I am getting the famous "The plugin generated xxx characters of unexpected output during activation." error when I activate plugin I am working on.

Terminal says my files are in us-ascii, but when I am working on this files in my PHP Storm, there is UTF-8 mark displayed in the bottom right corner.

I think I don't have empty spaces because my PHP Storm removes them automatically on command+s.

I tried:

• With and without: ?>
• With and without $table_name dynamic prefix declaration
• With and without $tbyb_db_version (version) declaration
• With both add_option and update_option for add_option( 'tbyb_db_version', self::$tbyb_db_version ); line
• With both procedural and OOP static function defining

This is my class.TbybInstall.php class:

<?php
/**
 * Prevent intruders from sneaking around
 */
defined( 'ABSPATH' ) or die( 'No script kiddies please!' );


/**
 * TbybInstall class
 */
if ( !class_exists( 'TbybInstall' ) ) {
    class TbybInstall
    {

        public static $tbyb_db_version = '1.0';

        public static function create_tbyb_prepared_carts_table() {

            global $wpdb;
            $table_name = $wpdb->prefix . 'tbyb_prepared_carts';
            $charset_collate = $wpdb->get_charset_collate();

            $sql = "CREATE TABLE $table_name (
  id int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
  user_id int(11) NOT NULL,
  product_id int(11) NOT NULL,
  variation_id int(11) DEFAULT NULL,
  imported_to_cart tinyint(1) DEFAULT '0' NOT NULL,
  ordered tinyint(1) DEFAULT '0' NOT NULL,
  quantity int(11) DEFAULT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY  (id)
) $charset_collate;";

            require_once( ABSPATH . 'wp-admin/includes/upgrade.php' );
            dbDelta( $sql );

            add_option( 'tbyb_db_version', self::$tbyb_db_version );
        }
    }
}

This is my plugin-name.php file:

<?php
/**
 * Plugin Name:     Plugin name
 * Plugin URI:      plugin-uri
 * Description:     Description
 * Version:         1.0.0
 * Author:          Tahi reu
 * Author URI:      github-link
 * License:         GPL
 * License URI:     .php
 */


/*
 * Prevent intruders from sneaking around
 */
defined( 'ABSPATH' ) or die( 'No script kiddies please!' );



/*
 * Current plugin version - 
 * This should be updated as new versions are released
 */
define( 'PLUGIN_NAME', '1.0.0' );



/*
 * Variables
 * */
const TEXT_DOMAIN = "plugin-name";



/*
 * Load functions
 */
require plugin_dir_path( __FILE__ ) . 'functions.php';



/*
 * Load classes
 */
require plugin_dir_path( __FILE__ ) . 'classes/class.PreparedCarts.php';
require plugin_dir_path( __FILE__ ) . 'classes/class.ReturnOptions.php';



/*
 * Check if WooCommerce is installed and active
 */
include_once( ABSPATH . 'wp-admin/includes/plugin.php' );
if ( is_plugin_active( 'woocommerce/woocommerce.php' ) ) {


    /* Create database table on plugin install */
    function create_tables(){

        require_once plugin_dir_path( __FILE__ ) . 'classes/class.TbybInstall.php';
        TbybInstall::create_tbyb_prepared_carts_table();

    }

    register_activation_hook( __FILE__, array( 'TbybInstall', 'create_tables' ) );


    /* Do the work */
    PreparedCarts::on_load();
    ReturnOptions::on_load();


} else {

    /* Abort and display info message */
    PreparedCarts::abort();

}

Any help/suggestions are appreciated. Thanks in advance.

I am getting the famous "The plugin generated xxx characters of unexpected output during activation." error when I activate plugin I am working on.

Terminal says my files are in us-ascii, but when I am working on this files in my PHP Storm, there is UTF-8 mark displayed in the bottom right corner.

I think I don't have empty spaces because my PHP Storm removes them automatically on command+s.

