How to upgrade to latest php version?
 

Hi,

I'm using vbulletin 3.8.x and my php version as well as mysql version is outdated. I recently read that vbulletin.org updated their php version from 5.2 to 5.6

I want to know how I can go about doing that? What are the changes I'd require to do.

Please note that I'm not upgrading my vbulletin version, just the php version and mysql

Firstly depending on what version 3.8.x you're running you may or may not be able to actually run your forum on php 5.6. I believe you'd need to be running 3.8.8 for php 5.4, and 3.8.9 for php 5.5. According to the vb faq http://www.vbulletin.com/en/faq/ 3.8.9 would support php 5.6. If you are running 3.8.7 or earlier you won't be able to upgrade your php version without having to make changes to the core files to make them compatible with the new php version.

Thank you for helping me out :)

I'm running on 3.8.3 but my forum is heavily customized theme. How do I upgrade core files without creating an issue with the template?

Your best bet to to upgrade to vb3.8.9 and redo whatever changes you need to make your customized theme work properly, there should be relatively few of those since you're doing minor version upgrades and not a major version upgrades (i.e. 3.8.3 to 3.8.9 not 3.7.x. (or older) to 3.8.9). 3.8.3 is very outdated and there have been a number of security issues patches since 3.8.3 was released so running a version that old is a bad idea and certainly the relatively minor inconvenience of having to do some template modifications is far outweighed by having the most patched version 3.8.x possible.

You also don't want to have to do core file edits on your own as those are way more prone to errors than fixing templates.

Thanks buddy. I appreciate your help.

By upgrading to a 3.8.9, that stlll doesn't let me upgrade to the latest php version does it? My concern is not a vbulletin upgrade but a php upgrade. I want to get on to the latest php version and that's the reason I want to upgrade vbulletin. How can I achieve that without major work?

3.8.9 is compatible with php5. 5 and newer.