WordPress 6.4 PHP Compatibility

Looking for updated information?
Visit the Hosting Handbook Server Environment page.

As we explained in the previous post, for each new version of WordPress, we aim to release an article explaining the compatibility of PHPPHP PHP (PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) is a general-purpose scripting language especially suited to web development. PHP code is usually processed on a web server by a PHP interpreter. On a web server, the result of the interpreted and executed PHP code would form the whole or part of an HTTP response. with the WordPress versions and our team’s recommendation for that specific version.

On this occasion, once again, we will explain the details of compatibility, including “betaBeta Beta is the software development phase following alpha. A Beta phase generally begins when the software is feature complete but likely to contain a number of known or unknown bugs. Software in the beta phase will generally have many more bugs in it than completed software, speed or performance issues, and may still cause crashes or data loss. The focus of beta testing is reducing impacts to users, often incorporating usability testing. compatible” or “compatible with exceptions”.

So, here you have the compatibility information, this time, for WordPress 6.4.

WordPress’ serverServer A server is a piece of computer hardware or software that provides functionality for other programs or devices. Typical servers are database servers, file servers, mail servers, print servers, web servers, game servers, and application servers. requirements

Even if there are more stable software versions, that doesn’t mean they are the ones WordPress recommends.

This makes WordPress 6.4 requirements:

  • PHP: 7.0+
  • MySQLMySQL MySQL is an open-source relational database management system (RDBMS). MySQL is free and open-source software under the terms of the GNU General Public License.: 5.0.15+
  • MariaDBMariaDB MariaDB is a fork of the MySQL relational database management system (RDBMS), intended to remain free and open-source software under the GNU General Public License. MariaDB intended to maintain high compatibility with MySQL, ensuring a drop-in replacement capability with library binary parity and exact matching with MySQL APIs and commands.: 5.5+

You can read more at Server requirements.

WordPress’ compatibility “at the time”

WordPress 6.4 was released on November 7, 2023, and at that time we had the following components available (stable or security-maintained versions only, and RCRelease Candidate A beta version of software with the potential to be a final product, which is ready to release unless significant bugs emerge. only for informational purposes).

  • PHP: 8.0–8.2, and 8.3-RC
  • MySQL: 5.0–8.1 (LTS versions: 8.0)
  • MariaDB: 10.4–10.6, and 10.10–11.0 (LTS versions: 10.6, and 10.11)

You can read more at WordPress Compatibility.

WordPress and PHP

PHP is a programming language on which WordPress code is based. This language runs on the server, and it is critical to keep it up to date, both for security and functionality.

WordPress supports many versions of PHP, some even obsolete (PHP Compatibility and WordPress Versions).

WordPress 6.4 (coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Team builds WordPress.) is:

  • fully compatible with PHP 7.01, 7.11, 7.21, 7.31, and 7.41.
  • compatible with exceptions with PHP 8.0, 8.1, and 8.2.
  • beta compatible with 8.32.

1 SECURITY ALERT: These versions are not officially maintained by PHP, so they are considered insecure and obsolete versions and should not be used in production. Check with your hostingHosting A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that allows individuals and organizations to make their website accessible via the World Wide Web. provider about the security maintenance they can do.

2 DEVELOPMENT ALERT: These versions are in development, so it’s not recommended to use them in a production environment. PHP 8.3 release date: November 23, 2023.

What “compatible with exceptions” mean?

PHP 8.0

  • Named parameters. WordPress does not support named parameters.
    PHP 8.0 supports optionally calling functions and class methods by specifying the parameter name, instead of calling them on the order of parameters that they are declared.
    PHP, and many other programming languages, support positional parameters: The caller passes the parameters in the same order the function/method declares its parameters.
  • Filesystem WP_Filesystem_FTPext and WP_Filesystem_SSH2 when connect fails.
    An investigation is underway as to why on some occasions the access to the files returns some type of error.

PHP 8.1

  • Not all “passing null to non-nullable” issues have been found.
    In PHP, you can tell a function exactly what type of information it should accept. If you tell a function to expect a certain type of information, and you give it nothing at all (null is like saying “nothing”), then PHP gets confused and gives an error. This problem happens when someone accidentally gives a function “nothing” when the function wasn’t designed to handle “nothing”.
  • htmlentities() et al needs the default value of the flags parameter explicitly set.
    According to htmlentities(), the default for flags for PHP 8.1 was “changed from ENT_COMPAT to ENT_QUOTES | ENT_SUBSTITUTE | ENT_HTML401”. All use cases for this functionality in WordPress Core are being investigated.
  • Replace most strip_tags() with wp_strip_tags().
    There are rare occasions when the strip_tags() function is passed a null value, which generates a warning that the string is deprecated.

