Trying to get property of non-object Notice in custom avatar function for Wordpress

Question

The following custom avatar functions works fine, but I get the following notice

"Trying to get property of non-object in..."

The notice says the problem is on the last part of the function I pasted here - I marked it in the code (look for <-- Notice mentions this line)

Any idea how to fix this? I am stuck...

function test_get_avatar($avatar, $id_or_email, $size, $default, $alt) {
if (!is_numeric($id_or_email)) {
    if (is_string($id_or_email)) {
        $user = get_user_by('email', $id_or_email);
        $id_or_email = $user->ID;
    } else if (is_object($id_or_email)) {
        if (!empty($id_or_email->ID)) {
            $id_or_email = $id_or_email->ID;
        }

        if (!empty( $id_or_email->comment_author_email)) {
            $user = get_user_by('email', $id_or_email->comment_author_email);
            $id_or_email = $user->ID; <-- Notice mentions this line
        }
    }
}

$avatar_id = get_user_meta($id_or_email, 'nicobartes_user_avatar', true);
...

`$user` is not an object.... so by definition (in PHP) it can not contain an attribute referenced as `ID`. Where is `$user` set? — Martin, Jan 12 '18 at 21:22
@martin - everthing is possible but im not able to solve my problem with your url to the Reference page... I already searched similar questions and found nothing so far. So i need help. Would be awesome if someone helps me out. best — evavienna, Jan 12 '18 at 21:31
Are you seriously telling me you [read this answer](https://stackoverflow.com/a/26572398/3536236) and you still don't know how to solve your issue? — Martin, Jan 12 '18 at 21:36
Sorry, I should have linked that answer directly in the first instance, rather than just the question — Martin, Jan 12 '18 at 22:20
Possible duplicate of [Reference - What does this error mean in PHP?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/12769982/reference-what-does-this-error-mean-in-php) — Félix Adriyel Gagnon-Grenier, Jan 12 '18 at 22:37

gview · Accepted Answer · 2018-01-13T10:17:42.543

2

Yes, because get_user_by() can fail and return false. At that point you won't have a wp user object. A test around this code would be:

if ($user = get_user_by('email', $id_or_email->comment_author_email)) {
    $id_or_email = $user->ID; 
} else {
    //Whatever you want to do when this lookup fails
    $id_or_email = 0;
}

edited Jan 13 '18 at 10:17

answered Jan 12 '18 at 21:31

gview

14,876
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51

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 12 '18 at 21:31

0

When you run

$user = get_user_by('email', $id_or_email->comment_author_email);

You should check the value of $user before attempting to get the id on the next line. According to the Wordpress docs, it could potentially be false if no user is found.

answered Jan 12 '18 at 21:31

JakeParis

11,056
3
42
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Trying to get property of non-object Notice in custom avatar function for Wordpress

2 Answers2