Move to vB 4.2.3 - What's your opinion on vB4.2.3

[Alan_SP]

I'm thinking about moving to vB4.2.3. I see that it's not in beta any longer (didn't see announcement about that move) and that it supports latest PHP versions (main reason for upgrade).

But, how about mods? What mods don't work anymore? Are there any other problems?

Speaking about mods, TMS is especially important to me, does it work with 4.2.3?

Anyway, what are your experiences with vB4.2.3?

And, just to ask, 4.2.2 also should support also latest PHP versions, is it true?

[Dave]

As far as I know all vBulletin 4.2.2 mods should work with 4.2.3 as well.
If it does bring up any problems with your plugins, it shouldn't be too hard to fix.

As far as I know 4.2.2 is mainly focused on PHP 5.4 and 4.2.3 on PHP 5.5.

[Alan_SP]

So, with 4.2.3 they support latest PHP, but with 4.2.2 only 5.4?

And, I'm interested in user experience with 4.2.3 after upgrade, how was that transition?

[Zachery]

You're changing minor versions between upgrades, its all about bug fixes.

[TheAdminMarket]

vB 4.2.3 is very stable for me. Also does not has some bugs that I found with Facebook connect in 4.2.2
All my mods worked fine with vB 4.2.3.

[Alan_SP]

You're changing minor versions between upgrades, its all about bug fixes.

In my previous upgrades I had problems with mods not working anymore and similar staff. Also, impact on server was sometimes staggering. For example, when I did upgrade from 4.1.2 to 4.1.12, it wreak havoc on my server, I needed to do a lot of cleaning in my mods to keep using same server.

It's not just always that easy and I know for sure that some things can go terribly wrong with doing upgrades.

For example, if TMS (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=152931) would stop working, that would be really bad for me. On the other hand, I see that TMS still works with a bit of tinkering.

And, I just remembered, what about PHP versions? Now I have 5.3, if I upgrade vB to 4.2.3, would I immediately need to upgrade PHP to 5.4+?

[Zachery]

You should be running PHP 5.6 if at all possible, if something is preventing you, you should resolve that. PHP 5.3 is not supported or secure anymore, neither is php 5.4 and 5.5 is already on its way out.

[Alan_SP]

Actually, it isn't what I meant with my question.

I was asking about upgrade process. Do I need to upgrade at same time PHP when I upgrade vB? Immediately. Will vB4.2.3 work at all with PHP 5.3?

[Zachery]

I believe 4.2.3 should be fine on 5.3, but upgrading would be a lot better.

As a note though to the other post, 4.1.2 to 4.1.12 is a a lot of builds to have skipped out on. The more often you do upgrades the less likely major things are to break between releases.

[AusPhotography]

Yes, but primarily as we run PHP 5.6.
4.2.3 also has some minor bug fixes.
As vB5 progresses 4.2.3 will be the only version that gets support (or the upcoming 4.2.4)

[Alan_SP]

I believe 4.2.3 should be fine on 5.3, but upgrading would be a lot better.

As a note though to the other post, 4.1.2 to 4.1.12 is a a lot of builds to have skipped out on. The more often you do upgrades the less likely major things are to break between releases.

So, 4.2.3 won't work at all on PHP lower than 5.3?

And, from my experience, whatever upgrade is, it can brake things if they made some software changes in code. And they sometimes make code changes that break things. It more number of things that are broken, then avoiding them completely or not.

As vB5 progresses 4.2.3 will be the only version that gets support (or the upcoming 4.2.4)

So, they are working on 4.2.4? When it is expected and what it should bring? Is there any news about it?

[cellarius]

It will bring the same as the last releases. Compatibility for current PHP versions, and (normally) nothing else (only notable exception is the Facebook fix).

[Alan_SP]

Is there any ETA on 4.2.4? Some link where they mention it?

[Dave]

I don't think they'll release another vB4 version. They seem to be fully focused on vB5, although updates for vB5 also seem to be really slow. I doesn't surprise me if vBulletin's sales has been low the last year.

[Alan_SP]

Well, as you can read, some have some info on 4.2.4.

And yes, I noticed big slowdown even on vB5. Maybe they started working on vB6, abandoning vB5?

Anyway, I think that at the moment vB4 is still best forum platform.

[Paul M]

Is there any ETA on 4.2.4? Some link where they mention it?
Beta 1 is due in November, its mostly for some Mapi updates for mobile 1.11. There are some minor bug fixes, and an update to attachments to stop the fixed deletion code removing old corrupted attachments.


And yes, I noticed big slowdown even on vB5. Maybe they started working on vB6, abandoning vB5?


Nope, just less people to work on it, tho Kevin has now returned after his summer away. The next release should be 5.2.0.

[Alan_SP]

Well, you're certainly insider.

Is there any plans about bringing back hooks in vB5, or vB6, or hooks for now are abandoned completely?

And what do you propose upgrade wise, first to upgrade PHP, or first to upgrade vB (with site closed to public) and then PHP, when upgrading to 4.2.4?

[Wisc]

Alan,
I am not super skilled but it did take me many months to upgrade. I have good internet but when I ran the script it would get to about 80% and just sit there.
I had the idea of putting all the files in and then got one of the guys at the hosting to run the script as they have fast internet and maybe connected direct to server. They ran it and it worked. I do not know why or what was wrong, just relaying my experience.

[RichieBoy67]

There have been reports of attachments going missing or breaking after this upgrade.

[Paul M]

Well, you're certainly insider.

Is there any plans about bringing back hooks in vB5, or vB6, or hooks for now are abandoned completely

Hooks (for vB5) are part of 5.2.0

[Paul M]

There have been reports of attachments going missing or breaking after this upgrade.
Hence what I mentioned in post 16.

[Alan_SP]

I had the idea of putting all the files in and then got one of the guys at the hosting to run the script as they have fast internet and maybe connected direct to server. They ran it and it worked. I do not know why or what was wrong, just relaying my experience.

Yes, every upgrade can go wrong. I usually do all work on the server (not working with FTP, but with SSH), and after all is ready, I start upgrade script with browser. But, you never knows what can go wrong. So I also make backup files before I start work on upgrade and also test everything on my test installation, so I can have idea what to expect on my live site.

You always need to prepare yourself and test things in advance.

--------------- Added 1446160516 at 1446160516 ---------------

Hooks (for vB5) are part of 5.2.0

Well, this certainly looks as a good news, it would make vB5 more appealing to users (well, site admins).

[Alan_SP]

One interesting observation.

On my server I use Plesk. And it has option to have concurrently installed many PHP versions (created by Plesk team) and that versions can be changed on the fly for each website.

Interesting thing is, I changed PHP version for my test site (which is still vB4.1.12) to PHP 5.5 and everything works just fine.

I thought that 4.1.12 wouldn't work with newer PHP versions. Or is it that only some errors are showed? Or some mods don't work (didn't tested extensively everything)?

Anyway, it looks like everything works. Of course, I still plan to upgrade, but it looks like interesting thing to see vB4.1.12 work on PHP5.5