Really sad to see you go Paul!

I no longer see the other 4.2.5 betas.. I only see 4.2.5 Beta 4.. Is this stable?

our web hosting forum is running on this version.

It is running on php 7.1 and mariadb, https and installed some other hosting addons.

I don't see problems with it except some mods could need to fixed to be compatible with php 7.1

I am getting this database error with 4.2.5.. Not running php 7.1 yet..running 7:

I am getting this database error with 4.2.5.. Not running php 7.1 yet..running 7:

Database error in vBulletin 4.2.5 Beta 4: Invalid SQL: SELECT fd.thumbnail_dateline, fd.filesize, IF(fd.thumbnail_filesize > 0, 1, 0) AS hasthumbnail, fd.thumbnail_filesize, a.dateline, a.state, a.attachmentid, a.counter, a.contentid, a.filename, a.userid, a.settings, a.displayorder, at.contenttypes FROM attachment AS a INNER JOIN filedata AS fd ON (fd.filedataid = a.filedataid) LEFT JOIN attachmenttype AS at ON (at.extension = fd.extension) WHERE a.contentid = 222 AND a.contenttypeid = ORDER BY a.contentid, a.displayorder;

--------------- Added 03 Apr 2017 at 18:48 ---------------

Looks like a plug in.. I will check server logs..

--------------- Added 03 Apr 2017 at 19:23 ---------------

This must have been something cached after the upgrade because it is gone now and I cannot reporoduce.

What is PHP 7.2?

The latest PHP version is 7.1.3 http://php.net/downloads.php which I am using for my forum.

You should try to upgrade php 7 to php 7.1.3 :)

Sorry, typo.. meant not running 7.1..

actually I am running 7.1.3

The final release of 4.2.5 will be next week.
This allows vB4 to run on PHP 7.0 & PHP 7.1

JFYI, I have PHP 7.2 installed on a test server, and changes in that will upset vB4.
I'm leaving IB, so I wont [officially] work on any 4.2.6, and I'm certain no one else will either.

Do you know on top of your head if the deprecations listed here https://wiki.php.net/rfc/deprecations_php_7_2 are causing these errors/bugs?

They are caused by two of the accepted RFCs for PHP 7.2

https://wiki.php.net/rfc#php_next_72

Specifically the "Deprecate and Remove Bareword (Unquoted) Strings" & "Counting of non-countable objects".


The forums limp along with error messages (Posting mostly breaks, esp via quick reply) - the ACP is rendered inaccessible.

I think I speak for all VB4 holdouts when I say that I deeply appreciate your efforts on our behalf. Thank you.

Also, I think you need a more appropriate avatar. :)

I just did a search for php7 with vb4 and ended up here. Looking forward to trying out 4.2.5

Thanks for the efforts!

The final version of 4.2.5 has been released today.

Great work Paul. Are you taking your talents elsewhere?

As far a vbulletin is concerned, nowhere other than here.

I will continue to maintain vB3 (and vB4) for myself, and maybe others.

Good, because no one is more qualified to do so.

Paul I took your advice and purchase my hosting from vultr.com.. First time that I've ever installed anything on a a server like this. six hours playing around with the PHP and finally got it to work correctly on Version 4.2.5.. The speed is freaking quick stop by and check it out fitnessslam.com.

If I run into any issues with the PHP on version 4.2.5 then I will come back here and post.
Wish me luck!

Yep, the performance difference of shared hosting vs VPS/dedicated server is significant. :)

Once you learn how to use Yum, and set up Apache etc, its really very easy.

I can build a working server & system from a raw (new) instance is less than 1/2 hour.

My forum (running 3.8.11) uses four Vultr servers, once common nfs/data server, and three web servers to share the load - tbh, most of the time three is overkill, but it does mean its slightly more robust, and I can take one of them out of service if I want.

That's correct the speeds are freaking quick and it took me about 12 hours to get everything up and running and to fully understand what I was doing as I've never messed around with any kind of cloud or VPS hosting at all, basically the two things that was frustrating was trying to understand the PHP settings along with the DNS as my domain name was hosted somewhere else.. I was constantly testing my DNS web settings to make sure everything was configured correctly online, what a pain! I know its a additional charge for a IPv4 IP. Still doing my research to see if one will be suitable enough:confused: :D I was having issues with a 500 error codes when posting and I tracked it down to the a PHP issue and fixed it. 500 error codes don't want to tell you Jack! Anyways, luckily I had the patience to understand what was going on and now I am amazed with the performance.

You will continue supporting vB or this version is end of vB4 and it will not be supported any more?

Paul previously posted:

I'm sure lots of people are wondering if their plugins will be compatible with PHP 7 and VB 4.2.5. If we made a PHP7 plugin compatibility thread, would people post what they have experienced in terms of plugin compatibility in one thread? Sadly I don't have anything to add because I haven't tried the upgrade yet but with everyone's input it would be easier for people to make the decision to upgrade and get the speed increase

Anything written with care in the last 3 years should be compatible. I know I always took care to not use anything that the PHP manual stated would be deprecated.

Also don't forget that many older 3.x mods still work on 4.x, the basic simple mods will typically carry over and work fine. It's complex mods dealing with many features and such that were coded a few years back and never "maintained" that will be the issue for most when upgrading to vBulletin 4.2.5 to run with PHP7.

For sure you will need to check all your plugins and redo some if they have issues when running with php 7. :)

I still run three vB forums on version 4.2, will there ever be any security updates released?

No, there won't be any updates related to PHP versions. There's a tiny chance they might do a security update if a huge hole gets uncovered in v4 but that seems unlikely at this level of maturity.

That sucks, cause I will never move to vB 5.

Makes no sense. VB 5 is awful no offense. Looks just as bad xenforo. Vbulletin 4 was the best. So I'm pretty much screwed. Just came back into the forum scene and I guess I can't run vbulletin 4...

Why? I still run 3 boards on vB 4.2.4 and if you run vB 4.2.5 you can use PHP 7.

Also worth mentioning that a few code changes will also allow 4.2.5 to work on PHP 7.2 and beyond. My current board runs on PHP 7.3 and has been tested on 7.4. I'm also fairly confident it'll run on PHP 8 too.

Yeah I realized after I had read your post a few weeks ago. I'm so happy to be able to still run Vb4...

I tried vB 5 awhile back and it was just awful, although it seems like most people use Tapatalk these days.

Nice! Have you documented the changes required anywhere?

I haven't personally, because I've also swapped out large chunks of existing code (I maintain the codebase with another developer that I work with) - but there are some diffs posted around documenting the necessary changes to get vBulletin 4.2.5 functional on 7.2+.

One good man who supports my forum for many years, have the vbulletin LTS site:
http://vblts.ru
Hope it is usefull for vbulletin 4 forums.
This is not an ads because current vbulletin lts version is free.

this sounds interesting to me