Connections » PHP

ERROR: The $_SESSION save path does not exist.

Steven Zahm — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:31:24 +0000

A small percentage of users have been receiving this error. This error is caused because the host server is not configured correctly to use php sessions. I find this odd because in my fairly limited experience many web based applications absolutely require the php sessions. Since WordPress does not use php sessions I decided to rework the plug-in to remove it’s use. So if you are one of the few receiving this error, please download and install this version. Do keep in mind this version is under development an may contain bugs.

http://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/connections.zip

If you do not want to use a development version see this FAQ for some possible solutions to fix this error.

http://connections-pro.com/?page_id=58#15

PHP References

Steven Zahm — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 16:44:07 +0000

I’m not quite sure how to use PHP references yet or why would one want to use them. They are declared by using the ampersand character (&). Here’s the PHP Manual link.

I’ve come across reference usage in a few WordPress plug-ins and even use it mine. This I kind of understand. The reference was being set on the $this variable within an object like so &$this. What this is doing is setting up a reference to the current object so you will be using the current object rather than creating a new instance of the object. So far I’ve only seen this used in the function parameter of a WordPress function within an object. Here’s an example using the activation hook:

register_activation_hook( dirname(__FILE__) . ‘/connections.php’, array(&$this, ‘activate’) );

The second parameter is normally where you would set the function name as a string to call when the plug-in is activated. If I understand correctly, since my plug-in is an object I’m setting up a reference to my plug-in and the function to call within the array. If anyone can clear this up for me it’d be very appreciated.

PHP Error Suppression

Steven Zahm — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 15:49:48 +0000

When I first started coding PHP (a mere 9 months ago) I came across the @ character preceding an expression. My Google skills are pretty good but I couldn’t find what this meant and why it might have been used. I guess I couldn’t find my answer because I wasn’t sure what question to ask. So if this helps anyone here’s a link to the PHP manual explaining the operator for error suppression.

NOTE: In my opinion this should be avoided.