How can I emulate register_globals in PHP 5.4 or newer?

Question

I am working on a framework that uses register_globals. My local php version is 5.4.

I know register_globals is deprecated since PHP 5.3.0 and removed in PHP 5.4, but I have to make this code work on PHP 5.4.

Is there any way to emulate the functionality on newer versions of PHP?

Answer 1

You can emulate register_globals by using extract in global scope:

extract($_REQUEST);

Or put it to independent function using global and variable variables

function globaling()
{
    foreach ($_REQUEST as $key => $val)
    {
        global ${$key};
        ${$key} = $val;
    }
}

If you have a released application and do not want to change anything in it, you can create globals.php file with

<?php
extract($_REQUEST);

then add auto_prepend_file directive to .htaccess (or in php.ini)

php_value auto_prepend_file ./globals.php

After this the code will be run on every call, and the application will work as though the old setting was in effect.

Answer 2

Just in case it may be helpful, this is the code suggested on php.net to emulate register_globals On:

<?php
// Emulate register_globals on
if (!ini_get('register_globals')) {
    $superglobals = array($_SERVER, $_ENV,
        $_FILES, $_COOKIE, $_POST, $_GET);
    if (isset($_SESSION)) {
        array_unshift($superglobals, $_SESSION);
    }
    foreach ($superglobals as $superglobal) {
        extract($superglobal, EXTR_SKIP);
    }
}

Source: http://php.net/manual/en/faq.misc.php#faq.misc.registerglobals