Problem Summary:

I am using firePHP to analyze my variables in a custom function, but it does not display their contents into the console as I would expect. I also used var_dump(), it returns NULL.

Problem Details:

I am using firePHP exactly as described by @brasofilo as seen on . It is normally very helpful, but I am confused why sometimes I cannot see contents of my variables in the console.

Here is a specific example, this is in page-sr2.php:

<?php get_header(); ?>
    <div id="main">
        <div id="primary">
            <div id="content" role="main">
                <?php while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); ?>
                    <?php get_template_part( 'content', 'page' ); ?>
                    <?php get_template_part('nav_menu', 'explore');?>

                <?php logit( $wp_query, '$wp_query:' ); ?> /*Logit function from @brasofilo*/
                <?php logit( $variable, '$variable: '); ?>
                <?php var_dump($variable); ?>/* This outputs NULL on the page*/
                <?php endwhile; // end of the loop. ?>

            </div><!-- #content -->
            <?php// get_sidebar(); ?>
            <div class="clear"></div>

        </div><!-- #primary -->

    </div>


<?php get_footer(); ?>

</div>

In functions.php I am using a custom pre_get_posts action:

add_action('pre_get_posts', 'page_sr2_pgp');

function page_sr2_pgp( $query )
{

    if( is_page('sr2') ){
        return $query;
    }

    //global $variable;   //tried this, didn't help
    $variable ="something";
    logit( $variable, '$variable: '); 

    if( isset($_GET['yr']) )
    {

        $query->set('meta_key', 'yr');
        $query->set('meta_value', $_GET['year']);

    }   

    // always return
    return $query;

}

The result is that logit() works for $wp_query, but not for $variable.

Note: Yes I am calling logit( $variable, '$variable: '); in both page-sr2.php and in the function page_sr2_pgp inside of functions.php. I am doing that because I don't know which location is correct, and I didn't believe it would cause a problem.

Problem Summary:

I am using firePHP to analyze my variables in a custom function, but it does not display their contents into the console as I would expect. I also used var_dump(), it returns NULL.

Problem Details:

I am using firePHP exactly as described by @brasofilo as seen on https://wordpress.stackexchange/a/71599/41479 . It is normally very helpful, but I am confused why sometimes I cannot see contents of my variables in the console.

Here is a specific example, this is in page-sr2.php:

<?php get_header(); ?>
    <div id="main">
        <div id="primary">
            <div id="content" role="main">
                <?php while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); ?>
                    <?php get_template_part( 'content', 'page' ); ?>
                    <?php get_template_part('nav_menu', 'explore');?>

                <?php logit( $wp_query, '$wp_query:' ); ?> /*Logit function from @brasofilo*/
                <?php logit( $variable, '$variable: '); ?>
                <?php var_dump($variable); ?>/* This outputs NULL on the page*/
                <?php endwhile; // end of the loop. ?>

            </div><!-- #content -->
            <?php// get_sidebar(); ?>
            <div class="clear"></div>

        </div><!-- #primary -->

    </div>


<?php get_footer(); ?>

</div>

In functions.php I am using a custom pre_get_posts action:

add_action('pre_get_posts', 'page_sr2_pgp');

function page_sr2_pgp( $query )
{

    if( is_page('sr2') ){
        return $query;
    }

    //global $variable;   //tried this, didn't help
    $variable ="something";
    logit( $variable, '$variable: '); 

    if( isset($_GET['yr']) )
    {

        $query->set('meta_key', 'yr');
        $query->set('meta_value', $_GET['year']);

    }   

    // always return
    return $query;

}

The result is that logit() works for $wp_query, but not for $variable.

Note: Yes I am calling logit( $variable, '$variable: '); in both page-sr2.php and in the function page_sr2_pgp inside of functions.php. I am doing that because I don't know which location is correct, and I didn't believe it would cause a problem.

• functions
• debug

1 Answer 1

It display NULL, because it doesn't exist.

If you want to use global variables in another function than where you defined it, you have to re-declare that as global again. If you omit global keyword, it will be defined in that function scope, not in global scope.

In your functions.php use global keyword

add_action('pre_get_posts', 'page_sr2_pgp');

function page_sr2_pgp( $query )
{
    ...
    ...
    //uncomment this line
    global $variable;
    $variable ="something";
    logit( $variable, '$variable: '); 

    ...
    ...
    return $query;

}

In page-sr2.php, re-declare as global

<?php get_header(); ?>
    <div id="main">
          ...
          ...
                <?php logit( $wp_query, '$wp_query:' ); ?> /*Logit function from @brasofilo*/
                <?php global $variable; ?>
                <?php logit( $variable, '$variable: '); ?>
          ...
          ...
    </div>