Fatal Error in PHP < 5.5

See: https://php.net/empty

Please keep in mind that PHP 5.5 is end of life.

A better fix:

$url = esc_url( $url );
if ( empty( $url ) ) {

Since the issue is actually this:

Prior to PHP 5.5, empty() only supports variables; anything else will result in a parse error. In other words, the following will not work: empty(trim($name)). Instead, use trim($name) == false.

That said, please do upgrade PHP as soon as possible for your own security and safety ??

Edit: I will make that more back-compatible in 4.0.2 though.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 3 months ago by Ipstenu (Mika Epstein).

Like many enterprise operations that require stability over bleeding-edge features, we run CentOS 6.x, which adheres to the Red Hat Security Backporting policy: https://access.redhat.com/security/updates/backporting

For this reason, we won’t be upgrading PHP anytime soon, nor are we at any risk of security problems. ??

In fact, I heard recently that something like 15% of all WordPress installations are still at 5.3 or below. (Shocking, I know.)

So, however you do it, probably good to include this minor fix in the next release, since we are almost certainly not the only ones experiencing this issue.

Thanks!