Non-static method … should not be called statically: PHP

If you get the "Non-static method … should not be called statically" message from PHP, it means exactly what it says.

Let's assume you have the following class:

class Foo {
    public function bar() {
        echo "Hello";
    }
}

The normal way to call that would be to use:

$instance = new Foo;
$instance->bar();

But you might get away with calling it statically, such as:

Foo::bar();

Often it will run okay, but PHP will give you the E_STRICT warning mentioned above.

There are times when you might actually want to call it in a static-like way anyway. Sometimes you might want a sort of static wrapper around a particular class, maybe like this:

class Target {
    public function bar() {
        echo "Hello";
    }
}

class Wrapper {
    public static $instance = null;

    public static function __callStatic($method, $args = []) {
        return static::$instance->$method($args);
    }
}

Wrapper::$instance = new Target;
Wrapper::bar();

Okay, this is a contrived example, but it's using PHP's __callStatic 'magic' function to allow the wrapper to call into a real instance of the target class. However, you'll get the E_STRICT warning doing this.

One way around that is to change the __callStatic to a __call and then call it via a new, as follows:

class Target {
    public function bar() {
        echo "Hello";
    }
}

class Wrapper {
    public static $instance = null;

    public function __call($method, $args = []) {
        //          ^^^^^^   Changed to a call instead of callStatic.
        return static::$instance->$method($args);
    }
}

Wrapper::$instance = new Target;
(new Wrapper)->bar();
// ^^^^^^^^^  Called via new.

Bingo — you can now achieve more or less the same thing without getting E_STRICT warnings. Although you should probably ask yourself what it is you're trying to achieve and whether there's a better way to do it.