WordPress Enable PHP Strict Error Reporting

When developing WordPress themes and plugins, I like to enable PHP’s strict error reporting. That way all errors and notices can be recognized and dealt with accordingly. Plus, enabling PHP strict error reporting is pretty easy to do using a simple must-use plugin. Here’s how to do it..

Enable strict error reporting

To enable PHP strict error reporting for your WordPress-powered site, create a blank PHP file named error-reporting.php (or whatever you wish), and then add the following code:

<?php 
/*
	Plugin Name: PHP - Strict Error Reporting
	Description: Enable strict error reporting for testing PHP.
*/
error_reporting(E_ALL | E_STRICT);

Then save the file and upload it to your site’s /wp-content/mu-plugins/ directory. If the directory does not exist, create it. So on the server you should have the following file:

/wp-content/mu-plugins/error-reporting.php

That’s all there is to it. Once uplaoded, this script instructs PHP to report all errors, even the strict ones. To see the script in action, simply enable WordPress debug mode. When debugging is disabled, the must-use plugin is safely ignored. It’s there when you need it :)

Also as a bonus here is a sweet online wizard for calculating PHP error_reporting codes. Super useful!

About the Author

Jeff Starr = Fullstack Developer. Book Author. Teacher. Human Being.