php template shows code in {}

Question

I use php templates when I need to send notification emails to multiple people. Since upgrading to EE 2.10, I have noticed that when I echo the code, before the code that I am echoing, there is a random code in {}, ex. {!-- ra:0000000004854f7300007f40072103c3 --}.

Any idea what this code is and how I can remove it?

I also use php templates to download data/save it to csv. this same random code is always in the first cell of the .csv file.

Any help is appreciated.

Below is a sample of the php template code I am referring too.

<?php
            $debug = true; //debug mode: true for on, false for off
            $id = $this->EE->security->xss_clean($this->EE->uri->segment(3, 0)); 
            if( $id > 0 && is_numeric($id) ) //check if id is numeric and greater than 0
            {
                $this->EE->load->library('email');
                $this->EE->load->helper('text');
                $sql = "SELECT 
                        et.title AS TITLE,
                        ed.field_id_6 AS MY_VAR
                        FROM 
                        exp_channel_data as ed          
                        WHERE ed.entry_id = " . $id . "  LIMIT 1";

            $results = $this->EE->db->query($sql);
            if ($results->num_rows() > 0)
                {   
                    $title = $results->row('TITLE');
                    $myVar1 = $results->row('MY_VAR');
                } // END line 29

            if($debug == TRUE)
                { 
                    echo "46";
                    echo $title."<br />\n";
                    echo $myVar1."<br />\n";
                }

} // END line 5 exit();

?>

Answer 1

This has to do with the new template parser introduced in EE 2.9.0. What you're seeing is a template annotation, and it's removed from the template late in the parsing process. Since you're manually calling exit(), it never gets the chance to do so.

My advice: turn this code into a simple plugin instead. This amount of PHP in a template is always trouble waiting to happen IMHO.