PHP8 will be the minimum version from November 2022

[My Sharona]

18 minutes ago, Jim M said:

My advice would be to start working with these authors or if they are older add-ons that don’t work on PHP 8 and the author abandoned them, start working on an alternative plan, if they are crucial to your community. As the time will come when a PHP 8 upgrade will come very soon. 

Okay, so I'm slightly confused here.

You indicated that as Matt said, I have nothing to worry about. Now, from the wording of your latest reply, it would seem that that is not entirely the case. Again, I will ask... Will CiC customers be forced to PHP 8.x come November and thusly breaking these mods that currently do not work well with PHP 8.x?

 

[Jim M]

3 minutes ago, My Sharona said:

Okay, so I'm slightly confused here.

You indicated that as Matt said, I have nothing to worry about. Now, from the wording of your latest reply, it would seem that that is not entirely the case. Again, I will ask... Will CiC customers be forced to PHP 8.x come November and thusly breaking these mods that currently do not work well with PHP 8.x?

 

Yes, the way you phrased it sounds like you were worried about our software change rather than PHP. Yes, we will be upgrading PHP to 8 on Cloud as 7 will be no longer supported by PHP in November. The date is pending but it is indeed coming so you will need to prepare. 

[My Sharona]

14 minutes ago, Jim M said:

Yes, the way you phrased it sounds like you were worried about our software change rather than PHP. Yes, we will be upgrading PHP to 8 on Cloud as 7 will be no longer supported by PHP in November. The date is pending but it is indeed coming so you will need to prepare. 

Oye.

So... I guess the wording of the OP should probably be changed slightly as, I am a CiC customer and I do have something to worry about.

I suspect the upset we have seen to this point is nothing compared to what will be seen when it is forced.

[My Sharona]

So.. subsequent questions arise.

How do I know if a Marketplace file is compatible with PHP 8.0?

 

Example: If I go directly to the file, and it states:

• Compatibility
  4.6,4.7

Yet we see reports in support threads that it is not compatible. How are we supposed to know whether or not it works correctly and is actually compatible? Should it state that it is "compatible with 4.7.2.1" or possibly "compatible with PHP 8.0?"

 

Additionally, we see that the authors of some mods have submitted an update that was accepted but is throwing errors? What is one to think, know and/or do with all the confusion that abounds? 

Edited September 25, 2022 by My Sharona

[Jim M]

1 hour ago, My Sharona said:

So.. subsequent questions arise.

How do I know if a Marketplace file is compatible with PHP 8.0?

 

Example: If I go directly to the file, and it states:

• Compatibility
  4.6,4.7

Yet we see reports in support threads that it is not compatible. How are we supposed to know whether or not it works correctly and is actually compatible? Should it state that it is "compatible with 4.7.2.1" or possibly "compatible with PHP 8.0?"

 

Additionally, we see that the authors of some mods have submitted an update that was accepted but is throwing errors? What is one to think, know and/or do with all the confusion that abounds? 

As mentioned in this article, there is a utility in 4.7.2 which will help identify installed third party applications/plugins not compatible with PHP 8. With any that are identified, you will need to work with the author.

There is not something in the Marketplace at this time identifying this in our fields but authors may be outlining this in their description and release notes.

[My Sharona]

6 hours ago, Jim M said:

As mentioned in this article, there is a utility in 4.7.2 which will help identify installed third party applications/plugins not compatible with PHP 8. With any that are identified, you will need to work with the author.

This isn't much of a starter.

In order to utilize the utility, I would have to upgrade to 4.7.2.1. Then, if the utility decides that the plugin isn't compatible, I'm stuck with a broken website. Not something I am willing to do at present. Of course, come a date in November, being a CiC customer, I will certainly have no choice.

I'm not blaming IPS at all here. I understand that things are evolving and that PHP 7.x is end of life, so the pain will come at some point. I guess what I am hoping for before that drop dead date arrives, is that there will be some way to gauge whether or not a plugin is compatible without breaking my website by upgrading at which point I would be stuck, regardless.

Edited September 25, 2022 by My Sharona

[Randy Calvert]

Hint… create a subdomain like beta.yourdomain.com.  Make a copy of your MySQL database and copy your IPB files from the prod instance to the test instance. 

Edit your conf_global.php with the new database info and the new base URL. 

Activate your test install license for it and do whatever tests you want. 

