Bug: [ViewCells] when there are cells with the same short name, only the first cell is loaded

[jeandemoroque]

PHP Version

8.2

CodeIgniter4 Version

4.3.6

CodeIgniter4 Installation Method

Composer (using codeigniter4/appstarter)

Which operating systems have you tested for this bug?

Windows

Which server did you use?

apache

Database

No response

What happened?

Hello,

I created a project that uses widgets. My widgets are in folder /app/Widgets. Theses widgets are used to display partial views.
For exemple, the widget /app/Widgets/Customer/Account.php have a method lastRegistrations to display 10 last registrations to the administrator.

In the same page, I call two widgets to display latest registrations of Customers and Administrators like that :
=> <?= view_cell("\App\Widgets\Customer\Account::lastRegistration"); ?>
=> <?= view_cell("\App\Widgets\Admin\Account::lastRegistration"); ?>

Everything worked fine when I was on version 4.1 with PHP7.4.
Today, I upgraded my CodeIgniter project to the latest version 4.3.6 with PHP 8.2.

The project launches fine overall after some changes, but I noticed a problem on some pages.

In the page where I call the two previous widgets, I noticed that the second widget (Admin) displayed the same content as the first widget (Customer).

I did some research, and I found the source of the problem in the file system/Config/Factories.php in the method __callStatic.

In this method, there is a line $basename = self::getBasename($name); who return the name of the class.
=> In my case : $name = "\App\Widgets\Customer\Account";
=> Result : $basename = "Account";

This method stores the namespace in array self::$basenames using $basename as key.
The self::$basenames variable is used to check if an instance of the class already exists and to return the namespace of the class.

In my case, my two widgets have the same basename, so the second call will use an instance of the first call, because the check is based on the same basename. This is why I have the same results.

To solve this, I found two solutions:
1. Use $name instead of $basename : self::$basenames[$options['component']][$name] = $class;
2. Or, generate a hash of the $name : $basename = md5($name);

Steps to Reproduce

1. Install CodeIgniter (version 4.3.6)
2. Create two controllers with the same name in two subfolders :
   => /app/Controllers/SubFolderOne/Test.php
   => /app/Controllers/SubFolderTwo/Test.php
3. Create a method on each controllers who return different string values
4. Call this two methods in view file using "view_cell" function
   => <?= view_cell("\App\Controllers\SubFolderOne\Test::render"); ?>
   => <?= view_cell("\App\Controllers\SubFolderTwo\Test::render"); ?>
5. The first call will return the result of first controller, but the second call will also return the content of first controller instead of the second controller

Expected Output

The first call will be return the result of first controller, and the second call will be return the content of the second controller.

Anything else?

No response

[kenjis]

Thank you for reporting.
This seems a bug and undocumented breaking change.

[jeandemoroque]

Thank you for reporting. This seems a bug and undocumented breaking change.

Thank you for your reactivity! 👍

[kenjis]

@jeandemoroque Please try: #7686

[jeandemoroque]

@jeandemoroque Please try: #7686

This solution fixes the problem I encountered.
However, I don't think this is the right solution.

I just tested the same kind of script with the models, I encounter the same problem:
$accountOne = model('\App\Models\SubFolderOne\Account');
$accountTwo = model('\App\Models\SubFolderTwo\Account');

The $accountTwo variable is an instance of \App\Models\SubFolderOne\Account instead of \App\Models\SubFolderTwo\Account.

The solution would be to correct the problem in the method __callStatic of system/Config/Factories.php file directly.
We need to retrieve the class instance in cache using fullname, et not the basename:

1. Use $name instead of $basename : self::$basenames[$options['component']][$name] = $class;
2. Or, generate a hash of the $name : $basename = md5($name);

[kenjis]

@jeandemoroque Thank you for review.

Yes, the current model() can't load \App\Models\SubFolderTwo\Account.
But I'm not sure that it is a really bug.

Your solution will break the existing feature, preferApp.
See https://codeigniter4.github.io/CodeIgniter4/concepts/factories.html#preferapp-option

[jeandemoroque]

@kenjis Yes, you're right. I didn't see this option preferApp.

It's strange to receive an instance of another class, but maybe it's normal.

[kenjis]

However, it seems strange that there is no way to load classes with the same short name at all.
So I have created an issue #7694.