I tried:

• With and without: ?>
• With and without $table_name dynamic prefix declaration
• With and without $tbyb_db_version (version) declaration
• With both add_option and update_option for add_option( 'tbyb_db_version', self::$tbyb_db_version ); line
• With both procedural and OOP static function defining

This is my class.TbybInstall.php class:

<?php
/**
 * Prevent intruders from sneaking around
 */
defined( 'ABSPATH' ) or die( 'No script kiddies please!' );


/**
 * TbybInstall class
 */
if ( !class_exists( 'TbybInstall' ) ) {
    class TbybInstall
    {

        public static $tbyb_db_version = '1.0';

        public static function create_tbyb_prepared_carts_table() {

            global $wpdb;
            $table_name = $wpdb->prefix . 'tbyb_prepared_carts';
            $charset_collate = $wpdb->get_charset_collate();

            $sql = "CREATE TABLE $table_name (
  id int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
  user_id int(11) NOT NULL,
  product_id int(11) NOT NULL,
  variation_id int(11) DEFAULT NULL,
  imported_to_cart tinyint(1) DEFAULT '0' NOT NULL,
  ordered tinyint(1) DEFAULT '0' NOT NULL,
  quantity int(11) DEFAULT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY  (id)
) $charset_collate;";

            require_once( ABSPATH . 'wp-admin/includes/upgrade.php' );
            dbDelta( $sql );

            add_option( 'tbyb_db_version', self::$tbyb_db_version );
        }
    }
}

This is my plugin-name.php file:

<?php
/**
 * Plugin Name:     Plugin name
 * Plugin URI:      plugin-uri
 * Description:     Description
 * Version:         1.0.0
 * Author:          Tahi reu
 * Author URI:      github-link
 * License:         GPL
 * License URI:     http://www.opensource/licenses/gpl-license.php
 */


/*
 * Prevent intruders from sneaking around
 */
defined( 'ABSPATH' ) or die( 'No script kiddies please!' );



/*
 * Current plugin version - https://semver
 * This should be updated as new versions are released
 */
define( 'PLUGIN_NAME', '1.0.0' );



/*
 * Variables
 * */
const TEXT_DOMAIN = "plugin-name";



/*
 * Load functions
 */
require plugin_dir_path( __FILE__ ) . 'functions.php';



/*
 * Load classes
 */
require plugin_dir_path( __FILE__ ) . 'classes/class.PreparedCarts.php';
require plugin_dir_path( __FILE__ ) . 'classes/class.ReturnOptions.php';



/*
 * Check if WooCommerce is installed and active
 */
include_once( ABSPATH . 'wp-admin/includes/plugin.php' );
if ( is_plugin_active( 'woocommerce/woocommerce.php' ) ) {


    /* Create database table on plugin install */
    function create_tables(){

        require_once plugin_dir_path( __FILE__ ) . 'classes/class.TbybInstall.php';
        TbybInstall::create_tbyb_prepared_carts_table();

    }

    register_activation_hook( __FILE__, array( 'TbybInstall', 'create_tables' ) );


    /* Do the work */
    PreparedCarts::on_load();
    ReturnOptions::on_load();


} else {

    /* Abort and display info message */
    PreparedCarts::abort();

}

Any help/suggestions are appreciated. Thanks in advance.

• php
• plugin-development
• mysql

• 1 The "unexpected output" is probably a fatal error message. Check your error logs. – Jacob Peattie Commented Nov 16, 2018 at 17:02
• I see 2 spaces before the opening <?php in your class.TbybInstall.php file -- are they present on the server, or are they a copy-and-paste artifact present only here? – Pat J Commented Nov 16, 2018 at 17:03
• 1 I don't have anything related to this in my debug.log file. Those two spaces somehow occurred when I pasted code here (I fixed that now). There is no any empty space before <?php in my .php file. – Tahi Reu Commented Nov 16, 2018 at 17:29
• Check your Apache (or whatever webserver you're using) error logs as well as debug.log. – Pat J Commented Nov 16, 2018 at 17:36
• Seems like there is no any recent errors in /var/log/apache2/error_log – Tahi Reu Commented Nov 16, 2018 at 17:50

1 Answer 1

I solved this issue. Problem was in way I was using register_activation_hook.

I loaded TbybInstall along with other classes:

/*
 * Load classes
 */
require plugin_dir_path( __FILE__ ) . 'classes/class.PreparedCarts.php';
require plugin_dir_path( __FILE__ ) . 'classes/class.ReturnOptions.php';
require plugin_dir_path( __FILE__ ) . 'classes/class.TbybInstall.php';

...and I used register_activation_hook in a way which is more similar to official WordPress guide:

/* Create database table on plugin install */
function create_tables(){
    TbybInstall::create_tbyb_prepared_carts_table();
}

register_activation_hook( __FILE__, 'create_tables' );

And that's it.