PHP Development Page
What is PHP?
PHP is a popular general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited to web development. It was created by Rasmus Lerdorf who released Version 1 on , which means PHP has been powering websites for over 25 years.
PHP originally stood for Personal Home Page but came to mean PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor.
PHP is a scripting language, as opposed to a compiled language.
Advice
We would strongly recommend making sure your web host offers version 8.2 or above. Also make sure you update to 8.2 or above if you are running on an older version.
Moving to PHP 8.2 or 8.3 should be as painless as possible but it does have a few backward incompatible changes, so don't delay updating. A good guide for migrating from Migrating from PHP 8.1.x to PHP 8.2.x to get you updated.
Moving to PHP 8.2 or 8.3 versions will bring major speed improvements, great news for your customers.
Always make sure you keep upto date with the latest released version, as this will bring security enhancements.
If your current web hosting company is running PHP 8.0 or below, now is a good time to ask them about their plans to move to PHP 8.2
PHP versions released
Current 8.3 version
New PHP Version: 8.3.4
This release comes with numerous improvements and new features for the PHP language. The PHP 8.3.0 Release Announcement cover a highlight of them.
Migrating from PHP 8.2.x to PHP 8.3.x
Current 8.2 version
New PHP Version: 8.2.17
This release comes with numerous improvements and new features for the PHP language. The PHP 8.2.0 Release Announcement cover a highlight of them.
Current 8.1 version
New PHP Version: 8.1.27
Active Support Until then Security Support Until .
This release marks the latest major release of the PHP language.
PHP 8.1 comes with numerous improvements and new features take a read of the PHP 8.1 Announcement Addendum for more information
Current 8.0 version
New PHP Version: 8.0.30
This release marks the latest major release of the PHP language.
End of life A release that is no longer supported. Users of this release should upgrade as soon as possible, as they may be exposed to unpatched security vulnerabilities.
PHP 8.0 comes with numerous improvements and new features take a read of the PHP 8.0 Announcement Addendum for more information
Current 7.4 version
New PHP Version: 7.4.33
All PHP 7.4 users are encouraged to upgrade to this version.
End of life A release that is no longer supported. Users of this release should upgrade as soon as possible, as they may be exposed to unpatched security vulnerabilities.
PHP 7.4.0 comes with numerous improvements and new features, which you can read about here
Current 7.3 version
New PHP Version: 7.3.33
All PHP 7.3 users are encouraged to upgrade to this version.
End of life A release that is no longer supported. Users of this release should upgrade as soon as possible, as they may be exposed to unpatched security vulnerabilities.
Now would be a good time to think about updating to a new release. Migrating to PHP 7.4.x
Current 7.2 version
New PHP Version: 7.2.34
All PHP 7.2 users are encouraged to upgrade to this version.
End of life A release that is no longer supported. Users of this release should upgrade as soon as possible, as they may be exposed to unpatched security vulnerabilities.
Migrating from PHP 7.1.x to PHP 7.2.x, Guides are also available for lower versions on the page aswell.
Current 7.1 version
New PHP Version: 7.1.33
All PHP 7.1 users are encouraged to upgrade to this version.
This release marks the second point release for the 7.x series and contains numerous improvements and new features as listed here or in What's New and Exciting in PHP 7.1? by Sitepoint.
End of life A release that is no longer supported. Users of this release should upgrade as soon as possible, as they may be exposed to unpatched security vulnerabilities.
Migrating from PHP 7.0.x to PHP 7.1.x, Guides are also available for lower versions on the page aswell.
Current 7.0 version
New PHP Version: 7.0.33
This is a security focused release with several security bugs being fixed with its release. All PHP 7.0 users are encouraged to upgrade to this version.
PHP 7.0.0 comes with a new version of the Zend Engine, with numerous improvements and new features. But for us the factor that stands out is the Improved performance: PHP 7 is up to twice as fast as PHP 5.6
End of life A release that is no longer supported. Users of this release should upgrade as soon as possible, as they may be exposed to unpatched security vulnerabilities.
PHP 6.0
PHP 6 was actively developed for a while but after hitting many snags, the development was halted and the created work was rolled into PHP 5.
