The hostingHostingA 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 works to improve WordPress’ end-user experience across hosting environments through industry collaboration and user education.
Want to contribute? Come join us!
The team meets in the #hostingSlackSlackSlack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. channel each week on Wednesday at 0900 UTC and 1800 UTC. Check out local times at make/meetings.
This post kicks off the election process with nominations to replace the current HostingHostingA 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 RepA 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 backupBackupA 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 DayContributor 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.
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.
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.
As we explained in the previous post, for each new version of WordPress, we aim to release an article explaining the compatibility of PHPPHPPHP (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 “betaBetaBeta 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’ serverServerA 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+
MySQLMySQLMySQL 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+
MariaDBMariaDBMariaDB 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+
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 CandidateA 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)
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 6.4 (coreCoreCore 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 hostingHostingA 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.
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”.
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.
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.
Some time ago, we commented on the compatibility of WordPress with PHP 8. Since the release of this version of PHPPHPPHP (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 “betaBetaBeta 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’ serverServerA 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.
MySQLMySQLMySQL 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+
MariaDBMariaDBMariaDB 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+
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 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 6.3 (coreCoreCore 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 hostingHostingA 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.
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.
unregister_setting() for unknown setting. As of PHP 8, attempting to unregister an undefined configuration results in PHP warnings: Warning: Trying to access array offset on value of type null.
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.
Note:TL;DR. If you are using WordPress 6.2, you should at least use PHPPHPPHP (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.PHPPHP (PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) is a general-purpose scripting language especially suited to web development. PHP code is usually processed on a web serverServerA 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. 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 HTTPHTTPThe Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is protocol for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems. HTTP is the foundation of data communication for the World Wide Web, where hypertext documents include hyperlinks to other resources that the user can easily access, for example by a mouse click or by tapping the screen in a web browser. response. 8.1. If you keep your WordPress, plugins and themes up to date, everything should work fine. If you are not yet using WordPress 6.2, we strongly recommend that you use this version of WordPress for maximum PHP compatibility.
PHP 8.x has been with us for a while now, so much so that even PHP 8.0 has only security support, and we should mainly use PHP 8.1 and PHP 8.2.
It mainly depends on which versions of WordPress and PHP we are talking about. There are many places to get information about WordPress and PHP compatibility:
When PHP 8.0 was released, WordPress gave some warning messages (not error messages). Most of those messages are fixed in all versions of WordPress and for all versions of PHP. Yes, there are outstanding tickets and messages, but they are few and should not affect WordPress performance.
Why put the beta label, then?
Not because of WordPress, but because of the ecosystem, i.e., plugins and themes. When PHP 8.0 appeared, block themes were not yet widespread and the Site Editor was not yet finished, which it is now. And since WordPress did not make its compatibility clear, many plugins were not adapted to PHP 8.x… because what’s the point if WordPress is non-compatible? (yes, this last question is pure sarcasm).
And, the fish that bites its tail: WordPress says it’s beta-compatible, and plugins and themes don’t adapt because WordPress isn’t… but, it’s not true. You have to read the fine print.
It’s all a matter of timing
In some cases, the release of WordPress coincides with a new major version of PHP, and that complicates everything. On the one hand, there is no time to adapt, on the other hand, everything works. And between one and the other, things are left the same.
The fact of marking WordPress as beta-compatible had a reason to be: WordPress works, but in general nobody uses WordPress without plugins. And the plugins, most of them, were not adapted to PHP 8.x.
It has been 6 months since the release of PHP 8.2 and many plugins are still not supported… although there has been time for PHP 8.0 and 8.1 to be supported.
Again, it’s a timing issue. PHP started a few years ago a cycle of annual releases of major versions that are not fully compatible with each other or generate many warnings, and reviewing all the WordPress code is complex, let alone the more than 60,000 plugins and 10,000 themes.
The Hosting vision
Security is a critical factor for hosting companies, and keeping PHP versions up to date is part of that.
That is why, every year, as the old PHP versions are no longer officially supported, the providers are activating the new ones and deactivating the old ones.
While it’s true that there are no PHP 7.4.1+ vulnerabilities reported yet (it’s a matter of time), it’s about time to use at least PHP 8.0. And, almost already, for the remaining half year of support, you should consider using at least PHP 8.1.
WordPress vs. PHP vs. Hosting companies
Undoubtedly, the decision to use one or another version of PHP for each project should be up to the users, although the hosting companies should clearly inform about the risks or not of using one or another version.
For example, someone with WordPress 5.8 cannot be recommended to activate PHP 8.1 because it probably won’t work. Nor can you push to make the change as soon as a new version of PHP is released.
What should I do?
First: the decision must always be yours. It is your project, and you have to decide what is best for it with all the information.
Second: have all the information. And this is where we can help you, a little.
Third: everything has to work. The goal is to make your site work, so you have to check, with a staging version, that everything is working properly. Ask your hosting provider for help with this.
I have WordPress 6.2
Presently, in May 2023, our recommendation is that you have at least PHP 8.1. It is a stable version, it is a secure version, and most themes and plugins work with this version.
