Back to Community
Home / Community / General

Resolving NextGEN Gallery PHP Warnings and Deprecation Notices

17 threads Sep 16, 2025

Content

Many users of the 'Photo Gallery, Sliders, Proofing and Themes – NextGEN Gallery' plugin encounter PHP warnings and deprecation notices, especially after updating their PHP version. These messages, while often non-critical, can fill up error logs and indicate areas where the plugin needs updating for modern PHP standards. This guide explains the common causes and provides solutions to address them.

Common Warning and Error Types

Based on community reports, the most frequent issues fall into a few categories:

  • Undefined Property Warnings: Errors like Undefined property: ImagelyNGGDataTypesImage::$title or Undefined property: stdClass::$content indicate the code is trying to access an object property that hasn't been defined.
  • Creation of Dynamic Property Deprecations: Messages like Creation of dynamic property ... is deprecated occur in PHP 8.2 and later. This happens when properties are assigned to an object without being declared in its class, a practice that is now discouraged.
  • Implicit Nullable Parameter Deprecations: Warnings such as Implicitly marking parameter $object as nullable is deprecated appear in PHP 8.4. The syntax for parameters that can accept a null value needs to be updated.
  • Deprecated jQuery/API Usage: Older code may use deprecated web APIs like jQuery.browser or an UnloadHandler, which can trigger warnings in browser tools like PageSpeed Insights.

Why These Warnings Appear

The core reason for these messages is that newer versions of PHP (8.2, 8.3, 8.4) have introduced stricter standards and deprecated older coding practices. The 'Photo Gallery, Sliders, Proofing and Themes – NextGEN Gallery' plugin, particularly its legacy Pope framework and older modules, contained code that used these now-deprecated features. While these are warnings and not fatal errors, they signal that the code should be updated for future compatibility.

Solutions and Workarounds

1. Update the Plugin

The simplest and most recommended solution is to ensure you are running the latest version of NextGEN Gallery. The development team has been actively fixing many of these issues. For example, the Undefined property: stdClass::$content warning in Router.php was specifically addressed in version 3.59.4. Always update first to see if your issue is resolved.

2. Apply Code Patches (Advanced Users)

For those comfortable editing plugin files, community members have shared patches for specific errors. Warning: Always back up your site and the plugin files before making any changes. These modifications may be overwritten by future plugin updates.

  • For PHP 8.4 Nullable Parameter Warnings: In the file src/DataMapper/Model.php on line ~13, change: 
    public function __construct( stdClass $object = null ) {
    To: 
    public function __construct( ?stdClass $object = null ) {
    In the file src/Display/View.php on line ~108, change: 
    public function get_template_abspath( string $template = null ): string {
    To: 
    public function get_template_abspath( ?string $template = null ): string {

3. Adjust PHP Error Reporting

If the warnings are not causing any functional problems on your site and you are waiting for an official fix, you can configure PHP to suppress deprecation notices. This is not a fix but a way to clean up your error logs. You can do this by editing your wp-config.php file.

// Disable displaying errors on screen
define('WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', false);

// Ensure errors are still logged, but only serious ones are shown
ini_set('display_errors', 'Off');
ini_set('error_reporting', E_ALL & ~E_DEPRECATED & ~E_STRICT & ~E_NOTICE);

4. Reinstall a Fresh Copy

In some cases, particularly with undefined property warnings, a file might have become corrupted during an update. The official support recommendation has been to download a fresh copy of the plugin from WordPress.org and manually re-upload it via the Plugins page. This will not affect your existing galleries or settings.

Conclusion

While the volume of PHP warnings from NextGEN Gallery can be alarming, they are typically notices that do not break site functionality. The most important action is to keep the plugin updated, as the development team continues to patch these issues. For critical environments where clean logs are mandatory, carefully applying community-vetted code patches or adjusting error reporting can serve as effective temporary measures until official updates are released.

Related Support Threads Support