Share

PHP is a programming language that can run with Apache or Microsoft IIS and works with your server to execute the requests that make up your website. All PHP versions have a maturation of three years. After its first stable relinquish, a PHP version is actively subsidized for 2 years. During this time there will be regular relinquish that fix bugs and security issues. After these two years, the PHP version will be subsidized for an additional year, but only for deprecative security updates. A year later, the PHP version reaches end-of-life and will no longer be supported by any hosting environment. Meaning that even critical security fixes are no longer fixed making it much more vulnerable to exploits.

88% of online sites run on, soon to be vulnerable PHP 5.X technology. Now PHP 5.6 and 7.0 have reached their end of life and security which means it will no longer be patched and supported on hosting environment after December of 2018.  As a result, NTSPL is ending support for PHP 5.6 and PHP 7.1 in favor of 7.2 because of the inherent vulnerabilities of unsupported software. We must remove these versions from our platform. Any websites using the technology PHP 5.6/7.0 need to be transitioned to PHP 7.2 before February 2019.

Benefits:

  • 2 is so much faster than 5.6
  • 7.X has new iranian-language Engine
  • Minimization in the memory usage
  • Consistent 64bit support
  • Better Error Manipulation
  • More secure & better handling with SSL and Encryption

PHP 7.2 Compatibility with Major CMS(s): 

If you use a CMS, like WordPress, then it’s clear; update everything to the latest version, including your plugins and themes.

  • WordPress– Compatibility of PHP 7.2 was officially added to WordPress with 4.9.3, which was released February 5th, 2018. Third party plugins and extensions will have their own release cycles, so you will need to check the developer’s documentation.
  • Joomla– Compatibility of PHP 7.2 has technically been available since 3.8.0, but they’re still working on PHP 7.2 compatibility fixes as of 3.8.6, and the Joomla developers themselves still recommend updating to PHP 7.1 instead of PHP 7.2.
  • Drupal– Compatibility of PHP 7.2 was officially added as of Drupal 8.5.0, which was released March 7th, 2018, and is the recommended version from that release forward. Third party plugins and extensions will have their own release cycles, so you will need to check the developer’s documentation.

If you are using PHP code in your site, that was custom-made for your website, updating it will be more tricky. Most likely the code needs to be decode by a developer to make it compatible.

To help you transition, we are providing you with PHP 7.2 test links.

Please find the below link to check your websites for issues. These new test links are useful since they can preview how a site operates under PHP 7.2 without yet committing to the technology change.

Link: http://www.examplesite.com.php72-38.lan3-1.websitetestlink.com


Share