[Nathan Explosion]

16 hours ago, My Sharona said:

For those of us on the CiC

@Randy Calvert here's the bit you've missed 

[Randy Calvert]

11 minutes ago, Nathan Explosion said:

@Randy Calvert here's the bit you've missed 

In that case ask the resource author or use a self hosted license for testing. 🙂

[Marc]

10 hours ago, My Sharona said:

In order to utilize the utility, I would have to upgrade to 4.7.2.1. Then, if the utility decides that the plugin isn't compatible, I'm stuck with a broken website. Not something I am willing to do at present. Of course, come a date in November, being a CiC customer, I will certainly have no choice.

What you are missing here is if you are on PHP 7.4 you can upgrade to 4.7.2.1. It will then check and if things are not compatible with PHP 8, it will disable them. You can then reenable them if you are on PHP 7.4, but you will then know which will break when we force it.

If you are unsure however, you need to contact the authors of your applications/plugins

[My Sharona]

3 minutes ago, Marc Stridgen said:

What you are missing here is if you are on PHP 7.4 you can upgrade to 4.7.2.1. It will then check and if things are not compatible with PHP 8, it will disable them. You can then reenable them if you are on PHP 7.4, but you will then know which will break when we force it.

If you are unsure however, you need to contact the authors of your applications/plugins

I do not know what version of PHP I am on currently, as within the 'Get Support' it is not listed. I would guess though that being 4.7.1, I am PHP 7.4.

That aside, if I am understanding you correctly here...

If the compatibility checker disables certain plugins, I can reenable them and they will work? Running 4.7.2.1 they will work as presently on 4.7.1?

[Marc]

6 minutes ago, My Sharona said:

I do not know what version of PHP I am on currently, as within the 'Get Support' it is not listed. I would guess though that being 4.7.1, I am PHP 7.4.

Cloud is currently on 7.4 . 

7 minutes ago, My Sharona said:

If the compatibility checker disables certain plugins, I can reenable them and they will work? Running 4.7.2.1 they will work as presently on 4.7.1?

We cannot guarantee that. But that is the same with any upgrade at all. You would need to check that with the author of your products. What I am saying is if they work on 7.4 then yes they will work if you enable them again. At present, its informative and saying "Listen, we are going to update to PHP 8, and these things will break your site entirely in future"

[My Sharona]

21 minutes ago, Marc Stridgen said:

But that is the same with any upgrade at all.

Right. And this is why I do not upgrade right away, because there are always inherent failures.

I will probably be one of the last to upgrade and pray like hell that everything will work. I don't have much other choice.

[Marc]

1 hour ago, My Sharona said:

Right. And this is why I do not upgrade right away, because there are always inherent failures.

I will probably be one of the last to upgrade and pray like hell that everything will work. I don't have much other choice.

Of course this is up to yourself. Please bear in mind however if you leave it too long, you will then be upgrading at a point where items are disabled and locked, rather than just disabled. 

[LiveG]

Does the PHP 8 Compatibility Scanner also check and disable custom uploaded apps?

[Jim M]

2 minutes ago, LiveG said:

Does the PHP 8 Compatibility Scanner also check and disable custom uploaded apps?

Yes.

[DamonT]

@Jim M when will the November issue be released? Will it be before November or in November? To be more precise: when will be the last moment to upgrade to 4.7.2.X? I can't switch my server to PHP8 yet (due to other systems).

[Randy Calvert]

22 minutes ago, DamonT said:

@Jim M when will the November issue be released? Will it be before November or in November? To be more precise: when will be the last moment to upgrade to 4.7.2.X? I can't switch my server to PHP8 yet (due to other systems).

IPS does not give specific release dates. HISTORICALLY releases tend to happen later in the month… sometime between Tuesday and Thursday. (No weekends or Monday/Friday releases traditionally.)  You can also eliminate Thanksgiving as they won’t most likely release right before a major US holiday since many staff will be off. 

So that might help you narrow down things a bit. 

[Marc]

2 hours ago, DamonT said:

@Jim M when will the November issue be released? Will it be before November or in November? To be more precise: when will be the last moment to upgrade to 4.7.2.X? I can't switch my server to PHP8 yet (due to other systems).

November releases would be released in November. With regard when the last moment will be for you to upgrade to the latest, the answer to that is whenever you wish to do so. There is nothing forcing you to upgrade. Just be aware by not doing so, we would be able to offer limited support (the answer at times may be to upgrade), and that you are knowingly running a PHP version that will not be patched if there are security issues found.

