Title: [HAS QUICK FIX] Error: Undefined array key “path” (in method doing_rest_api())
Last modified: September 24, 2023

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# [HAS QUICK FIX] Error: Undefined array key “path” (in method doing_rest_api())

 *  [Gwyneth Llewelyn](https://wordpress.org/support/users/gwynethllewelyn/)
 * (@gwynethllewelyn)
 * [2 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/has-quick-fix-error-undefined-array-key-path-in-method-doing_rest_api/)
 * Hi,
 * I’m actually a premium user, but your customer support page is currently 404 
   🙂 (it happens to all of us!) so I’m leaving this here instead, mostly for the
   sake of those getting the same errors and needing a simple fix.
 * The mentioned error will flood the PHP/webserver logs, essentially complaining
   that the method `doing_rest_api()` has tried to access `$current_url['path']`,
   but when `path` is actually _not_ a key on this array, under recent versions 
   of PHP (8.2 for instance), PHP stops execution with an _error_.
 * On the free version, this method is under the class `WAPT_Plugin`, defined on
   the `includes/class-plugin.php` file, at the very end (line 544 or so).
 * On the premium version, this method is placed in the class `WAPT_Premium`, defined
   in `includes/class.waptp.php`, and the error is given at line 122 (at the end
   of the declaration). It’s essentially the same thing.
 * From what I understand, this method attempts to figure out if the current path
   passed to WP includes a REST request (usually given by having `wp-json/` in the
   path), since, at the moment this plugin was written, WordPress didn’t seem to
   have such a function available for plugin developers.
 * Former PHP versions were (probably) more lenient and less strict on the error-
   checking, thus this access (probably) just returned a `NULL`, which would eventually
   be caught by the `strpos()` at the end, and harmlessly reply with the equivalent
   of ‘no REST path found here’.
 * These days, however, accessing an associative array with a key that doesn’t exist
   is an error (think a bit — that’s actually quite sound reasoning from the PHP
   core developers!). So, an additional check should have been made before using
   the value of `$current_url['path']`, to make sure it’s a valid key.
 * A quick & dirty method is just to replace the last line of the method, which 
   currently has
 *     ```wp-block-code
       return strpos( $current_url['path'], $rest_url['path'], 0 ) === 0;
       ```
   
 * and change it simply to
 *     ```wp-block-code
       return strpos( $current_url['path'] ?? '/', $rest_url['path'], 0 ) === 0;
       ```
   
 * Don’t you love the ternary operator `??` I’m a _huge_ fan of it! What the above
   code essentially does is the equivalent of (the more readable PHP5-style code):
 *     ```wp-block-code
       return strpos( empty( $current_url['path'] ) ? '/' : $current_url['path'], $rest_url['path'], 0 ) === 0;
       ```
   
 * where `empty( $var )` is conveniently the double-checking of `is_null( $var )
   || $var == ''`.
 * Anyway, this is a simple fix that will get rid of the error, but it might require
   a bit more of code polishing. In particular, the AFI/APT developer who wrote 
   this method generously credited it to @matzeeable, who posted that code as one
   of the answers on [https://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/221202/does-something-like-is-rest-exist](https://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/221202/does-something-like-is-rest-exist)—
   a very useful resource, having been updated over the years with several techniques
   to detect if the current request came from the REST subsystem.
 * The problem is that @matzeeable’s solution, which was originally copied and used
   on the AFI/APT plugin, dates back to 2018 — before PHP 8.X and its much stricter
   requirements were upon us. @matzeeable has since then updated his answer on the
   WordPress StackExchange, and if you visit it _today_, you’ll see that there was,
   indeed, an update back in 2022, to better comply with the stricter demands of
   PHP 8.X.
 * It seems that the AFI/APT developers just need to take a look at the ‘new’ code
   and adapt it to their own needs — although, to be honest, my very simple fix 
   should be sufficient in most cases.
 * Since WP 5.X, the WordPress core developers included a function which _might_
   avoid the need of maintaining one’s own code and make the plugin future-proof:
   [`wp_is_json_request()`](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/wp_is_json_request/).
   Now, I’m not claiming that this function will be the _best_ solution for the 
   AFI/APT plugin. It is also mentioned on the WordPress StackExchange thread. It
   might be worth taking a look at it, so that things continue to work under WP 
   17.1.3 and PHP 10.9 🤣
 * I hope this is useful to others. Remember, you have different places to make 
   changes, depending if you’re using the free or the premium version of AFI/APT.

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## Tags

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 * 0 replies
 * 1 participant
 * Last reply from: [Gwyneth Llewelyn](https://wordpress.org/support/users/gwynethllewelyn/)
 * Last activity: [2 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/has-quick-fix-error-undefined-array-key-path-in-method-doing_rest_api/)
 * Status: not resolved