Re: Thinking out loud - a continuation...

[Jay Blanchard <jay.blanchard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

[snip]
…stuff….
[/snip]

For those interested here is where the problem seems to occur - 

$child = array
               (
                   'id'       => $id,
                   'parentId' => $pid,
                   'children' => array()
               );
               
               $children[$id][] = &$child;
               
               foreach( $parents[$pid] as &$items ){
                   foreach( $items as &$item ){   
                   	 $item['children'][$id] = &$child; // error: Cannot use string offset as an array
                   }
               }

Maybe someone will see this and know what's going on. Before the foreach $children is an array.