{"id":1896664,"date":"2019-10-18T13:19:48","date_gmt":"2019-10-18T17:19:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.theeventscalendar.com\/knowledgebase\/php-version-requirement-changes-2\/"},"modified":"2024-09-16T13:38:14","modified_gmt":"2024-09-16T17:38:14","slug":"php-version-requirement-changes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.theeventscalendar.com\/knowledgebase\/php-version-requirement-changes\/","title":{"rendered":"PHP Requirements"},"content":{"rendered":"

The minimum required PHP version is 7.4. If you’re using an earlier version, please update to 7.4 or above. We\u2019ve got you covered and can take you through the steps on how to make this change, and will explain <\/span>why<\/span><\/i> this change will be beneficial for all of us.<\/span><\/p>\n

What is PHP?<\/h2>\n

In its simplest terms, PHP is the language that WordPress is written in. PHP acts as the foundation on which your WordPress site is run on, and <\/span>the more recent the version of PHP your site uses, the faster and more secure your site will be.<\/b><\/p>\n

It\u2019s important to note that PHP versions below 7.4 generally don\u2019t receive security fixes, meaning they\u2019re no longer maintained. PHP 5.6 reached End of Life on December 31st 2018, which marks the official end of support and updates for this version. This could\u2014and often does\u2014leave a site running older versions of PHP vulnerable to hackers.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to <\/span>WordPress.org<\/span><\/a>, site owners should care about PHP because of the three things they care about the most:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFirst, they want their website to work as expected when people visit it\u2014we often call this <\/span>site availability<\/b>. Second, another major concern is how fast the site loads and functions, or <\/span>site performance<\/b>. Finally, you likely want your site to make use of all the latest and greatest tools, or <\/span>features<\/b>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Why are we making this change?<\/h2>\n

Using a more recent version of PHP will not only help us build a better product\u2014it\u2019ll also help to cut down on support time for outdated PHP versions. This change will furthermore create a better testing environment for us so that we can get bug fixes out more efficiently. These things, along with improved security and performance, will benefit not only our team but our users as well.<\/p>\n

With an updated version of PHP, your site can handle more visitors and can run faster than with an outdated version. All of these things will benefit not only our team but our users as well.<\/p>\n

Who else has implemented this change?<\/h2>\n

WordPress.org itself now recommends upgrading to version 7.4 or greater, as outlined in this article<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

WooCommerce also recommends PHP version 7.4 or greater, <\/span>as stated on their website<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

As part of this trend to update to more recent PHP versions that we are already seeing, <\/span>Yoast SEO<\/span><\/a> also follows the same requirements that WordPress itself follows.<\/span><\/p>\n

Which plugins are affected?<\/h2>\n

This change will affect the following plugins:<\/span><\/p>\n