[Matt]

@My Sharona I would hope that mod authors are working on getting their products working with PHP8 already. It's worth checking the marketplace (4.7.2 compatibility), or reaching out to ask them directly if they have completed this step yet.

@DamonT We'll try to get the November release out the first week of November to avoid putting pressure on our support and dev teams over Thanksgiving. As @Marc Stridgen has pointed out, you are not forced to upgrade so if you need a few more weeks that is fine.

[Balto]

5 hours ago, Marc Stridgen said:

November releases would be released in November. With regard when the last moment will be for you to upgrade to the latest, the answer to that is whenever you wish to do so. There is nothing forcing you to upgrade. Just be aware by not doing so, we would be able to offer limited support (the answer at times may be to upgrade), and that you are knowingly running a PHP version that will not be patched if there are security issues found.

There will be an October release in between? Or there will be no more releases until November? Thanks!

[Matt]

6 minutes ago, Balto said:

There will be an October release in between? Or there will be no more releases until November? Thanks!

We are planning an October release. 🙂 

[LiveG]

Let's say i have upgraded my test site to 4.7.2, and some apps were disabled as expected, and I re-enabled them.
After taking care of these problematic apps (upload a new version probably), can i manually re-run the scanner to recheck apps compatibility and see if the app will disable status all over again? 

Edited September 27, 2022 by LiveG

[Daniel F]

2 minutes ago, LiveG said:

Let's say i have upgraded my test site to 4.7.2, and some apps were disabled as expected, and I re-enabled them.
After taking care of these problematic apps (upload a new version probably), can i manually re-run the scanner to recheck compatibility and see if the app will disable status all over again? 

The support page in your ACP contains now a new block which will tell you if there are any issues.

[My Sharona]

@Matt Thank you for the care and concern. You guys and the support from IPS is amongst the best, if not the, best. I can't tell you how much it means. Having suffered through many years with support that didn't come close. While I may not agree with all direction taken (it's not my show), the effort and energy IPS continually displays with regard to it's customer base shows. 

4 hours ago, Matt said:

@My Sharona I would hope that mod authors are working on getting their products working with PHP8 already. It's worth checking the marketplace (4.7.2 compatibility), or reaching out to ask them directly if they have completed this step yet.

I have asked a few, seen where others have asked for a file to be updated (hence, no need for me to add redundancy), and saw where others have said they have submitted updates that have been approved yet subsequent comments indicate that errors are still being thrown. This last was the impetus for my comment here:

On 9/25/2022 at 11:23 AM, My Sharona said:

So.. subsequent questions arise.

How do I know if a Marketplace file is compatible with PHP 8.0?

 

Example: If I go directly to the file, and it states:

• Compatibility
  4.6,4.7

Yet we see reports in support threads that it is not compatible. How are we supposed to know whether or not it works correctly and is actually compatible? Should it state that it is "compatible with 4.7.2.1" or possibly "compatible with PHP 8.0?"

Additionally, we see that the authors of some mods have submitted an update that was accepted but is throwing errors? What is one to think, know and/or do with all the confusion that abounds? 

 

Not to single anyone out here, and she does work that is amazing but I see where @HeadStand (and I do apologize here for the example, Esther) submitted an update that was apparently approved. I say apparently because if you venture to the file in question it says that it is compatible with 4.7 and a bit further down the page, under, 'What's New in Version 2.4.6', it states that it was, 'Updated for 4.7.2 compatibility.'

Now, if you read down from my linked content, 'submitted,' you will see that even though the file was approved for 4.7.2, customers are complaining that they are receiving errors and that the PHP8 Compatibility Scanner is flagging the file, even though it was approved as a compatible file.

To her credit, Esther checked the file even after it was approved by IPS, to be sure it was what it was supposed to be. After which she stated that it was correct. Subsequently, other customers indicated they too were getting flagged.

All of which reiterates my contention, how does one know if it works when there is so much confusion.

 

I don't want my site to break, I want to upgrade to remain current. I want to upgrade before I am forced to, but only want to do so when I am certain that the probability that things will break is next to zero. IPS could help with these concerns but I think sometimes that the minutiae some customers express gets lost in the hustle and bustle that (in this particular instance) PHP 8.x is causing. I expressed my concerns in a way I thought to be clear but, as I stated, sometimes, for whatever reason, things get lost in the shuffle. 

 

 

Edited September 27, 2022 by My Sharona