Question

I cant figure out what is wrong with the following code:

class ArticlesController extends AppController{
    var $name = 'Articles';
    // Variable $today is defined here so it can be used
    // in other functions in this same class 
    var $today = date('Y-m-d H:i:s',strtotime('now'));
    var $helpers = array('Video');

    function frontpageArticles(){
        $articles = $this->Article->find(
            'all',
            array(
                'conditions' => array(
                    'Article.published' => 1,
                    'Article.publish_date <=' => $today // USED HERE
                )
            )
       )
    );
    return $articles;
    }

    // ...
}

I am getting the following error message:

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected '(', expecting ',' or ';' in /home/XXXXXXXX/public_html/app/controllers/articles_controller.php on line 10

And this is in LINE 10 var $today = date('Y-m-d H:i:s',strtotime('now'));

Thanks,

Answer 1

To elaborate further on what Julien’s answer stated, you can’t use functions in variable assignments in a class declaration, you can of course when you’re defining normal variables.

A way around this would be to assign your values in the constructor, like so:

class ArticlesController extends AppController
{
    public $name = 'Articles';
    // Variable $today is defined here so it can be used
    // in other functions in this same class 
    public $today;
    public $helpers = array('Video');

    public function __construct()
    {
        parent::__construct();

        $this->today = date('Y-m-d H:i:s'); // You also don't need strtotime('now');
    }

    public function frontpageArticles()
    {
        $articles = $this->Article->find(
            'all',
            'conditions' => array(
                'Article.published' => 1,
                'Article.publish_date <=' => $this->today // USED HERE
            )
        );
        return $articles;
    }

    // ...
}

Just a side note, var is PHP4 syntax, so if you’re using PHP5 I would highly suggest that you use the access modifiers ie. public/private/protected to define both your fields and methods based on how they will be used.