Will PlusNet be upgrading to PHP 5 ?

[#1]

As I struggle away to teach myself some useful PHP I have become aware that there are some subtle differences between PHP 4.3 and PHP 5. (...and some that are not so subtle!)
Plusnet currently uses PHP 4.3.10.
PHP are removing their support for PHP 4 fairly soon and are lobbying users to move on to PHP 5.
Are Plusnet planning to upgrade? - and if so when?
I am sure that most of the PHP 4 features are supported in PHP 5 - but Sod's Law has worked for most of my life and I am equally sure that some of the code I am writing will not work in the event of an upgrade!
Best wishes...Trevor

[#2]

Hi there,
We are looking to overhaul the ccgi platform in the future, this would more than likely include upgrading to PHP 5. Unfortunately we don't actually have a timescale for this as there are still other projects more urgent.

[#3]

Hello
Would it be possible NOT to upgrade to php5, but to have it additionally installed?
CoolURI for example needs php5, but the cms I run needs php4.
I read that several hosters have both php4 and php5 at the same time running. Just by putting into the .htaccess file the following:

# If your ISP provides php5 but the server is running on php4
AddHandler application/x-httpd-php5 .php

.. the applications in the same directory do run with php5.


Is it possible to shed some thoughts on that.

[#4]

This is already being discussed and considered in pugit 290.

[#5]

Php4 support stops on December 31st, there are no issues to prevent the upgrade but without it you can't do a lot of Object Orientated things. 
I'm surprised that Plusnet don't already have an upgrade plan, given that php5 has been out for 3 years, and seem quite happy that they will be in the position of running unsupported software.

[#6]

How many businesses still run Windows 2000 on clients and servers?
I believe the plan is to have a dual configuration offering php5 and php4, differentiating by file extension (e.g script.php4). As Peter previously stated, there is a PUGIT open already on the subject, and voting on it would push its priority up.

[#7]

The analogy isn't quite accurate: better to ask how many businesses still code in COBOL 😉
The pugit you refer to was last updated in August with someone saying 'no'.
There seems to be a misapprehension on the part of Plusnet that things will break with a migration to php5 yet all the evidence is to the contrary.  The non-compatible changes between 4 to 5 are very very few and all published and should therefore be easy enough to cope with.
Rob

[#8]

The main problem is if people who have PHP scripts on the CCGI server that break due to the upgrade, then it would cause a major headache for PlusNet, the customer in question, and the ensuing arguements would be less than favourable.
I still have some COBOL floppies around with old projects, but very basic stuff The point I was making was that Windows 2000 is no longer supported, but it's still widely used thoughout the world.

[#9]

But, as I say, there aren't many issues that should cause scripts to break, and so that could well just be paranoia.  And after all php5 is now three years old, time enough to have started to think how to have solved these problems long before now when support for php4 is ending in little over two months.
I do understand your point about W2k, but my point was that php4 is now very very old in software development terms, and whereas w2k still works php4 doesn't - you can't write good OO code with inheritance in php4 and it doesn't implement interfaces, without going into all the other improvements in speed, reliability and functionality that have happened in the last three years.
Rob

[#10]

Any progress updates Chris? PHP 5 would really be helpful to me right now...

[#11]

A host that I use for a couple of sites upgraded their servers to php5 as the default a few months ago, and then had to roll back the changes after a couple of days when the complaints from customers where so many.  I spent a couple weeks about a year ago checking and changing code on 2 of my sites so that it now works with PHP5.  It was still a very nervous time when I changed the config to run the PHP5 version on the live sites.
Phil

[#12]

Yes there are compatibility issues with many scripts falling over as a result.
I don't think any progress has been made on this within PN.
The last entry on the Pugit item 290 says
'The current servers will not be upgraded to PHP5. However when CGI gets rebuilt at some point then it will be there as standard. This is not currently on the development roadmap so no firm dates for implementation can be offered.'
No date has been set for any work on renewing the ccgi servers as far as I am aware.

[#13]

That's a shame. It means we cannot use any of the latest features just because a few others are too lazy to upgrade. I expect PN to install v5 by the time PHP officially discontinues v4 on 2007-12-31. Although I haven't tried it should be possible to install both i.e. different handlers for hosts in httpd.conf

[#14]

Hi Guys,
We are looking to do this but currently don't have any timescales for this work.
It requires a complete overhaul of our existing platform and we're looking into a number of options for this work.

[#15]

Well, sorry, but I think it's about time you worked out some timescales for the work.  I'm amazed that PN seem so unperturbed about running seriously old software with no support.
The scare stories about sites that upgrade and then rollback are nothing more than that, scare stories.  I have sites with a couple of other ISPs and work with clients using yet others none of whom have had any problem with the upgrade.  Indeed the change to register_globals off would have caused more problems and yet that was handled with little trouble.
Come on PN, get up to date, version 6 php is out soon!
Rob