WordPress 6.2 is compatible with 5.6.20+, PHP 7.0.x, PHP 7.1.x, PHP 7.2.x, PHP 7.3.x, PHP 7.4.x, PHP 8.0.x, PHP 8.1.x and PHP 8.2.x. BUT, older than PHP 8.0 are nor maintained, PHP 8.0 has only security maintenance and PHP 8.1 and PHP 8.2 are maintained versions. This is why PHP 8.1 is a good choice because, in general, everything should work.
What do I do if something doesn’t work? Upgrade everything to the latest versions. The latest version of WordPress 6.2 (right now WordPress 6.2.0), the latest versions of all your plugins and all your themes. If you have premium plugins, make sure you have the latest versions. Ask your hosting to help you figure out what’s wrong.
I have WordPress 6.1
When we published Server Environment for WordPress 6.1, we knew that WordPress 6.1 worked correctly with PHP 8.0 and PHP 8.1. PHP 8.2 did not, for one simple reason: it had not yet been released.
We also knew one thing: most plugins, even though PHP 8.1 had been on the market for a year, were not fully compatible. It was after PHP 7.4 stopped receiving updates that many developers started to support all available PHP 8.x versions, which are PHP 8.0, PHP 8.1 and PHP 8.2.
It has been long enough for WordPress 6.1, its plugins and themes to work properly with PHP 8.0 and PHP 8.1.
And, just as with WordPress 6.2, if you still have WordPress 6.1 everything should work correctly with PHP 8.1.
I have WordPress 5.9–6.0
You can read the same as in the two previous cases. In short, you should now be able to upgrade everything to PHP 8.1.
I have WordPress 5.6–5.9
You can read the same as in the two previous cases. In short, you should now be able to upgrade everything to PHP 8.0.
The Core, Test, and Hosting teams actively care about the full compatibility of WordPress with all its technologies. This includes Apache HTTPD, nginx, PHP, MySQL, MariaDB, memcached or Redis.
While it is true that PHP is a critical technology, we have a project in which many hosting companies test their systems with future versions of WordPress so that, once released, its compatibility is as high as possible.
You can see the results of Host Test Results and learn how well it works and what the bugs are. Errors are good because it means that a possible incompatibility has been detected and will be corrected in the future so that WordPress remains compatible with the widest number of systems.
Last week in the Make WordPress #hostingSlackSlackSlack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. channel (direct link to post here), Matt shared that he would “like to have recommended hosts on the main .org page and all the language subdomains that most align with our values and contribute the most back.”
Some years ago, the HostingHostingA 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 was involved in a similar effort and prepared a report at that time, which can be found here.
Those who regularly attend the weekly Hosting team meetings are already familiar with the Hosting team’s recent “Project Bedrock,” which was an updated version of the original report and proposed to create a democratized directory of all hosts that meet a series of predefined requirements.
After reviewing the newer document, Matt challenged us to distill the most salient questions given how many differences there are between the survey he shared and the questions in Bedrock.
Courtney Robertson from the Training team, building off the application, drafted a rubric for scoring potential hosts for inclusion.
A number of other ideas and notes have been posted by individuals as well, and those of us on the team are thrilled to see a renewed interest in the project and page as a whole.
However, we encourage anyone interested in offering feedback or desiring to participate in the discussion to please do so by leaving a comment on this post.
Whether you’re able to attend in person or not, we want to make sure your thoughts and positions are represented as this discussion continues.
Still don’t know which table to join at the WordCamp Europe 2023 Contributor Day? Well, if you like hostingHostingA 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., know a bit about technology, and would like to improve your WordPress documentation, this is the team for you!
If you are attending and haven’t registered yet, please register now. Registration is closed.
There is a ticket at the Hosting Handbook GitHubGitHubGitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged be the repository owner. with some ideas on what to contribute.
Automated Hosting Tests, focused on PHPPHPPHP (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.
The Contributor Day is an event, usually parallel to a WordCampWordCampWordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more., focused on contributing to the WordPress Community in any of its teams.
To participate in a Contributor Day it is only necessary to have a WordPress.orgWordPress.orgThe community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ account, and, if possible, access to a SlackSlackSlack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. team channel.
In any case, @JavierCasares, who will be our Hosting Team RepTeam RepA 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. in this Contributor Day, will be able to help you to solve any doubt you may have. Meanwhile, you can also ask any of the Team Reps (@amykamala, @crixu, and @jessibelle).
Since the release of WordPress 6.1 the HostingHostingA 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 has received quite a few inquiries about some of the configurations related to the ServerServerA 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. Environment.
Within the Handbook Hosting there is a page that is updated with each new major version of WordPress, or significant change, the information of the optimal and recommended configuration from the computer, in coordination with the rest of the teams.
Since last 2022-11-16 a new update of the page is available. As always, we recommend keeping the latest versions of the various services, especially for security. For example, using the latest versions of the web serverServerA 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. does not usually affect WordPress at all. In general, the same thing happens with databases, it is best to use the latest versions of MySQLMySQLMySQL 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. or MariaDBMariaDBMariaDB 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., taking into account their connection with PHPPHPPHP (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 we come to PHP versions, which is usually the most delicate in each version of WordPress, whether in the coreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Team builds WordPress., plugins or themes.
