Messages : Warnings / Errors

Question

The official CMS 3.4 API page of Joomla classifies the JError class and all its methods as deprecated, yet I couldn't find any alternative to output messages when i.e. there is an error after server side validation for a specific component etc... Are we meant to use those deprecated methods or are there other more recommended ways of displaying these useful error/warning messages?

Answer 1

You can use enqueueMessage to display errors, for example:

$user = JFactory::getUser();

if ($user->guest)
{
    $msg = 'You must be logged in';
    JFactory::getApplication()->enqueueMessage($msg, 'error');    // red 
    JFactory::getApplication()->enqueueMessage($msg, 'warning');  // yellow
    JFactory::getApplication()->enqueueMessage($msg, 'notice');   // blue
    JFactory::getApplication()->enqueueMessage($msg, 'message');  // green
}

If you wish to store errors in logs files, you can use JLog, like so:

jimport('joomla.log.log');

JLog::add(JText::_('JTEXT_ERROR_MESSAGE'), JLog::WARNING, 'jerror');

You can also use PHP exceptions to catch errors, like so:

// Perform a database query or something here
try
{
    // Try to get an object based on the results from the database
    $results = $db->loadObjectList();
}
catch (Exception $e)
{
    // Start crying cause it didn't work
    echo $e->getMessage();
}