PHP 8.2

What “beta” mean?

PHP 8.3

  • Deprecation notices
    A deprecation notice is not an error, but rather an indicator of where additional work is needed for compatibility before PHP 9.0. With a deprecation notice, the PHP code will continue to work and nothing is broken.

Hosting Team Recommendation

Taking all this into account, the Hosting Team’s recommendations for WordPress 6.4 are as follows (which may differ from the global ones).

  • PHP: 8.1.x or 8.2.x
  • MySQL: 8.0.x
  • MariaDB: 10.11.x

IMPORTANT: These recommendations are intended, primarily, for new installations by hosting providers.

#core, #php

X-post: Embracing Matrix for Enhanced Communication

X-comment from +make.wordpress.org/project: Comment on Embracing Matrix for Enhanced Communication

X-post: Create Tours for Make P2s

X-comment from +make.wordpress.org/meta: Comment on Create Tours for Make P2s

Updates on the Hosting Team Reps 2024

Hey everyone,

I hope you’re all doing well! As we step into a new chapter with the HostingHosting A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that allows individuals and organizations to make their website accessible via the World Wide Web. Team, I’m here to share some exciting updates and extend our gratitude to those who have significantly contributed to our journey so far.

Firstly, following the closure of our call for nominations last week, I’m thrilled to announce our Hosting Team Reps for 2024. We had three esteemed nominees: @jessibelle, @javiercasares, and @crixu. After thoughtful discussions and confirmations, Javier and myself (Lucas) are honored to take up the roles as your Hosting Team Reps for the upcoming year. We’re eager to contribute to the community and build upon the solid foundation laid by our predecessors.

Speaking of which, I want to express our deepest appreciation to @jessibelle and @amykamala for their passionate and dedicated service as Hosting Team Reps in the past years. Their commitment and hard work have been instrumental in shaping the community, and we are grateful for their invaluable contributions. Their legacy of enthusiasm and excellence will continue to inspire us.

Additionally, we also asked for your input on whether to continue with four Reps or reduce to two. The community has spoken, favoring a more streamlined approach with two reps. We respect and value this collective decision and are committed to maintaining the high standards of collaboration and support you’ve come to expect from the Hosting Team.

For more details on the nomination process, and the 2-rep decisions please visit our post here: Nominations for Hosting Team Reps 2024.

As we embark on this journey together, your thoughts, feedback, and active participation are more important than ever. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us with your ideas or concerns.

Thank you all for your continued support and engagement. Let’s make 2024 a year of growth and collaboration in the WordPress hosting community! To make 2024 stands out, we will soon follow up with a “Call for Goals” post and invite everyone to participate in planning how this team can be successful in 2024.

#team-reps

Hosting Team meeting agenda 2023-11-22

The next meeting is scheduled with the following details:

When

Where

At #hosting channel on SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/..

Agenda

WordPress Community

  • WordPress 6.4 Performance
  • WordPress 6.4 PHPPHP PHP (PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) is a general-purpose scripting language especially suited to web development. PHP code is usually processed on a web server by a PHP interpreter. On a web server, the result of the interpreted and executed PHP code would form the whole or part of an HTTP response. Compatibility
  • WordPress 6.5.x
  • State of the WordState of the Word This is the annual report given by Matt Mullenweg, founder of WordPress at WordCamp US. It looks at what we’ve done, what we’re doing, and the future of WordPress. https://wordpress.tv/tag/state-of-the-word/. 2023

HostingHosting A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that allows individuals and organizations to make their website accessible via the World Wide Web. Team Time

  • WordPress Hosting Team event
  • Hosting Team Reps for 2024

Open Floor

  • Anything not in the agenda

Ideas or suggestions

Anything else? Please leave a comment to add to the meeting.

#agenda, #meetings, #weekly-hosting-chat

Hosting Team Meeting Agenda – 2023-11-08

The next meeting is scheduled with the following details:

When

Where

At #hosting channel on SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/..

Agenda

WordPress Community

  • WordPress 6.4
  • Test Reports PluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party.
  • WordPress Releases in 2024

HostingHosting A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that allows individuals and organizations to make their website accessible via the World Wide Web. Team Time

  • Hosting Team Reps for 2024
  • Events / Contributor Days
  • State of the WordState of the Word This is the annual report given by Matt Mullenweg, founder of WordPress at WordCamp US. It looks at what we’ve done, what we’re doing, and the future of WordPress. https://wordpress.tv/tag/state-of-the-word/. 2023

Open Floor

  • Anything not in the agenda

Ideas or suggestions

Anything else? Please leave a comment to add to the meeting.

