[5.0] Deprecated message: libraries/src/HTML/Helpers/Select.php

[Ruud68]

Steps to reproduce the issue

create a filter field like below that will NOT return a (in this case) item:

		<field
			name="created_by"
			type="sql"
			sql_select="a.id, a.created_by, u.id, u.name AS name"
			sql_from="#__example_clickedlinks AS a"
			sql_join="#__users AS u ON a.created_by = u.id"
			sql_group="a.created_by"
			sql_order="u.name ASC"
			key_field="created_by"
			value_field="name"
			onchange="this.form.submit();"
			>
			<option value="">COM_EXAMPLE_CLICKEDBY_FILTER</option>
		</field>

Expected result

empty filter without errors

Actual result

Deprecated: trim(): Passing null to parameter # 1 ($string) of type string is deprecated in /var/www/html/test/50/libraries/src/HTML/Helpers/Select.php on line 388
and
Deprecated: explode(): Passing null to parameter #2 ($string) of type string is deprecated in /var/www/html/test/50/libraries/src/HTML/Helpers/Select.php on line 557

Additional comments

change line 388 in libraries/src/HTML/Helpers/Select.php from:

$obj->{$options['option.text']} = trim($text) ? $text : $value;

to

$obj->{$options['option.text']} = trim((string) $text) ? $text : $value;

change line 557 in libraries/src/HTML/Helpers/Select.php from:

$splitText = explode(' - ', $text, 2)

to

$splitText = explode(' - ', (string) $text, 2)

[Ruud68]

more examples: https://issues.joomla.org/tracker/joomla-cms/41803#event-756087

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_{This comment was created with the J!Tracker Application at issues.joomla.org/tracker/joomla-cms/41783.}

[brianteeman]

Unable to replicate with php 8.1.10

perhaps this has been solved elsewhere?

[Quy]

Closing as non-reproducible.

[Ruud68]

Code has not been changed (as debugged above where the root cause is).
so here you go again with php 8.2.15 in this case

[Quy]

Please advise exact steps in which file as I cannot reproduce it. Which Joomla version? Thanks.

[Ruud68]

Latest Joomla 5 version.

I have done a root cause analysis and proposed a fix when you do a code review for this it should be clear:

Trim requires a string as input.
The result of the sql field is mixed: string when a value is goud or null when there is no value found. The null (empty sql result) is then passed to the trim function that will then throw this error.

No need to replicate

Question here is how do we handle 'user' input?
In this case we trust the sql field to always return a value.... Which it doesn't

So we either force the input to be a string via casting (that is what I did in proposed solution), or do not accept other value then strings.

There are more places where these situations can occur in core code: assumptions being made of the received input being correct

I have already linked to an example in previous comment.

[alikon]

unable to replicate
this query have 0 results

<field
    name="created_by"
    type="sql"
    sql_select="a.id, a.created_by, u.id, u.name AS name"
    sql_from="#__content AS a"
    sql_join="#__users AS u ON a.created_by = u.id"
    sql_where="u.id = 0"
    sql_order="u.name ASC"
    key_field="created_by"
    value_field="name"
    onchange="this.form.submit();"
    >
    <option value="">COM_EXAMPLE_CLICKEDBY_FILTER</option>
</field>

[Fedik]

@alikon it is PHP issue, when there is a call of select.option with null instead of expected string, like:

HTMLHelper::_('select.option', 'foobar', null);

Not that it is correct call, but it is what it is

[Ruud68]

Did some more debugging, issue arises when SQL field holds value NULL.

in administrator/components/com_content/forms/filter_articles.xml

add the following filter field:

<field
    name="created_by"
    type="sql"
    sql_select="a.id, a.created_by, u.id, u.lastResetTime AS name"
    sql_from="#__content AS a"
    sql_join="#__users AS u ON a.created_by = u.id"
    sql_where="u.id != 0"
    sql_order="u.name ASC"
    key_field="created_by"
    value_field="name"
    onchange="this.form.submit();"
    >
			<option value="">COM_OCHCLICKTHIS_CLICKEDLINKS_LINK_FILTER</option>
</field>