Fatal Error: must be array, null given

Greetings,

We’re getting the following fatal error with metaslider 3.96.0 with php8.2:

[17-Feb-2025 18:02:15 UTC] PHP Fatal error: Uncaught TypeError: array_merge(): Argument #1 must be of type array, null given in /home/site/public_html/wp-content/plugins/ml-slider/inc/slider/metaslider.flex.class.php:592

I saw a similar issue from around 9 months ago that suggests this may be due to a change in type handling between php7 and php8.

Looking at line 592:

$options['start'] = array_merge($options['start'], [$script]);

$options[‘start’] is null when the code is reached. Ideally, $options[‘start’] would not be null here, but stuff happens, so even if the root cause of it being null is addressed, it’s still good to verify before using. For now, I’ve added the following in my copy (directly before line 592) which solved the problem for us:

if (is_null($options['start'])){
  $options['start'] = array();
}

Can you have a look and see if this, or a different solution, can be added to the plugin?

Thank you,

Julieanne