The official announcement is that PHP 7.4 will go to end-of-life on November 11, 2022. This means it will be removed from the hosting servers and replaced with the new version of PHP 8.0. This prevents websites from running outdated versions from being a hacker’s target. This is a safety issue. No matter what we do at IGV this update is out of our control, but we must prepare our clients for this substantial change.
What does this have to do with my website? The answer…everything!
Like every phone or computer that releases a newer operating system, with an update on the features and enhancement, it can be challenging to understand all the technical blah, blah of improvements and updates with the new operating system version for a cell phone or PC.
We will spare you the eye-glazing technical updates that went into PHP 8 and focus on how this official announcement impacts your website.
It was found that nearly 80% of the content management systems (CMS) running WordPress are working on the stable release version of PHP 7.4. WordPress is said to be compatible with 8.0 but still undergoing final testing and verification that it will work in its barebone state.
What is IGV doing to prepare for this update? IGV is testing your website in a developer sandbox to check compatibility with PHP 8.
When testing many of our customers’ websites in our sandbox environment, we have found that either part of or the entire website does not work with PHP 8. What is NOT working on many of the sites is the theme builder (it’s the navigation, look, and feel of the web) or plugins (forms, chatbots, online store, social media sharing options, etc., are controlled by various WordPress plugins) needs further development to be compatible with PHP 8. There will be a significant change with the PHP 8 make compared to legacy versions. See below a few examples:
What will happen to my website when PHP 7.4 support ends?
Don’t Panic.
We know the first thing you might be thinking about is that you might have to redesign the website again. That is not necessarily true for most customers. However, It does mean that IGV will be on the lookout for when an update is available for the theme builder or plugins used on your website to announce compatibility with PHP 8.0.
We will continue to keep you up-to-date on where your website stands, and what changes need to be made before the November 2022 deadline. Stay tuned.
Please visit our website to understand what is covered under our WordPress Maintenance Services, and click the question mark icon for a full explanation of each item making up the server.
