services_Format_Parsing->parseFull('<Spotnet><Posti...')
#1 /home/danny/public_html/spotweb/lib/services/Retriever/Services_Retriever_Base.php(227): Services_Retriever_Spots->process(Array, '2968442', 2969129, 1481079369.404)
#2 /home/danny/public_html/spotweb/lib/services/Retriever/Services_Retriever_Base.php(319): Services_Retriever_Base->loopTillEnd(2969129, '5000')
#3 /home/danny/public_html/spotweb/retrieve.php(145): Services_Retriever_Base->perform()
#4 {main}
  thrown in /home/danny/public_html/spotweb/lib/services/Format/Services_Format_Parsing.php on line 140
[danny@server03 spotweb]$

[danny@server03 spotweb]$ php -v
PHP 7.1.0 (cli) (built: Dec  1 2016 08:23:35) ( NTS )
Copyright (c) 1997-2016 The PHP Group
Zend Engine v3.1.0-dev, Copyright (c) 1998-2016 Zend Technologies
    with Zend OPcache v7.1.0, Copyright (c) 1999-2016, by Zend Technologies
[danny@server03 spotweb]$

About this issue

Original URL
State: closed
Created 8 years ago
Comments: 33 (16 by maintainers)

Links to this issue

wordpress - Errors with UwAmp PHP 7 - Stack Overflow

Commits related to this issue

Fix for: Github #243 Uncaught Error: [] operator not supported for strings — committed to spotweb/spotweb by deleted user 8 years ago
Merge pull request #245 from spotweb/hotfix/php71-support Fix for array issue in #243 — committed to spotweb/spotweb by GeoffreyDijkstra 8 years ago

Most upvoted comments

It is PHP Design. Changed in PHP 7.1.0:

The empty index operator (e.g. $str[] = $x) is not supported for strings
anymore, and throws a fatal error instead of silently converting to array.

So that means that you need to say that it is an array $myString = array(); Prior to PHP 7.1.0 , PHP converted a [] to array() silently, and now not anymore.

The GUI is showed in browser without new spots. Dont know if there are more places in the code with this kind of error.

dterweij on Dec 7, 2016

@mesa57 It’s not an issue with [] we can still use that, but you have to initialize it now. So: $var1[] = $x results in error when not initialized. $var1 = []; $var1[] = $x does not 😄 It seems they become a little more strict.

GeoffreyDijkstra on Dec 8, 2016