Admin Menu Creation Error - strlen() expects string, array given.

[EJBJane]

When attempting to add or edit menu items in the Joomla Administrator backend, an error occurs stating that strlen() expects a string, but an array is given. This issue has been observed in multiple Joomla installations, indicating a possible bug in the core Joomla files related to menu management. It also has the effect of disappearing admin menu items.

Steps to reproduce the issue

Log into the Joomla Administrator Backend: Access the administrator area of a Joomla site. Navigate to Menus: Go to Menus > Manage and select an administrator menu or try to create a new one. Attempt to Add or Edit a Menu Item: Click on 'New' to add a new menu item or select an existing item to edit. Observe the Error: Upon trying to create a new menu item or modify an existing one, an error message is displayed.

Expected result

The user should be able to create a new menu item or edit existing items without encountering errors. The menu item type selection should work seamlessly, allowing administrators to set up and configure backend menus.

Actual result

An error message is displayed, preventing the user from adding or editing menu items. The error details are: Error Message: 0 strlen(): Argument #1 ($string) must be of type string, array given Call Stack:

Function Location

1 () JROOT/administrator/components/com_menus/src/Model/MenutypesModel.php:414 2 strlen() 3 array_filter() JROOT/administrator/components/com_menus/src/Model/MenutypesModel.php:414 4 Joomla\Component\Menus\Administrator\Model\MenutypesModel->getTypeOptionsFromManifest() JROOT/administrator/components/com_menus/src/Model/MenutypesModel.php:175 5 Joomla\Component\Menus\Administrator\Model\MenutypesModel->getTypeOptionsByComponent() JROOT/administrator/components/com_menus/src/Model/MenutypesModel.php:109 6 Joomla\Component\Menus\Administrator\Model\MenutypesModel->getTypeOptions() JROOT/libraries/src/MVC/View/AbstractView.php:159 7 Joomla\CMS\MVC\View\AbstractView->get() JROOT/administrator/components/com_menus/src/View/Menutypes/HtmlView.php:62 8 Joomla\Component\Menus\Administrator\View\Menutypes\HtmlView->display() JROOT/libraries/src/MVC/Controller/BaseController.php:697 9 Joomla\CMS\MVC\Controller\BaseController->display() JROOT/administrator/components/com_menus/src/Controller/DisplayController.php:74 10 Joomla\Component\Menus\Administrator\Controller\DisplayController->display() JROOT/libraries/src/MVC/Controller/BaseController.php:730 11 Joomla\CMS\MVC\Controller\BaseController->execute() JROOT/libraries/src/Dispatcher/ComponentDispatcher.php:143 12 Joomla\CMS\Dispatcher\ComponentDispatcher->dispatch() JROOT/libraries/src/Component/ComponentHelper.php:361 13 Joomla\CMS\Component\ComponentHelper::renderComponent() JROOT/libraries/src/Application/AdministratorApplication.php:150 14 Joomla\CMS\Application\AdministratorApplication->dispatch() JROOT/libraries/src/Application/AdministratorApplication.php:195 15 Joomla\CMS\Application\AdministratorApplication->doExecute() JROOT/libraries/src/Application/CMSApplication.php:306 16 Joomla\CMS\Application\CMSApplication->execute() JROOT/administrator/includes/app.php:58 17 require_once() JROOT/administrator/index.php:32

System information (as much as possible)

System Information Setting Value PHP Built On Linux dedi2762.your-server.de 5.10.0-29-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 5.10.216-1 (2024-05-03) x86_64 Database Type mysql Database Version 10.5.23-MariaDB-0+deb11u1 Database Collation utf8mb4_unicode_ci Database Connection Collation utf8mb4_general_ci Database Connection Encryption None Database Server Supports Connection Encryption Yes PHP Version 8.1.29 Web Server Apache WebServer to PHP Interface cgi-fcgi Joomla! Version Joomla! 5.1.0 Stable [ Kudumisha ] 16-April-2024 16:00 GMT Joomla Backward Compatibility Plugin Enabled () User Agent Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/126.0.0.0 Safari/537.36

Additional comments

See text file for full system info and added visual on Admin menus for two installations.

[EJBJane]

Multiple installations means three seperate installations.

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[chmst]

1 - Could you check your database, if there is an error? 2 - Could you try a "Rebuild" for your menu items?

[EJBJane]

Hi there! Yep, done that. no errors and did a database check and no problems to be found except for perhaps _finder_tokens and _findertokens don't support checks but that's normal no? Rebuild done various times and doesnt make a difference. By the way, the actual content behind the links do exist in 'missing' links, otherwise I would be panicking for real. For example: I am missing several contact component links but the content is still available, like contact profiles, groups and such.

[ceford]

Administrator menu? What do you mean by Go to Menus > Manage and select an administrator menu or try to create a new one.

Could you post a screenshot of the error to show it in context?

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_{This comment was created with the J!Tracker Application at issues.joomla.org/tracker/joomla-cms/43715.}

[richard67]

For example: I am missing several contact component links but the content is still available, like contact profiles, groups and such.

@EJBJane The standard links e.g. for the Contact component are added when updating from Joomla 3 (3.10) to 4. If they are missing on some of your sites it could mean that there went something wrong with that. Can you confirm that the sites which have this problem once were updated from Joomla 3? Or were these newer sites created with Joomla 4?

[EJBJane]

For example: I am missing several contact component links but the content is still available, like contact profiles, groups and such.

@EJBJane The standard links e.g. for the Contact component are added when updating from Joomla 3 (3.10) to 4. If they are missing on some of your sites it could mean that there went something wrong with that. Can you confirm that the sites which have this problem once were updated from Joomla 3? Or were these newer sites created with Joomla 4?

Okay, so two are sites that started with Joomla 4.0 and another which doesnt have anything else but Components in the admin menu upgraded from 2 to 3 to 4 and now on 5.

I confirm I had a problem with some contact links in admin menu after the migration from 4 to 5, some contact links in the admin menu were indeed not showing up. I cant remember what I did to make them reappear, it was a long time ago but it was only on the oldest website I had that problem. To answer @ceford This problem occurs in Admin menu items. I will show you a screencast from one of the website made with joomla 4.

https://app.screencastify.com/v3/watch/NzGGM5r7qVWup4eo1R5W