When it became time to work on the next major version, after much debate it was decided that that version would be named PHP 7. So although there was once a beta version of PHP 6, no final release ever saw the light of day.
Current 5.6 version
New PHP Version: 5.6.40
5.6.40 is a security release, Which addresses several security bugs that have been fixed in this release. All PHP 5.6 users are encouraged to upgrade to this version.
End of life This PHP 5.6.40 version is the last planned release that contains regular bugfixes. All future 5.6.* releases will contain only security-relevant fixes, until .
PHP 5.6 users that need further bugfixes are encouraged to upgrade to PHP 7.
ChangeLog - Download: http://uk3.php.net/downloads.php
Sitepoint's guide to what's new in this release sitepoint.com/php-5-6-0-released/
Current 5.5 version
PHP Version: 5.5.38
This release marks the last PHP 5.5 version to be released.
If your PHP installation is based on PHP 5.5, Then it's a really good time to start making plans for the upgrade to 5.6 or 7.0.
End of life A release that is no longer supported. Users of this release should upgrade as soon as possible, as they may be exposed to unpatched security vulnerabilities.
ChangeLog - Download: http://uk3.php.net/downloads.php
Migrating from PHP 5.5.x to PHP 5.6.xCurrent 5.4 version
PHP Version: 5.4.45
If your PHP installation is based on PHP 5.4, Then it's a really good time to start making plans for the upgrade to 5.6 or 7.0.
End of life A release that is no longer supported. Users of this release should upgrade as soon as possible, as they may be exposed to unpatched security vulnerabilities.
ChangeLog - Download: http://uk3.php.net/downloads.php
Migrating from PHP 5.4.x to PHP 5.5.xDetermine which PHP Version is being used
One way to find out what version of PHP is currently being used by one of your sites is to create a PHP page with the phpversion(); function.
<?php echo "The current PHP version being used is: "
. phpversion(); ?>Save this file as phpver.php to the same folder where all of your site files are located.
Then access this page in a browser using your domain and adding /phpver.php to the end of it (such as http://domain.com/phpver.php) to view the output.
The text on this page will be the output from the PHP script above and will display the version:
The current PHP version being used is: 8.3.4
PHP Support
If you have a problem with a php script, Or you need it installed & hosted then we can help Contact Us today.
Downloads for Windows
Windows binaries can be found on the PHP for Windows site.
Supported Versions
Each release branch of PHP is fully supported for two years from its initial stable release. http://php.net/supported-versions.php
Unsupported Branches
This page lists the end of life date for each unsupported branch of PHP http://php.net/eol.php
References for PHP
- PHP The Right Way
- Sitepoint.com/php
- PHP on Wikipedia
- php.net/docs.php
- PHP For Windows
- php.iis.net/
- XAMPP is a popular PHP development environment
PHP on Microsoft Azure
- PHP Developer Center
- Create a PHP web app in Azure
- Create a PHP web app in App Service on Linux
- Configure PHP in Azure App Service Web Apps
Editor's
- Visual Studio Code (Cross Platform.) (Free)
- PhpStorm by JetBrains (Cross Platform.) (Paid)
- Visual Studio Community 2022 (Windows Only) (Free for small teams.)
PHP Settings & Modules
Follow the steps below to view your current PHP settings and installed modules.
Create a text file named phpinfo.php with the php_info() function. Within the text file, place the following text:
<?php phpinfo(); ?>Save or upload the file to your webspace in the folder that contains your site files and access the page through a browser such as http://domain.com/phpinfo.php
Please make sure you delete the file after use, you dont need everyone reading all that info.
Built-in web server
With PHP 5.4 or newer, you can start learning PHP without installing and configuring a full-fledged web server. To start the server, run the following command from your terminal in your project's web root:
> php -S localhost:8000
Then open a browser and enter http://localhost:8000 to view the pages.
The :8000 part is the port the browser should use when talking to the server.
PHP Foundation Announced
The PHP Foundation has been announced by jetbrains.com on the 22 November 2021 as an entity for funding the work of developing the PHP language.