I get this message sometimes

[Mike Davis]

Type of Help Needed: Problem

Where: Main Site

Fatal error: Cannot redeclare tojulian() (previously declared in /home/ncwoodwo/public_html/forums/packages/vbcms/widget/execphp.php(191) : eval()'d code:123) in /home/ncwoodwo/public_html/forums/packages/vbcms/widget/execphp.php(191) : eval()'d code on line 137

[SteveColes]

can you tell what page you were going to when that happens?

[Mike Davis]

http://ncwoodworker.net/forums/index.php

[ehpoole]

The toJulian() routine is code (a PHP function) that has just been added to the Who's Chatting Widget, so the issue has to come from there one way or another -- unless we can find something else within vBulletin that also has a function called toJulian() and that is rarely executed.

However, what is downright puzzling is that for this to occur the code must be getting eval'd twice, simultaneously, and within the same memory space. I would tend to expect this kind of issue to either be exceptionally rare (once in a blue moon kind of rare) or near constant in nature.

I have not seen the issue in any of my browsing this morning, so I'm not sure what this tells us off hand unless we can identify what is different between my browsing habits and Mikes (if we can identify that then we may have something to work with).

Unfortunately, I do not have a good workaround to the issue, the function itself is rather critical and it's presence should not be causing such issues (such functions certainly don't cause issues within other plugins on the site).

So, sign me as "baffled" for the moment.

[SteveColes]

Got the error the first time I tried mike's link. Not the second.

[ehpoole]

The most infamous plight of the debugger: Please God, let it happen to me!

It happens for you all on the first try, I just hit that URL about 600-800 times and not one error!

I have searched the Widget and Plugin tables and verified there is no other code with a function titled toJulian(). I have also searched about 90% of the vBulletin and addon code files and also not turned up any other instances of toJulian () (though I would not expect such files to be executed in the context of an eval().

[Mike Davis]

Correct it only happens on the first attempt to log in. Visit a different site then log in to NCWW and it happens again only the first attempt.

[Mike Davis]

http://www.ncwoodworker.net/index.php

Does not return the error and I believe the chat widget is not on that page.

[RandyJ]

If it helps, I get the same thing only the first time I hit Mike's first link. Works fine thereafter...

Fatal error: Cannot redeclare tojulian() (previously declared in /home/ncwoodwo/public_html/forums/packages/vbcms/widget/execphp.php(191) : eval()'d code:123) in /home/ncwoodwo/public_html/forums/packages/vbcms/widget/execphp.php(191) : eval()'d code on line 137

[ehpoole]

I have rewritten the widget with more protection for the toJulian() function, so hopefully this issue will not popup again.

Fundamentally, the bug is in vBulletin for eval'ing the same code twice within the same session when it should not be. I'm really surprised that it has not caused other such errors (unless there is something very peculiar about the way they eval() Widget code versus plugin/forum block code.

For whatever reason, I could only reliably reproduce the issue, thanks to Mike's followup info, when using Chrome -- it just would not happen with any of other browsers I was trying.

[Mike Davis]

Thanks, it is fixed now for me. I use Safari Version 4.1.3 (4533.19.4) On Mac OS 10.4.11 if you are curious.

[ehpoole]

Thank you for reporting the issue Mike.

We don't always learn of these issues until a user takes the time to report them -- it had not happened to me all morning. And, especially, thank you for Copying&Pasting the full text of the error message.

[Mike Davis]

Glad to help.