Renewing lifetime membership causes receipting to barf

[JonGold]

I have a client whose membership signup page allows you to join a number of committees.  Some of the committees are free, some cost money.  In the current scheme, a membership for a non-free committee lasts a year, free memberships are set up as lifetime memberships.

The issue comes when someone attempts to renew their membership and checks the box to renew a lifetime membership.  The transaction goes through, but the error below occurs.

So the question is - should there ever be a situation in which a lifetime membership is renewed?  If not, we shouldn't attempt to renew lifetime memberships.

[Techie stuff]
The issue is that CRM_Member_BAO_Membership::renewMembership function is passing off to CRM_Member_BAO_Membership::fixMembershipStatusBeforeRenew, which requires an end date - and lifetime memberships have no end dates.

I could submit a patch that would put lifetime memberships in the same category as Pending/Cancelled memberships (CRM/Member/BAO/Membership.php, line 1568 on Civi 4.4.4), but I'd like to get some feedback from folks as to whether I'm missing how others use lifetime memberships before proceeding. 

Code: [Select]

Apr 05 00:34:48 [info] $Fatal Error Details = Array
(
[message] => Oops, it looks like there is no valid membership status
corresponding to the membership start and end dates for this membership.
Contact the site administrator for assistance.
[code] =>
)

Apr 05 00:34:48 [info] $backTrace = #0
/home/members/nlg/sites/nlg.org/web/sites/all/modules/civicrm/CRM/Core/Error.php(315):
CRM_Core_Error::backtrace("backTrace", TRUE)
#1
/home/members/nlg/sites/nlg.org/web/sites/all/modules/civicrm/CRM/Member/BAO/Membership.php(1795):
CRM_Core_Error::fatal("Oops, it looks like there is no valid membership
status corresponding to the ...")
#2
/home/members/nlg/sites/nlg.org/web/sites/all/modules/civicrm/CRM/Member/BAO/Membership.php(1581):
CRM_Member_BAO_Membership::fixMembershipStatusBeforeRenew((Array:14),
"20140405003448")
#3
/home/members/nlg/sites/nlg.org/web/sites/all/modules/civicrm/CRM/Member/BAO/Membership.php(1343):
CRM_Member_BAO_Membership::renewMembership("29750", "25", FALSE,
Object(CRM_Contribute_Form_Contribution_Confirm), NULL, "29750",
(Array:0), 1)
#4
/home/members/nlg/sites/nlg.org/web/sites/all/civicrm/CRM/Contribute/Form/Contribution/Confirm.php(929):
CRM_Member_BAO_Membership::postProcessMembership((Array:71), "29750",
Object(CRM_Contribute_Form_Contribution_Confirm), (Array:60), (Array:0),
(Array:0))
#5
/home/members/nlg/sites/nlg.org/web/sites/all/modules/civicrm/CRM/Core/Form.php(246):
CRM_Contribute_Form_Contribution_Confirm->postProcess()
#6
/home/members/nlg/sites/nlg.org/web/sites/all/modules/civicrm/CRM/Core/StateMachine.php(160):
CRM_Core_Form->mainProcess()
#7
/home/members/nlg/sites/nlg.org/web/sites/all/modules/civicrm/CRM/Core/QuickForm/Action/Next.php(60):
CRM_Core_StateMachine->perform(Object(CRM_Contribute_Form_Contribution_Confirm),
"next", "Next")
#8
/home/members/nlg/sites/nlg.org/web/sites/all/modules/civicrm/packages/HTML/QuickForm/Controller.php(203):
CRM_Core_QuickForm_Action_Next->perform(Object(CRM_Contribute_Form_Contribution_Confirm),
"next")
#9
/home/members/nlg/sites/nlg.org/web/sites/all/modules/civicrm/packages/HTML/QuickForm/Page.php(103):
HTML_QuickForm_Controller->handle(Object(CRM_Contribute_Form_Contribution_Confirm),
"next")
#10
/home/members/nlg/sites/nlg.org/web/sites/all/modules/civicrm/CRM/Core/Controller.php(316):
HTML_QuickForm_Page->handle("next")
#11
/home/members/nlg/sites/nlg.org/web/sites/all/modules/civicrm/CRM/Core/Invoke.php(292):
CRM_Core_Controller->run((Array:3), NULL)
#12
/home/members/nlg/sites/nlg.org/web/sites/all/modules/civicrm/CRM/Core/Invoke.php(70):
CRM_Core_Invoke::runItem((Array:15))
#13
/home/members/nlg/sites/nlg.org/web/sites/all/modules/civicrm/CRM/Core/Invoke.php(52):
CRM_Core_Invoke::_invoke((Array:3))
#14
/home/members/nlg/sites/nlg.org/web/sites/all/modules/civicrm/drupal/civicrm.module(436):
CRM_Core_Invoke::invoke((Array:3))
#15 [internal function](): civicrm_invoke("contribute", "transact")
#16 /usr/local/share/drupal-7.26/includes/menu.inc(517):
call_user_func_array("civicrm_invoke", (Array:2))
#17 /usr/local/share/drupal-7.26/index.php(21):
menu_execute_active_handler()
#18 {main}

[petednz]

afaik lifetime should never be renewed/renewable - i am talking civicrm here not metaphysically ;-)