How to prevent displaying errors when calling a PHP function

Question

I'm working on a WordPress plugin that returns the follower count for a specific Forrest user.

Would like the function to gracefully return 0 if there was an error communicating with the API server or any other problems.

Here is the function:

/**
 * Get Forrst followers.
 *
 * @param string $forrstID The username of the Forrst member
 * @return int. Number of Forrst Followers
 */
function ass_get_forrst($forrstID) {
    $json = wp_remote_get("http://forrst.com/api/v2/users/info?username=".$forrstID);

    if(is_wp_error($json))
        return false;

    $forrstData = json_decode($json['body'], true);

    return intval($forrstData['resp']['followers']);
}

I have a block in the function to return false if there was an error however it seems that this section must be skipped as sometime I still end up with "Fatal Errors" IE Maximum execution time exceeded.

Is there a better way I could rewrite this function to return "0" if there was an error. Maybe a Try/Catch block?

Do I have the if(is_wp_error($json)) return false; in the wrong section of the function?

Yes, correct. If there is an error communicating with the server for instance a fatal error will be returned instead of just returning. — Jason
– Jason, Commented Nov 22, 2012 at 19:29

Saic Siquot · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-22 20:07:29Z

1

I do not know about wordpress model, but sounds like one of the two functions that you are using is throwing an exception. In this case only a Try/Catch block can smoothly return a cero as you want

what if(is_wp_error($json)) is checking (I guess) is over some "know" set of errors previously detected by wordpress.

you function with a "generic" try/catch block:

function ass_get_forrst($forrstID) {
    try {
        $json = wp_remote_get("http://forrst.com/api/v2/users/info?username=".$forrstID);

        if(is_wp_error($json))
            return false;

        $forrstData = json_decode($json['body'], true);

        return intval($forrstData['resp']['followers']);
    } catch (Exception $e) {
            return false;      // as above

    }
}

edited Nov 22, 2012 at 20:07

answered Nov 22, 2012 at 19:48

Saic Siquot

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1 Comment

Jason Over a year ago

Thanks Luis, I will try this method.

score 1 · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-22 19:54:05Z

1

Register a shutdown function:

function returnzero() {
        $error = error_get_last();
        if($error &&  ['type'] == E_ERROR){
            echo 0;
        }
    }
register_shutdown_function('returnzero');

Note that you might want to turn off error reporting on this page, using something like:

error_reporting(E_ALL & ~ E_ERROR);

edited Nov 22, 2012 at 19:54

answered Nov 22, 2012 at 19:43

user1726343

3 Comments

Jason Over a year ago

Thanks Asad, do I need to call this function from within the above function or will it be called by WP?

user1726343 Over a year ago

@Jason Just add it to the end of the php script that is supposed to return a zero instead of an error.

Saic Siquot Over a year ago

sorry but, the callback function that is executed with register_shutdown_function CAN'T return to the normal execution flow, so the execution will END even in this case. Is true that it will echo 0; // or whatever but the rest of wordpress run will be lost.

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