Bug: Setting up via .env does not support typing

[neznaika0]

PHP Version

8.5

CodeIgniter4 Version

develop

CodeIgniter4 Installation Method

Composer (using codeigniter4/appstarter)

Which operating systems have you tested for this bug?

Linux

Which server did you use?

cli-server (PHP built-in webserver)

Environment

testing, development

Database

No response

What happened?

PHP works in a magical way: Some type conversions are preserved, others are not.
Specifically, the database setup has different behavior:

database.tests.hostname = 127.0.0.1
database.tests.database = :memory:
database.tests.DBDriver = SQLite3
database.tests.synchronous = 1
database.tests.busyTimeout = 1234

// app/Config/Database.php
...
'busyTimeout' => 1000,
'synchronous' => null,
...

/* output ./spark config:check Database
 ...
 'foreignKeys' => boolean true
 'busyTimeout' => integer 1234
 'synchronous' => string (1) "0"
*/

TypeError: Cannot assign string to property CodeIgniter\Database\SQLite3\Connection::$synchronous of type ?int

To clarify: If we specify a number in the array Database, then the ENV data will be numeric. If it is null or a string, then the type changes to string.

// app/Config/Database.php
...
'busyTimeout' => null,
'synchronous' => 0,
...
/* output ./spark config:check Database
 ...
 'foreignKeys' => boolean true
 'busyTimeout' => string (4) "1234"
 'synchronous' => integer 2
*/

Steps to Reproduce

Add the ENV settings

database.tests.synchronous = 1
database.tests.busyTimeout = 1234

and run the command ./spark config:check Database

Expected Output

Correct typing

Anything else?

Errors can manifest themselves in other places. There aren't any because it's a native type?int is specified for synchronous.

// Constructor system/Database/BaseConnection.php
 foreach ($params as $key => $value) {
 if (property_exists($this, $key)) {
 $this->{$key} = $value;
 }
 }

I noticed the same thing in routing, when route parameters can be matched with the types in the controller.

[michalsn]

The problem seems to be here:

CodeIgniter4/system/Config/BaseConfig.php

Lines 199 to 201 in df5ad3c

	// If the default value of the property is `null` and the type is not
	// `string`, TypeError will happen.
	// So cannot set `declare(strict_types=1)` in this file.

We have two possible options here:

1. If the base value is null and we cannot determine the proper type of the variable, we could try to "guess" it using regex or is_numeric() function. However, this might break existing code, as it will be applied to all config files, whose values are overridden by the env file.
2. Add proper parsing for the properties defined in Connection classes. This would require type-casting all the properties. It could also be considered a BC break, but the impact should be minimal since probably no one implements their own database handlers.

[michalsn]

If there is a problem with routes, please open a separate issue with an example.

[neznaika0]

Yes, I launched cs-fixer and added strict mode to the project. Because I try to have the right types everywhere.

If I don't change the system, where can I better handle the variables?

Now it does not interfere with routing, but helps. It's just that the code may vary on different projects with non-strict typing.