How to Fix PHP Strict Types Declaration, Suppress Deprecation Warnings, and Avoid XAMPP + MySQL Issues 🔧

When working with PHP, especially on projects involving tools like phpMyAdmin or Twig, you might face these common issues:

1️⃣ Correct Placement of declare(strict_types=1);

• The strict_types declaration must be the very first statement in your PHP file right after the <?php tag.

• Placing any code, including error_reporting() or whitespace, before it will cause a fatal error:

  "strict_types declaration must be the very first statement in the script."

• How to fix:

    <?php
    declare(strict_types=1);
    // Your other code follows...
  

2️⃣ Suppressing PHP 8.1+ Deprecation Warnings

• PHP 8.1 introduced many deprecation notices (e.g., realpath(null), Twig’s count() warnings) which don’t break your app but clutter your logs.

• To suppress these notices during development, configure error reporting like this:

    error_reporting(E_ALL & ~E_DEPRECATED & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED);
    ini_set('display_errors', 0);
  

• FIle Open: C:\xampp\phpMyAdmin\index.php

• Add this code top and save.

•   <?php
  
    declare(strict_types=1);
  
    error_reporting(E_ALL & ~E_DEPRECATED & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED);
    ini_set('display_errors', 0);
  
    use PhpMyAdmin\Routing;
  
    if (! defined('ROOT_PATH')) {
        // phpcs:disable PSR1.Files.SideEffects
        define('ROOT_PATH', __DIR__ . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR);
        // phpcs:enable
    }
  
    global $route, $containerBuilder;
  
    require_once ROOT_PATH . 'libraries/common.inc.php';
  
    $dispatcher = Routing::getDispatcher();
    Routing::callControllerForRoute($route, $dispatcher, $containerBuilder);