PHP Parse Error in Wordpress project from a WPEngine backup - php

Question

I've inherited a Wordpress project and I am trying to get it set up. I have zero experience in Wordpress and may as well say I have zero PHP experience. So far I've managed to get the environment set up on my local machine but I am stuck on a PHP parse error which I cannot find a solution for by googling. I'd like to at least get the existing project running on my machine.
When I open up my site locally I get redirected to $ROOT/wp-admin/install.php and I get this error in the apache error_log:
[Wed Oct 22 22:32:42 2014] [error] [client ::1] PHP Parse error: parse error in /path/to/project/wp-content/mu-plugins/wpengine-common/plugin.php on line 788
Line 788 is
public function disable_indiv_plugin_update_notices( $value ) {
and the surrounding code is
function wpengine_credits() {
if ( get_option( 'stylesheet' ) != 'twentyeleven' && get_option( 'template' ) != 'twentyeleven' )
return false;
if ( !defined('WPE_FOOTER_HTML') OR !WPE_FOOTER_HTML OR $this->already_emitted_powered_by == true )
return false;
//to prevent repeating
$this->already_emitted_powered_by = true; ?>
<div id="site-host">
WP Engine <?php printf( __( '%s.', 'wpengine' ), 'WordPress Hosting' ); ?>
</div>
<?php
}
public function disable_indiv_plugin_update_notices( $value ) {
$plugins_to_disable_notices_for = array();
$basename = '';
foreach ( $plugins_to_disable_notices_for as $plugin )
$basename = plugin_basename( $plugin );
if ( isset( $value->response[#$basename] ) )
unset( $value->response[$basename] );
return $value;
}
public function get_powered_by_html( $affiliate_code = null ) {
if ( ( ! defined('WPE_FOOTER_HTML') OR !WPE_FOOTER_HTML ) AND !$this->is_widget ) return "";
$this->already_emitted_powered_by = true;
if(WPE_FOOTER_HTML !== "") {
$html = WPE_FOOTER_HTML;
} else {
$html = $this->view('general/powered-by',array('affiliate_code'=>$affiliate_code),false);
}
return "<span class=\"wpengine-promo\">$html</span>";
}
I have a feeling it has to do with my PHP version. I am running PHP 5.4.30. Other solutions to similar problems suggested using
Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Answer 1

Delete the mu-plugins folder in you LOCAL environment... the error you are seeing is a special plugin run by WP Engine on their servers for internal use. It will, as you can see, fail if run outside the WP Engine environment.
Just make sure you don't delete the mu-plugins folder on the WP Engine server when you are putting the local environment back up to production!