Recent changes to bug-reports

#2985 Place Entry - causes non-fatal crash in the edit box

Gerry Kroll — Fri, 08 May 2026 18:05:45 -0000

The description in the PHP8 manual of the json_decode function says that NULL is returned when the function fails or when the input string is not valid JSON.

So, the absolutely correct code at line 542 should be

        if (!is_null($places)) {

#2985 Place Entry - causes non-fatal crash in the edit box

Gerry Kroll — Thu, 07 May 2026 23:53:56 -0000

Try replacing line 542 of autocomplete.php with this:

    if (is_array($places["geonames"])) {

Let me know by e-mail to gkroll (at) keldine (dot) ca whether this works. PHP 8 definitely does NOT like NULL!!!

#2985 Place Entry - causes non-fatal crash in the edit box

David Smart — Thu, 07 May 2026 23:31:15 -0000

I should have mentioned, typing on thru the error works, and then it will accept what you put in there. So, it seems be just the autocomplete when it doesn't match any existing pattern.

Place Entry - causes non-fatal crash in the edit box

David Smart — Thu, 07 May 2026 21:32:17 -0000

While entering a birthplace, I started typing a name that was not in the location db, and the autocomplete_PLAC returned an error and stack dump - as shown in the attached picture and as listed here:

<br />ERROR 2: Trying to access array offset on null<br />
0 Error occurred on line <b>543</b> of file <b>autocomplete.php</b> in function <b>autocomplete_PLAC</b><br />
1 called from line <b>92</b> of file <b>autocomplete.php</b><br />

Warning: Trying to access array offset on null in /volume1/web/gen/autocomplete.php on line 543

Call Stack:
    0.0000     368592   1. {main}() /volume1/web/gen/autocomplete.php:0
    0.0093     774784   2. autocomplete_PLAC($FILTER = 'ZQ', $OPTION = NULL) /volume1/web/gen/autocomplete.php:92

I reproduced it by just typing a few letters that don't match anything and pulled the text from the browser debug | network panel.

        case 'PLAC':
92  $data=autocomplete_PLAC($FILTER, $OPTION);
            break;

and

              $places = json_decode($json, true);
543  if ($places["geonames"]) {
                   foreach ($places["geonames"] as $k => $place) {

I'm on Revision 7382, which appears to be the latest.

#2984 Incompatible with PHP 8

Andrew Gallagher — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 12:02:27 -0000

The snapshot build works, thanks!

#2984 Incompatible with PHP 8

Gerry Kroll — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 11:41:53 -0000

status: open --> closed-fixed
assigned_to: Gerry Kroll
Group: v4.3.0 --> v4.3.1

#2984 Incompatible with PHP 8

Gerry Kroll — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 11:40:11 -0000

This is a known issue with the old version of PhpGedView.

You need to download and install the latest version of PhpGedView from the SVN repository:
https://sourceforge.net/p/phpgedview/svn/HEAD/tree/trunk/phpGedView/
click on "download snapshot".

You will receive a ZIP copy of the program, version SVN 7382 that will work with all versions of PHP from 5.2 right up to 8.4

I just haven't had the time or inclination to update the "official" download link. It's a lot of work. Besides that, there are more impovements in the works.

Incompatible with PHP 8

Andrew Gallagher — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 10:47:41 -0000

"Prior to PHP 8.0.0, square brackets and curly braces could be used interchangeably for accessing array elements (e.g. $array[42] and $array{42} would both do the same thing in the example above). The curly brace syntax was deprecated as of PHP 7.4.0 and no longer supported as of PHP 8.0.0."

https://www.php.net/manual/en/language.types.array.php

Curly bracket syntax is used everywhere in the code.

Incompatible with PHP 8

Andrew Gallagher — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 10:47:41 -0000

Ticket 2984 has been modified: Incompatible with PHP 8
Edited By: Gerry Kroll (canajun2eh)
Status updated: 'open' => 'closed-fixed'
_milestone updated: 'v4.3.0' => 'v4.3.1'
Owner updated: None => 'canajun2eh'

#2983 svn-r7381 on PHP8.3 deprecations

Gerry Kroll — Fri, 14 Nov 2025 13:33:10 -0000

status: open --> closed-fixed