Ridiculous that vbulletin 4.x isnt updated to support php 5.4

[owning_y0u]

the past few weeks we made major efforts to consolidate our website and upgrade everything Core PHP software and that kinda stuff. Everything worked fine until we where running in php warnings and double posting errors in vbulletin 4.2.

Back in 2012 it was announced that php 5.3 is reaching its end of life status in the near future.
Since the early 2012 vBulletin staff has posted that a fix for php 5.4 was planned

vBulletin 5 is far away from being usable as professional forum software, IMHO. Problems with the basic user interface that makes it far less usable than even free open source solutions for a successful forum. I cannot have current users confounded and frustrated by the myriad of issues which are confusing or simply don't work as expected.

So what is a customer of vBulletin supposed to do?
All forum software that competes with vBulletin (includes free open source forums)- is compatible with php5.4

We have fixed the issue with parsings but vbulletin developers and the internet brands management should already have patched out the incompatibility of vbulletin 4.x with php 5.4

[cellarius]

Why don't you bring this up on vbulletin.com? That's where the company is. This is only the addon site.

[RickyH]

I had issues for about 4 weeks after purchasing the license for vb 5 (with access to previous versions) due to PHP 5.3. I consulted vBulletin.com directly and they've somewhat assured me that they are working on a patch for 5.3, although i somehow doubt this will come anytime soon before vb 4 dies off anyways.

[DF031]

In the official VB forums they have indicated an ETA for PHP5.4 support.

[cellarius]

In the official VB forums they have indicated an ETA for PHP5.4 support.
Link?

[DF031]

<a href="http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/forum/vbulletin-4" target="_blank">http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/forum/vbulletin-4</a>

[cellarius]

Thank you for the link, but what is it supposed to show? I'm a vB customer for almost 10 years, having ~ 4.5k posts on vbulletin.com under my belt. I actually know where to look for the official vB4 support forums, should I ever need them.

You said an ETA for php 5.4 support had been "indicated", and I asked for a link. It would be really nice if you could provide such a link - to the actual post with the actual "indication", not to the vbulletin support forums in general.

[nhawk]

<a href="http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/forum/vbulletin-4/vbulletin-4-installations-and-upgrades/3990787-php-5-3-x-and-vbulletin-4-x" target="_blank">http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/forum...-vbulletin-4-x</a>

[DF031]

I do not remember the exact url or name of the topic. My memory is not that good. Sorry. Try using the search enigine on the indicated forum.

[ozzy47]

I still don't see a ETA in that link either.

[Zachery]

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/blogs/george-l-vb-4-x-blog/3991278-vbulletin-4-2-x-and-php-5-4-unofficial-work-around-automated-shell-script

Also:

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/forum/vbulletin-announcements/vbulletin-announcements_aa/3993394-vbulletin-4-2-2-alpha-has-been-released

[cellarius]

I do not remember the exact url or name of the topic. My memory is not that good. Sorry. Try using the search enigine on the indicated forum.
You're the one claiming vBS giving an ETA for PHP 5.4 compliance, so it really is up to you to back that up. If you can't, I'll just assume it never happened: You don't remember because there never was an ETA given - not for vB 4.2.2 and not for any other release in the past. Not even the announcements Zachery linked to, dating today, conain an ETA. Anyway, an ETA hidden away in some obscure thread no one ever saw or can find, given by some poor support wretch that might be fired the next day would mean nothing anyway.

[DF031]

I am so sorry I can not back it up instantly as you demand. My sincere and humble apologies. Rest asure I will not make this mistake again.

[FractalizeR]

It looks (http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/forum/vbulletin-sales-and-feedback/vbulletin-pre-sales-questions/4151380-what-is-the-best-php-version-for-runing-vbulletin-4-2-2) like now VB 4.2.2 is PHP 5.5 compatible?

[Zachery]

No, but 4.2.3 is.

[FractalizeR]

There is no 4.2.3 yet. Only 4.2.2 PL1 at support area.

[tbworld]

It is still marked beta. Check the beta channel. :)

[AusPhotography]

4.2.3 beta 2 is not likely to change - it is stable

[Paul M]

There is no 4.2.3 yet. Only 4.2.2 PL1 at support area.
Look again.

4.2.3 Beta 2 is available. Its perfectly fine to run on live sites, and for php 5.4 & 5.5 would be the better choice than 4.2.2. It *should* (afaik) be ok for php 5.6 as well.

[Disco_Stu]

What exactly are the compatibility issues between vBulletin 4.xx and PHP 5.4 & 5.5? Is it syntax, functions, etc??

[AndrewSimm]

What does beta 2 fix over beta 1?

btw I run php 5.5.16 / PHP-FPM and Zend OpCache and they run great. I get much better performance than I did on 5.4 / PHP-FPM and APC. I am just waiting on cPanel to release PHP 5.6 before trying that.

[ozzy47]

What exactly are the compatibility issues between vBulletin 4.xx and PHP 5.4 & 5.5? Is it syntax, functions, etc??