Nominations for Hosting Team Reps 2024

This post kicks off the election process with nominations to replace the current HostingHosting A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that allows individuals and organizations to make their website accessible via the World Wide Web. Team Reps. Current Team Reps are @amykamala, @Crixu, @jessibelle, and @javiercasares.

The Role

In the WordPress open-source project, each team has on average one or two representatives, abbreviated as Reps. This year important is to also reflect on the Team Reps position in light of the discussions that happened during the Community Summit in August. The Team RepTeam Rep A Team Rep is a person who represents the Make WordPress team to the rest of the project, make sure issues are raised and addressed as needed, and coordinates cross-team efforts. represents the team to the wider Make project, and the project to the Hosting Team.

The reason we have multiple Team Reps is that one can take responsibility for the duties during the first half of the term while the other provides backupBackup A backup is a copy of computer data taken and stored elsewhere so that it may be used to restore the original after a data loss event. Backups can be used to recover data after its loss from data deletion or corruption, or to recover data from an earlier time. Backups provide a simple form of disaster recovery., and that in the 2nd half of the term, the backup rep will take the primary responsibility. This means about 3 months learning the ropes, and about 3 months as the primary team rep. In the past years we always had four reps to better cover various time zones, with two reps for the AMER region and two reps for the APAC/EMEA region. This year we’re open for discussion of the teams wether we continue with this or if the team decides to go ahead with two reps in total. In any case we welcome anyone who contributes to the team by preparing and running meetings, running a contributor dayContributor Day Contributor Days are standalone days, frequently held before or after WordCamps but they can also happen at any time. They are events where people get together to work on various areas of https://make.wordpress.org/ There are many teams that people can participate in, each with a different focus. https://2017.us.wordcamp.org/contributor-day/ https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/. table or contributing on our projects – you don’t need to be a rep for that.

It’s not called “team lead” for a reason. It’s an administrative role. While people elected as team reps will generally come from the pool of folks that people think of as experienced leaders, the Team Rep role is designed to change hands regularly. As a Team Rep, you’re accountable to “get things done” within the team and aggregate ideas into doable actions.

This role has a time commitment attached to it. Not a huge amount, it’s at least three hours a week. Here are the main tasks:

  • Post the agenda, host the chats, and summarize them.
  • Keeping an eye on the moving parts of the team to be able to report for quarterly updates.

Full details on the Team Rep role is on the Team Update site.

How the election works

Please nominate people in the comments of this post, DM an existing Team Rep or fill out this survey anonymously. Self-nominations are welcome. The deadline is November 21st, 2023 at 23:59 UTC.

Once the nomination window is closed, we will open a poll for voting. It will stay open for about two weeks. The new reps will start their role on January 1st, 2024.

If you want to nominate someone in private, please reach out to one of the Team Reps. Current Team Reps are @amykamala, @Crixu, @jessibelle, and @javiercasares on SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/..

Disclaimer: if you get nominated, please don’t feel like you have to say yes. The polls will only include the names of the people who are responding positively to a nomination. So feel free to reply with a “Thank you, but no, thank you”.

If you require supplemental information, please feel free to ask in the comments, we will be happy to reply. Please also include your opinion on the “two vs. four team reps” proposal.

#team-reps

Hosting Team meeting agenda 2023-11-01

The next meeting is scheduled with the following details:

When

Where

At #hosting channel on SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/..

Agenda

WordPress Community

  • WordPress 6.4
  • WP-CLIWP-CLI WP CLI is the Command Line Interface for WordPress, used to do administrative and development tasks in a programmatic way. 2.9.0
  • Button to compress the image size

HostingHosting A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that allows individuals and organizations to make their website accessible via the World Wide Web. Team Time

  • WordPress 6.4 PHPPHP PHP (PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) is a general-purpose scripting language especially suited to web development. PHP code is usually processed on a web server by a PHP interpreter. On a web server, the result of the interpreted and executed PHP code would form the whole or part of an HTTP response. Compatibility
  • Hosting Team Reps for 2024
  • Events / Contributor Days
  • State of the WordState of the Word This is the annual report given by Matt Mullenweg, founder of WordPress at WordCamp US. It looks at what we’ve done, what we’re doing, and the future of WordPress. https://wordpress.tv/tag/state-of-the-word/. 2023

Open Floor

  • Anything not in the agenda

Ideas or suggestions

Anything else? Please leave a comment to add to the meeting.

#agenda, #meetings, #weekly-hosting-chat

Hosting Team meeting agenda 2023-10-11

The next meeting is scheduled with the following details:

When

Where

At #hosting channel on SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/..

