Fix deprecated null passed to str_replace in get_field_value_for_new_entry

[wzul]

What this fixes

FrmEntriesHelper::get_field_value_for_new_entry() passes a possibly-null value to str_replace(), which emits a deprecation notice on PHP 8.1+:

Deprecated: str_replace(): Passing null to parameter #3 ($subject) of type array|string is deprecated
in /wp-content/plugins/formidable/classes/helpers/FrmEntriesHelper.php on line 132

$new_value starts as $field->default_value, which is null for a field that has no default value. It stays null when the field's value is not posted back either, and the ! is_array() branch then hands that null straight to str_replace().

It shows up on the front end of any form containing such a field whenever WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY is on.

The change

+		// A field with no default value has a null default_value, and a field type
+		// whose value is not posted back leaves it null too. str_replace() warns on
+		// a null subject in PHP 8.1+, so cast first: this keeps returning the empty
+		// string the caller already relied on.
 		if ( ! is_array( $new_value ) ) {
-			return str_replace( '"', '"', $new_value );
+			return str_replace( '"', '"', (string) $new_value );
 		}

The cast rather than an early return $new_value is deliberate: the caller assigns the result to $field_array['value'], and PHP already coerced null to '' here, so casting preserves the existing behaviour exactly instead of introducing null where callers expect a string.

Verification

Checked with error_reporting( E_ALL ) that the new expression returns the identical value to the old one for every input that reaches this branch:

Input	Before	After	Same
null (no default value)	'' + deprecation	''	yes
''	''	''	yes
'Hello'	'Hello'	'Hello'	yes
'He said "hi"'	'He said "hi"'	'He said "hi"'	yes
0	'0'	'0'	yes
'0'	'0'	'0'	yes

Reported from a WordPress 7.1 / PHP 8.3 environment with Formidable 6.35; the same line is present on master today.

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Bug Fixes
  • Prevented PHP 8.1+ warnings when creating new entries with empty or non-array field values.
  • Preserved existing empty-string behavior for affected fields.

[coderabbitai]

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ℹ️ Recent review info

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Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 5d01123 and 9b7a223.

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• classes/helpers/FrmEntriesHelper.php

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📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

The entry helper now casts non-array field values to strings before escaping quotes. Null values continue to produce an empty string without PHP 8.1+ warnings.

Changes

Entry value handling

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Null-safe field value escaping classes/helpers/FrmEntriesHelper.php	Non-array field values are cast to strings before str_replace(). Null values produce an empty string without warnings.

Priority: ⬇️ Low

Estimated code review effort: 1 (Trivial) | ~5 minutes

Change: Bug fix · Severity of issue fixed: Low

Suggested reviewers: crabcyborg

Merge Risk: ⚪ Minimal · up to 9b7a2

The cast removes the PHP deprecation while preserving the intended empty-string and quote-escaping behavior.

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 5

✅ Passed checks (5 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title clearly identifies the main change: preventing a deprecated null value from being passed to str_replace() in get_field_value_for_new_entry().
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	Docstring coverage is 100.00% which is sufficient. The required threshold is 80.00%. Docstring coverage is scoped to functions touched by this diff. Analyzed 1 functions across 1 files.
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.

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• Create PR with unit tests

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[deepsource-io]

DeepSource Code Review

We reviewed changes in 5d01123...9b7a223 on this pull request. Below is the summary for the review, and you can see the individual issues we found as inline review comments.

See full review on DeepSource ↗

PR Report Card

Overall Grade

Security   Reliability   Complexity   Hygiene

Code Review Summary

Analyzer	Status	Updated (UTC)	Details
PHP		Sep 12, 2026 3:58p.m.	Review ↗
JavaScript		Sep 12, 2026 3:58p.m.	Review ↗

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[Crabcyborg]

Thank you @wzul for your PR.

We tend to solve this sort of issue slightly differently, by checking earlier rather than converting the null to an empty string and then passing it through str_replace.

So I made a new PR to replace this #3570

This will go into this week's v7.0 release.

Closing.