php - forcing access to __PHP_Incomplete_Class object properties

Question

I'm writing a module for a php cms. In a function (a callback) I can access an object that comes from the framework code.

This object is of type __PHP_Incomplete_Class because the needed header file is not included before the session starts. I cannot include it without hacking the core cms code.

I wonder if is possibile to access the object properties anyway (casting to array does not work). I ask this because I can see the values with var_dump() but using $object->var I always get nulls.

Answer 1

This issue appends when you un serialize an object of a class that hasn't been included yet. For exemple, if you call session_start before include the class.

A PHPIncompleteClass object can't be accessed directly, but it's ok with foreach, serialize and gettype. Calling is_object with an PHPIncompleteClass object will result false.

So, if you find a '__PHP_Incomplete_Class' object in your session and you've included your class after the session_load, you can use this function :

function fixObject (&$object)
{
  if (!is_object ($object) && gettype ($object) == 'object')
    return ($object = unserialize (serialize ($object)));
  return $object;
}

This will results a usable object :

fixObject($_SESSION['member']);