Agenda

WordPress Community

  • WordPress 6.4

HostingHosting A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that allows individuals and organizations to make their website accessible via the World Wide Web. Team Time

  • PHPPHP PHP (PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) is a general-purpose scripting language especially suited to web development. PHP code is usually processed on a web server by a PHP interpreter. On a web server, the result of the interpreted and executed PHP code would form the whole or part of an HTTP response. Compatibility
  • Hosting Team Representatives 2024
  • Font Library Updates
  • Make/Team Dashboards
  • Events / Contributor Days

Open Floor

  • Anything not in the agenda

Ideas or suggestions

Anything else? Please leave a comment to add to the meeting.

WordPress 6.3 PHP Compatibility

Looking for updated information?
Visit the Hosting Handbook Server Environment page.

Some time ago, we commented on the compatibility of WordPress with PHP 8. Since the release of this version of PHPPHP PHP (PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) is a general-purpose scripting language especially suited to web development. PHP code is usually processed on a web server by a PHP interpreter. On a web server, the result of the interpreted and executed PHP code would form the whole or part of an HTTP response., and the major versions of WordPress that have appeared since then, have led to the creation of concepts unknown to the WordPress community, such as “betaBeta Beta is the software development phase following alpha. A Beta phase generally begins when the software is feature complete but likely to contain a number of known or unknown bugs. Software in the beta phase will generally have many more bugs in it than completed software, speed or performance issues, and may still cause crashes or data loss. The focus of beta testing is reducing impacts to users, often incorporating usability testing. compatible” or “compatible with exceptions”.

We’ve had WordPress 6.3 with us for a while now, and maybe it’s time to clarify a few things, which we’ll be keeping up with each major version of WordPress as it’s released.

WordPress’ serverServer A server is a piece of computer hardware or software that provides functionality for other programs or devices. Typical servers are database servers, file servers, mail servers, print servers, web servers, game servers, and application servers. requirements

Even if there are more stable software versions, that doesn’t mean they are the ones WordPress recommends.

Note that WordPress 6.3 brings an important update: Dropping support for PHP 5.

This makes WordPress 6.3 requirements:

  • PHP: 7.0+
  • MySQLMySQL MySQL is an open-source relational database management system (RDBMS). MySQL is free and open-source software under the terms of the GNU General Public License.: 5.0.15+
  • MariaDBMariaDB MariaDB is a fork of the MySQL relational database management system (RDBMS), intended to remain free and open-source software under the GNU General Public License. MariaDB intended to maintain high compatibility with MySQL, ensuring a drop-in replacement capability with library binary parity and exact matching with MySQL APIs and commands.: 5.5+

You can read more at Server requirements.

WordPress’ compatibility “at the time”

WordPress 6.3 was released on August 8, 2023, and at that time we had the following components available (stable or security-maintained versions only).

  • PHP: 8.0–8.2
  • MySQL: 5.7–8.1
  • MariaDB: 10.4–10.6 and 10.9–11.0

You can read more at WordPress Compatibility.

WordPress and PHP

PHP is a programming language on which WordPress code is based. This language runs on the server, and it is critical to keep it up to date, both for security and functionality.

WordPress supports many versions of PHP, some even obsolete (PHP Compatibility and WordPress Versions).

WordPress 6.3 (coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Team builds WordPress.) is:

  • fully compatible with PHP 7.01, 7.11, 7.21, 7.31, and 7.41.
  • compatible with exceptions with PHP 8.0, and 8.1
  • beta compatible with PHP 8.2.

1 SECURITY ALERT: These versions are not officially maintained by PHP, so they are considered insecure and obsolete versions and should not be used in production. Check with your hostingHosting A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that allows individuals and organizations to make their website accessible via the World Wide Web. provider about the security maintenance they can do.

What “compatible with exceptions” mean?

PHP 8.0

  • Named parameters. WordPress does not support named parameters.
    PHP 8.0 supports optionally calling functions and class methods by specifying the parameter name, instead of calling them on the order of parameters that they are declared.
    PHP, and many other programming languages, support positional parameters: The caller passes the parameters in the same order the function/method declares its parameters.
  • Filesystem WP_Filesystem_FTPext and WP_Filesystem_SSH2 when connect fails.
    An investigation is underway as to why on some occasions the access to the files returns some type of error.

PHP 8.1

What “beta” mean?

PHP 8.2

  • Deprecation notices
    A deprecation notice is not an error, but rather an indicator of where additional work is needed for compatibility before PHP 9.0. With a deprecation notice, the PHP code will continue to work and nothing is broken.

Hosting Team Recommendation

Taking all this into account, the Hosting Team’s recommendations for WordPress 6.3 are as follows (which may differ from the global ones).

  • PHP: 8.1.x
  • MySQL: 8.0.x
  • MariaDB: 10.11.x

IMPORTANT: These recommendations are intended, primarily, for new installations by hosting providers.

#core, #php