Updated the PHP version of your web project.
Posted: Wed Jan 22, 2025 9:10 am
Some of these changes are groundbreaking with the previous version , either because some language instructions become obsolete or are directly removed.
What is achieved version by version is that the performance is higher . For example, the WPO would improve by receiving a faster response.
PHP also phases out support for different main branches over time. In the international email database first phase, active support is stopped and only security support is maintained, and then the branch is finally abandoned.
Currently, according to the PHP website itself, the PHP 7.4 branch onwards is currently kept alive .
The PHP7.3 branch will only receive security bug fixes until the end of 2021.
Today, according to data extracted from W3Techs, 60% of websites created in PHP are running one of the 7 versions .
But almost 40% are still using versions from the 5 branch . Even though we see that support for version 5.6 was completely discontinued in January 2019. More than two years ago .
During this time, any security flaws that appear will no longer be corrected and servers running these branches are exposed to external attacks .
The distribution within branch 7 is fairly even, but we see that the last version in active development, 7.4, is the third.
Recently, on January 1st, the latest available version was released . Branch 8. It brings a good number of changes and improvements, but depending on the starting version of our project, we will have to make more or less changes to the code base .
In a WordPress environment, what we will have to worry about, more than the CMS itself, is updating the plugins.
Many plugins are abandoned or without updates and it is possible that simply changing branches will cause our website to stop working.
Also, the custom plugins developed by our team will need to be given some TLC and see how they behave with these new versions.
It is essential to run these tests on a server other than the production server and review the error log files to see what appears.
It is very important to keep our server and our website updated. The longer we let it go, the greater the change and time we will have to invest and the more defenseless we will be against attacks that could lead to our server being full of viruses or turning into a spam transmitter.
What is achieved version by version is that the performance is higher . For example, the WPO would improve by receiving a faster response.
PHP also phases out support for different main branches over time. In the international email database first phase, active support is stopped and only security support is maintained, and then the branch is finally abandoned.
Currently, according to the PHP website itself, the PHP 7.4 branch onwards is currently kept alive .
The PHP7.3 branch will only receive security bug fixes until the end of 2021.
Today, according to data extracted from W3Techs, 60% of websites created in PHP are running one of the 7 versions .
But almost 40% are still using versions from the 5 branch . Even though we see that support for version 5.6 was completely discontinued in January 2019. More than two years ago .
During this time, any security flaws that appear will no longer be corrected and servers running these branches are exposed to external attacks .
The distribution within branch 7 is fairly even, but we see that the last version in active development, 7.4, is the third.
Recently, on January 1st, the latest available version was released . Branch 8. It brings a good number of changes and improvements, but depending on the starting version of our project, we will have to make more or less changes to the code base .
In a WordPress environment, what we will have to worry about, more than the CMS itself, is updating the plugins.
Many plugins are abandoned or without updates and it is possible that simply changing branches will cause our website to stop working.
Also, the custom plugins developed by our team will need to be given some TLC and see how they behave with these new versions.
It is essential to run these tests on a server other than the production server and review the error log files to see what appears.
It is very important to keep our server and our website updated. The longer we let it go, the greater the change and time we will have to invest and the more defenseless we will be against attacks that could lead to our server being full of viruses or turning into a spam transmitter.