[Online] Safely Upgrading PHP & WordPress Compatibility

WordPress runs on the PHP programming language. Typically, a new major version of PHP comes out each year, and an old one is no longer supported. Upgrading to a new version typically improves speed and performance, while staying on an old version is a security risk. Some hosting providers leave the PHP upgrades up to you. Others force the PHP upgrades and might not even tell you.

Do you know your version of PHP? You can check by going to your WordPress backend, the Tools > Site Health menu, the Info tab, and the Server accordion.

The currently supported PHP releases are 7.4, 8.0, and 8.1. Security support for 7.4 ends on November 28, and some hosting providers will force you to upgrade to 8.0 before that date. Approximately 93% of WordPress websites are still on PHP 7.4 or older, according to https://wordpress.org/about/stats/.

Unfortunately, there are compatibility risks when upgrading PHP. Your site could potentially go down and become inaccessible, even the backend. Certain PHP upgrades, like the one from 7.4 to 8.0, contain bigger changes and more risk. So you need to be careful, and ideally, test your site before upgrading.

In this presentation, Doug Yuen will discuss how to safely navigate PHP upgrades. He's tested and upgraded dozens of websites from 7.4 to 8.0, and so far he's seen issues for about 1/3 of them. We'll cover best practices for when to upgrade, why you may not want to upgrade to the latest PHP version right away, how to reduce the chance of PHP compatibility errors, how to test and check for errors, and how to fix the errors.

Doug Yuen is the founder of EfficientWP and has been building websites exclusively with WordPress for 14 years. He's a former Portland resident and former co-organizer of the Portland WordPress Meetup. Doug currently lives in Hilo, Hawaii.

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Note: This will not be at our usual location, it will be an online event using Zoom. If you don't already have an account, you can sign up for free at https://zoom.us. You can download the desktop software, use a browser extension, or download the mobile app. If you haven't used Zoom before, please get set up and familiar with it in advance. We recommend you upgrade to the latest version. If you're using the desktop software, you may need to check for upgrades manually.

For added security, the Zoom link will not be public. You must RSVP to see it.

Along the bottom of the Zoom window, there are buttons to mute/unmute yourself, enable/disable your video, and access the Participants, Chat, and Reactions panels.

For security and to prevent interruptions, everyone else will be prevented from screen sharing during the meetup. Your audio and video should be off by default when you join the call, but you may want to double-check when you join. You can unmute yourself and turn on your video, but please note that you may be included in the recording. If you unmute yourself, please only do so temporarily, while you're asking your question. This helps reduce background noise in the recording.

If you have a question, please click the button to "raise your hand". Depending on your version of Zoom, this will be located in either the Reactions panel or the Participants panel. Our presenter will take breaks to answer questions, and our moderator will call on whoever has their hand raised. You can unmute yourself while you ask your question, and then mute yourself and lower your hand after you're done.

You can use the Chat panel to introduce yourself and converse with others, but if you have a question for the presenter, remember to "raise your hand". We won't be monitoring the chat as frequently, so questions there may be overlooked.

We'll record the presentation and link to the video in the comments once it's been processed.

If time permits, we'll open up the conversation after the presentation. We encourage people to converse in our Portland Slack group for general WordPress discussion at any time. You can join our Portland Slack Group.