Minimum PHP Version Requirement

breeze Pro

Jan 19. 2012. 11:13 am

Dear ac Dev Team,

As soon as stable version is released of ac3, I want to roll it out immediatelly and upgrade my existing ac2 to start using all the new goodies!

Only problem is my server only has PHP 5.2.17. Reason that I cannot simply upgrade PHP to a newer version is because PHP is so tied into Plesk, which is the control panel application and basically runs the whole web server on the Windows 2008 Box, and my web host company advised me that PHP 5.3 upgrade is upsupported with this current version of Plesk, and if I try to upgrade it manually it might break all sites and maybe even the control panel app itself. Plesk is not an outdated product either, in fact they are constantly releasing updates (http://download1.parallels.com/Plesk/PP10/whatsnew-windows.htm).

So, is there a special line of code, or option I can use to allow ac3 to operate but not use that PHP 5.3 feature until Plesk is updated and supports/upgrades to PHP5.3/5.4? I dont care if the install / upgrade takes 10 times as long as long as I can use it on my server!

Ilija Studen:
At this point, there's only one PHP 5.3 feature that we need, but it will significantly improve user experience for everyone: at least 2 times faster installation and upgrade time, while keeping the whole process more reliable. First think App Store like installation and upgrade... Than think frequent releases (once in 30 - 45 days) and than think what will that mean for activeCollab and you as activeCollab user in the long run (12 months for example).

We'll take advantage of other features in the upcoming releases.

PS: PHP 5.2 is no longer supported by PHP developers, and PHP 5.3 has been out for 2.5 years. PHP 5.4 is in RC3 stage now. There's no reason for hosting companies to drag their feet.

Thanks in advance for your response. Hope some kind of bypass is possible :)

Ilija Studen Staff

Jan 19. 2012. 11:40 am

#2

Hello,

We use late static binding (PHP 5.3 exclusive), and there are some strange bugs on PHP 5.2 that are on system level (random blank pages, system crashes etc). Because of that, there's 99.9% chance that PHP 5.3 will stay as a requirement. Soon after launch we'll do a bit of code clean-up that will use other PHP 5.3 features (closures, namespaces etc). These changes may come as bug fix releases to activeCollab 3, and not as part of the next major update.

You don't need to upgrade to activeCollab 3 as soon as it's out. activeCollab 2 has great support for older versions of PHP and MySQL (going back to PHP 4 and MySQL 3.23), so you can continue to use it until your hosting provider upgrades their platform (PHP 5.4 is due to be release in next 3, 4 weeks, so they will need to do that really soon).

Now, about Plesk: Here you can find instructions on how to upgrade PHP to latest version on Plesk running on Windows. It's not rocket surgery - PHP 5.3 has been around for years.

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Ilija Studen Staff

Jan 19. 2012. 11:43 am

#3

For Rackspace users - Rackspace confirmed that they'll roll out PHP 5.3 in February.

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breeze Pro

Jan 28. 2012. 3:55 am

#4

Thanks for your reply. Funny, because on the 19th when I posted that, Parallels released an update to Plesk for Windows Servers which added PHP 5.3.9 support with a quick and easy update.

http://download1.parallels.com/Plesk/PP10/parallels-plesk-panel-10-windows-updates-release-notes.html#104414

The post you mentioned was Plesk for Linux which supported 5.3 for a while.

Thanks - great that Plesk finally updated support for this version.

willemn Dev

Jan 28. 2012. 5:30 pm

#5

If you are a Rackspace user , you may also consider migrating to they Slicehost service. (They bought that company last year)

In that case you have full control over your environments (obviously that would mean you need to administrate it:))

We have 7 or so dedicated LAMP (slices) servers running there and feel it gives us the most power for the money without having to move to EC3. (with its inherent additional complexities)

On the SQL/.NET side we do not use rackspace though, for various other reasons, so if you have to live with MS, this is probably not a helpful comment :)

www.gfxi.com

Ilija Studen Staff

Mar 6. 2012. 2:44 pm

#6

PHP 5.4 is out... So much about PHP 5.3 being too much of a requirement.

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willemn Dev

Mar 6. 2012. 2:51 pm

#7

LOL "... that ... is the sound of inevitability.... mr.Anderson".

(quote from the Matrix for all of you who missed that)

www.gfxi.com

Richard Nadeau