germ

So you're developing your site and you make a few changes and suddenly this error crops up:

Fatal error: Cannot redeclare balh-blah-blah (previously declared in /www/path/to/your/file/filename.php on line xxx)

The keyword in the error is "redeclare".

This means the site is parsing the file more than once. In PHP certain items can only be "defined" once (functions and classes for example). If the file they are in is parsed by the PHP processor more than once you'll probably end up with a "Cannot redeclare ...." error.

Here's how to find out where the file is getting parsed.

To show how this works and how to use it I purposely introduced a "Cannot redeclare ...." error on my WAMP server.

Here's my error:

Quote

So I look at the error and it tells me what file the error is IN:

Quote

So I go to \includes\classes\osc_template.php and I look at the code.

Every osC file has the GNU General Public License declaration at the top of the file, it looks about like this:

/*
  $Id$

  osCommerce, Open Source E-Commerce Solutions
  http://www.oscommerce.com

  Copyright (c) 2010 osCommerce

  Released under the GNU General Public License
*/

So I take the code below and place it just AFTER that code but BEFORE all the other code in the file:

//* * * * start of backtrace debug code * * *
  $dbt = debug_backtrace();
  echo "<div><br>= = = = = = = = Backtrace = = = = = = = =<br>\n";
  for ( $d_b_t = 0 ; $d_b_t < count($dbt) ; $d_b_t++ ) {
    if ( $d_b_t == 0 ) 
      echo basename( __FILE__ ) . ' is referenced in ';
    else {
      echo $dbt[$d_b_t - 1]['file'] . ' is referenced in ';
    }
    if ( isset( $dbt[$d_b_t]['file'] ) ) {
      echo $dbt[$d_b_t]['file'] . ' on line ';
    }
    if ( isset( $dbt[$d_b_t]['line'] ) ) {
      echo $dbt[$d_b_t]['line'] . ' in a "';
    }
    if ( isset( $dbt[$d_b_t]['function'] ) ) {
      echo $dbt[$d_b_t]['function'] . '"<br>' . "\n";
    }
  }
  echo "<br>= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =<br>\n</div>";
//* * * * end of backtrace debug code * * *

Now I access the site with my browser.

The output looks something like this:

Quote

Just above the "Cannot redeclare ..." error, in the first line of the backtrace is where I find where it is getting parsed more than once.

In my case:

Quote

That is exactly where I put the code below to purposely cause the error:

  require(DIR_WS_CLASSES . 'osc_template.php');

So I go to \includes\footer.php and I remove or "comment out" the offending code.

Then I access the site with my browser again to be certain the error is resolved.

When I'm sure the error is gone I remove the backtrace debug code.

"Headers already sent" help contribution

This contribution allows you to set days and times your store is "open" and "closed".

If your store is not "open" it prevents customers from checking out.

Coded for 2.3.1 but easily adapted to 2.2 versions.

Link to contribution forthcoming.

If you post in this thread and get no response in a reasonable amount of time (say 24 hours), PM me.

---

Contribution link: Store Open/Closed