[FIXED] How to not call a function statically in php?

Issue

I am using pear to send mail in PHP. I've followed the example that is on here (http://pear.php.net/manual/en/package.mail.mail.send.php). However, I am getting this error message.

Strict Standards: Non-static method Mail::factory() should not be called statically in C:\xampp\htdocs\functions.php on line 43

So I've been trying to get this Strict Standards message to not show up.

This is my code:

$smtpinfo["host"] = "********";
$smtpinfo["port"] = "587"; 
$smtpinfo["auth"] = true; 
$smtpinfo["username"] = $mail_username; 
$smtpinfo["password"] = $mail_password; 

## This line below is causing the problem ## 
$mail =& Mail::factory("smtp", $smtpinfo);  // <-- Line 43

I've read many Stack Overflow Q&A that say just add a @ to the beginning of $mail. And it is true, it makes the error disappear, but I feel like that just hides the error, and doesn't actually solve the problem.

@$mail =& Mail::factory("smtp", $smtpinfo); 

How do I not call the method above as statically?

Even the documentation on this page (http://pear.php.net/manual/en/package.mail.mail.send.php), says This function cannot be called statically.... but the example they gave is the same way I am calling the method?!

Please don't answer just add @ in front to remove the strict standard or E_ALL & ~E_STRICT ... that is not a solution!

Solution

If you take a look at the PEAR Mail class, you can see that there are a few instances of it calling methods statically when the methods are not declared as static.

Change line 74 of Mail.php from:

function &factory($driver, $params = array())

to:

static function &factory($driver, $params = array())

The other less desirable alternative would be to modify your php.ini configuration to disregard the E_STRICT warnings, but I believe fixing the cause of the error message is better than hiding it.

Answered By - Amal Murali

Answer Checked By - Pedro (PHPFixing Volunteer)