- This topic has 2 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 1 month, 3 weeks ago by
.
-
Posts
-
I need to upgrade the PHP on my wordpress website. If I upgrade to the current version of Weaver Extreme, will that upgrade my PHP to the current version as well?
NO, the theme has nothing to do with PHP, this needs to be upgrade Via the Cpanel of your host provider
NOTE: WordPress 6.3 is totally dropping support for PHP 5.x, and will now require PHP 7.0 or higher. It is WordPress itself that sets the basic requirement for the PHP version, but the actual version of PHP your site uses is determined by your hosting company, or from settings available in your Cpanel or other site options interface.
While some hosts may still support PHP 5.x, essentially all hosts support PHP 7, although probably 7.4 or higher.
Some hosts are also now automatically providing PHP 8 instead of PHP 7.x. It is likely that some hosts will even drop PHP 7 support in the not far off future.
WordPress and most Themes now support PHP 8, but there are some that don’t. Plugins are a different story. Many plugins are no longer supported by their originators, but remain in the WP repository. While most will work with PHP 7.x, a very few may not. There are many older plugins left that do not support PHP 8. All Weaver plugins support PHP 8, but do not require it. All of them do require PHP 7.
You might ask what is the difference between PHP versions. Essentially, for every major release (e.g., PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7, and PHP 8), there are new language features that are not backwards compatible. However, almost any theme or plugin that was written using PHP 5, for example, will work just fine with PHP 7 or PHP 8. There are a few exceptions (more going to PHP 8), but they are not very common, and may generate a runtime error message.
Thus, Weaver stuff now may have some PHP 7 specific code, and not work on PHP 5. But they do not have any PHP 8 specific code, but will work exactly the same on either PHP 7 or PHP 8.
Since WordPress 6.3 itself now requires PHP 7 (since it now uses specific PHP 7 language features), it will not work properly on a PHP 5 system.
Bottom line: you can no longer use PHP 5 with WordPress. Using PHP 8 will lead to the fastest performance, but there are some plugins and themes that might still have some code that generates PHP warnings with PHP 8. (Not Weaver stuff!) Unfortunately, because there are still so many existing sites and hosts that do not have PHP 8 support, WordPress, themes, and plugins are not able to use the new PHP language features added to PHP 8. Probably won’t happen for another year or two.
It is very important to keep up with the latest versions of WordPress, themes, and plugins. While each version of WordPress does add brand new features, each version always has critical fixes for various hacking vulnerabilities. It is critical for your site’s safety to keep up to date with WP, theme, and plugin updates. There are also old plugins that have not been updated which could contain vulnerabilities, and you should try to move on from them if at all possible, which is not always the case if the plugin is critical for your site’s operation.
Side Note: Automattic and WordPress (and major security plugins like Wordfence) have recently added teams that are scanning WP repository themes and plugins for known security issues, and working with theme and plugin developers to fix these issues. This operation will lead to ever more secure WordPress sites.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.