Strict Notice: Declaration of ::helper() should be compatible with Mage_Core_Block_Abstract::helper($name)

Question

I've been seeing an issue in the Magento system.log relating to the following but I'm a little bit of a novice and not certain how to resolve.

ERR (3): Strict Notice: Declaration of As_FreeShippingMsg_Block_Notice::helper() should be compatible with Mage_Core_Block_Abstract::helper($name)  in /app/code/community/As/FreeShippingMsg/Block/Notice.php on line 75

The below is the notice.php file which relates to the above error...

class As_FreeShippingMsg_Block_Notice extends Mage_Core_Block_Template
{
    public function __construct()
    {
        return parent::__construct();
    }

    private function getQuote()
    {
        return Mage::getSingleton('checkout/cart')->getQuote();
    }

    public function isFreeshippingMsgEnabled()
    {
        return $this->helper()->isEnabled();
    }

    public function getFreeshippingMsgAmount()
    {
        return $this->helper()->getAmount();
    }

    public function hasFreeShipping()
    {
        $total = $this->getTotal();

        if ($this->isFreeshippingMsgEnabled() && $this->getFreeshippingMsgAmount()) {
            return (float)$total >= $this->getFreeshippingMsgAmount();
        }
        return false;
    }

    public function getAdditionForFreeShipping()
    {
        $total = $this->getTotal();

        $freeShippingConfig = $this->getFreeshippingMsgAmount();

        if ($freeShippingConfig >= $total) {
            return $freeShippingConfig - $total;
        } else {
            return false;
        }
    }

    protected function getTotal()
    {
        $calculate_on = $this->helper()->getCalculateOn();

        switch($calculate_on) {
            case 'grandtotal' :
                $total = $this->getQuote()->getGrandTotal();
                break;
            case "subtotal" :
                $total = $this->getQuote()->getSubtotal();
                break;
            default :
                $total = $this->getQuote()->getGrandTotal();
        }

        return $total;
    }

    public function helper()
    {
        return Mage::helper('as_freeshippingmsg');
    }
}

And the following is the data.php helper file...

class As_FreeShippingMsg_Helper_Data extends Mage_Core_Helper_Abstract
{
    const PREFIX = 'freeshippingmsg/general/';

    public function getAmount()
    {
        return (float)$this->getConfig('amount', $this->getStoreId());
    }

    public function isEnabled()
    {
        return (bool)$this->getConfig('enabled', $this->getStoreId());
    }

    public function getEligibleText()
    {
        return $this->getConfig('eligible_text', $this->getStoreId());
    }

    public function getSpendMoreText()
    {
        return $this->getConfig('spend_more_text', $this->getStoreId());
    }

    public function getCalculateOn()
    {
        return $this->getConfig('calculate_on', $this->getStoreId());
    }

    protected function getStoreId()
    {
        return Mage::app()->getStore()->getStoreId();
    }

    protected function getConfig($field, $storeId)
    {
        return Mage::getStoreConfig(self::PREFIX . $field, $storeId);
    }
}

If anybody is able to confirm why I would be seeing this message and how to resolve that would be great.

Answer 1

There is no need to rewrite this method .... instead of $this->helper() use

$this->helper('as_freeshippingmsg')

... or add a "wrapper" that does not exist in parent class ...

protected function _getHelper()
{
    return Mage::helper('as_freeshippingmsg');
}

Answer 2

Your extension of ::helper() isn't compatible with the class you are extending. Even though you are manually setting the helper name in your custom file, you should still pass in the $name property if you are in strict mode, even if you don't use it.

You could probably even do this:

public function helper($name = 'as_freeshippingmsg')
{
    return parent::helper($name);
}