In this table you can find the list of available, stable versions that were at the time of the release of each WordPress version.
WordPress
PHP
MySQL
MariaDB
Date
WordPress 6.1
7.4 – 8.1
5.7 – 8.0
10.3 – 10.9
2022-11-01
WordPress 6.0
7.4 – 8.1
5.7 – 8.0
10.3 – 10.7
2022-05-24
WordPress 5.9
7.4 – 8.1
5.7 – 8.0
10.2 – 10.6
2022-01-25
WordPress 5.8
7.3 – 8.0
5.7 – 8.0
10.2 – 10.6
2021-07-20
WordPress 5.7
7.3 – 8.0
5.7 – 8.0
10.2 – 10.5
2021-03-09
But, to this table, we must add the compatibility of the WordPress Core in each version.
WordPress
PHP compatible
PHP betaBetaBeta 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
WordPress 6.1
5.6 – 7.4
8.0* / 8.1* / 8.2*
WordPress 6.0
5.6 – 7.4
8.0* / 8.1*
WordPress 5.9
5.6 – 7.4
8.0* / 8.1*
WordPress 5.8
5.6 – 7.4
8.0*
WordPress 5.7
5.6 – 7.4
8.0*
Versions with * are those with beta compatibility. To learn more about beta compatibility, you can check out WordPress and PHP 8.0 and WordPress 5.9 and PHP 8.0-8.1. WordPress 6.1’s compatibility with PHP 8.2 is pending, although it should be noted that PHP 8.2 is not yet publicly available (it is scheduled to do so in early December 2022).
How to know which is the best stable version for each version of WordPress? Use the ServeHappy API. This APIAPIAn Application Programming Interface (API) is a computing interface that defines interactions between multiple software intermediaries. It defines the kinds of calls or requests that can be made, how to make them, the data formats that should be used, the conventions to follow, etc. returns the best compatibility information of WordPress with PHP.
WordPress
Minimum PHP
Recommended PHP
API JSONJSONJavaScript Object Notation (JSON) is an open standard file format, and data interchange format, that uses human-readable text to store and transmit data objects consisting of attribute–value pairs and array data types. It is a very common data format, with a diverse range of applications, such as serving as a replacement for XML in AJAX systems.
These values may vary depending on the different teams consider the change.
Although official support for PHP 7.4 will soon end, currently only with security support, several open sourceOpen SourceOpen Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. projects have requested the PHP Foundation to extend the support of this version until all of them are updated on their new compatibility, including WordPress, which could give that compatibility in WordPress 6.2 (taking into account the current tickets).
What is the Hosting team’s recommendation to Hosting companies? Maintain, for now, PHP 7.4 as the default version for all WordPress, and test and report compatibility with PHP 8.0, 8.1 and 8.2, when available.
If you want to help the Hosting, Core, and Test teams, test new versions and future WordPress, PHP and SQL compatibility, you can use the tool WordPress Distributed Hosting Tests (Test Runner).
HostingHostingA 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
Performance Lab
WP-CLIWP-CLIWP CLI is the Command Line Interface for WordPress, used to do administrative and development tasks in a programmatic way. 2.8.0
There’s been some conversation around the PHPPHPPHP (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. extension requirements and recommendations posted by the hostingHostingA 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 following the release of WordPress 5.2 and Site HealthSite HealthThis WordPress functionality will perform a number of checks on your installation to detect common configuration errors and known issues, and also allows plugins and themes to add their own checks. Check.
I’m super excited that folks are digging into this documentation to ensure the recommendations are the best they can be for WordPress users!
This post is meant to introduce the background of the list and gain further feedback on the best way forward.
Background
There wasn’t an official set of PHP extension requirements from the WordPress project at all, and the hosting team decided to create documentation so that this would be more clear for both users and hosts. The team hoped this documentation could eventually be used to update the official requirements, since they are not currently complete.
The team did an initial pass with various contributors, including an audit of coreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Team builds WordPress. to find references to extensions.
This page on the handbook was the result of those folks’ work, and was used as a reference during the addition of Site Health Check in 5.2.
Site Health Check both lists strict requirements and makes recommendations when extensions aren’t strictly required, but WordPress works better with those extensions present.
Feedback
Following the release, there have been tickets about changing the Site Health Check requirements and recommendations, and #47454 is the tracTracTrac is an open-source, web-based project management and bug tracking system. Trac integrates with major version control systems including ("out of the box") Subversion and Git. ticket where the most recent conversation has been happening.
There are varying opinions on what should be in Site Health Check, including whether it should be only what Core requires and uses, or whether it should include some things that are helpful to users, but are not absolutely necessary for WordPress to have all of its functionality.
I’m also interested if the Hosting Team Handbook is the best source-of-truth for these requirements and recommendations to be, since the requirements are defined by core itself.
Do you have any thoughts on the above? Please leave comments on this post!
Interested in feedback in general, but as a bit of recap, here are a few conversation points to start things off:
Should the Hosting Handbook recommend extensions beyond what core requires?
Should Site Health Check recommend extensions beyond what core requires?
Where should requirements and recommendations for core be located?