The purpose of this release is to update the software to PHP 5.5.0 compliance by replacing the /e parameter in regular expressions with proper callback functions. vBulletin 4.2.3 Beta 1 also includes fixes for PHP 5.4.0 compliance along with several other minor bug fixes.

[Disco_Stu]

The purpose of this release is to update the software to PHP 5.5.0 compliance by replacing the /e parameter in regular expressions with proper callback functions. vBulletin 4.2.3 Beta 1 also includes fixes for PHP 5.4.0 compliance along with several other minor bug fixes.

So the main issue is with parameters on calls to PHP functions? Can you please provide an example?

I'm trying to determine the scope of these incompatibilities and if a few simple code changes can address them.

[ozzy47]

That would be a question you should as on vB.com, this site is not geared towards that type of thing.

[tbworld]

I use a simply file/text compare utility with a filter. Gets the job done nicely. :)

[Disco_Stu]

That would be a question you should as on vB.com, this site is not geared towards that type of thing.

I was just curious if this is a major issue or a minor issue. I was hoping to see a code example to see what the real issue is. Sometimes these things boil down to a few minor software changes.

If it's a mater of modifying call parms then I have no problem making the changes myself instead of applying an upgrade. I've modified so much of the original PHP files and templates that at least 1/3 of the code I use is not native vBulletin anymore.

[tbworld]

I was guessing that was the reason. I am not sure If if I have my filtered source files, but I will check. If I do, I will grab you some sample code changes. Sorry, I do not remember the bulk of changes .. it has been a while already. :)

[tbworld]

So there are quite a few simple line edits, three to four hours of manual work while watching football if your not using folder/file text compare utility, less if you are using auto text replacement software. Two or less lines per file require changing on average.

I attached a list of the changed files. I doubt that I am allowed to post the actual text changes in all the files.

:)

[Disco_Stu]

So there are quite a few simple line edits, three to four hours of manual work while watching football if your not using folder/file text compare utility, less if you are using auto text replacement software. Two or less lines per file require changing on average.

I attached a list of the changed files. I doubt that I am allowed to post the actual text changes in all the files.

:)

I appreciate the file list but what I meant was a single line of code that is an issue due to the newer version of PHP. Like a call statement or function where the parameters are inconsistent with the new PHP versions.

For example:

Current PHP version FunctionX(parm1, parm2, parm3)

New PHP version FunctionX(parm1, parm2, parm3, parm4, parm5)


A piece of actual code that is a problem due to a newer version of PHP

In other words, not the number of files that need to be changed but what the changes actually are. I can scan the files for the code to change if I know what the required changes are

[tbworld]

I thought I knew what you were looking for so I second guessed you. I figured you wanted to know weather it was worth your expenditure of time at this point, which is why I opted to give you the results in the above format. Unfortunately, I do not have the time to look at most of the files to give you a generalization or search terms, but would be happy to present you with some differences if you want to select a few files from that list. Most of the changes or summation are already outlined on the PHP site, under migration. The vBulletin changes I noticed, followed the guideline. I have a complete filtered list, but it will be less time consuming for you to compare your source to the original and makes changes accordingly. Creating a side-by-side compare list can easily be accomplished with file/text compare software, as you know. The company I work for generates their own code utilities, but if you need references to commercial utilities then I can suggest a few. They are not for the novice, as having a good understanding of filtering techniques is a must -- as would be expected.

As long as your specific, I am happy to provide you with whatever I know. :)

[Disco_Stu]

do not have the time to look at most of the files to give you a generalization or search terms, but would be happy to present you with some differences if you want to select a few files from that list.

That's ok. I appreciate the offer but I can't ask you to spend any time on this just for me.

I think what I'll do is take the brute force approach and run my site in test with a newer version of PHP and address each issue as it pops up during a test period.

Thanks again for your help.

[NesTT]

vB 4.2.3 and PHP 5.6

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/external/2016/07/13.png

Errors found:
- Blank textarea when editing post.
- Empty textarea (message value of CKEditor) when there are smilies in message. Ajax.php response: 403 Forbidden (due to empty parameter: message).

[RichieBoy67]

vB 4.2.3 and PHP 5.6

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/external/2016/07/13.png

Errors found:
- Blank textarea when editing post.
- Empty textarea (message value of CKEditor) when there are smilies in message. Ajax.php response: 403 Forbidden (due to empty parameter: message).
Why don't you try the latest beta?

[Paul M]

I have several vb4 sites running on php 5.6 (and one on php 7) - none of them have such an issue.

Indeed I would think the forum would have lots of people complaining about it, and multiple Jiras logged.

Since there is none of this, I suspect your issue is more local to you and your set-up.

[RichieBoy67]

I have several vb4 sites running on php 5.6 (and one on php 7) - none of them have such an issue.

Indeed I would think the forum would have lots of people complaining about it, and multiple Jiras logged.

Since there is none of this, I suspect your issue is more local to you and your set-up.
I have a couple running on 5.6 as well with no issues..

This issue is perhaps a plug in..