Migrating Your Website from PHP 7 to PHP 8Are you considering migrating your website from PHP 7 to PHP 8? This comprehensive guide covers everything you need to know to ensure a smooth transition.
Suppose you're running PHP 7 on your website and want to upgrade to PHP 8. In that case, you should know the procedure and the potential problems. This tutorial will give you all you need to know to ensure a smooth and successful migration from PHP 7 to PHP 8.
Understand the Benefits of PHP 8
Before upgrading your website to PHP 8, some of the reasons you should know for upgrades to this new version are for its paramount importance; it comes with various performance enhancements, among them a new JIT compiler, which will considerably improve the speeds of your website. It also has state-of-the-art features and syntactic enhancements that will make your code more efficient and maintainable.
Check for Compatibility Issues
Before you begin the migration process, you must ensure that your current website and PHP 8 are compatible. Some previous code or plugins may be incompatible with the current version, resulting in errors or functionality difficulties on your website. You can analyse your code with tools like PHP Compatibility Checker to find any potential compatibility issues. It's also a good idea to run your website through its paces on a local development environment running PHP 8 to ensure everything functions as it should. If your website relies on external libraries or packages, check if they are compatible with PHP 8. You may need to update these dependencies to their latest versions.
Update Your Code to Meet PHP 8 Standards
One of the most important phases in upgrading your website to PHP 8 is updating your code to meet the language's new standards and syntax. Because PHP 8 adds various new features and improvements, it is important to review your code and make any necessary modifications. PHP 8 deprecated several features that were present in PHP 7. Review your codebase for deprecated functions, classes, or features and replace them with alternatives. You can improve the efficiency and functionality of your website by updating your code to take advantage of the new capabilities and optimisations provided by PHP 8. Ensure your codebase handles errors appropriately and uses modern error-handling techniques like exceptions and try-catch blocks.
Deprecated Functions in PHP 8
You can enable deprecated warnings to help you identify and address the usage of deprecated features in your code. Deprecated warnings provide notices about using functions, methods, and features marked as deprecated in the current PHP version.
To enable deprecated warnings in PHP 7, open your php.ini configuration file in a text editor. The location of this file may vary depending on your operating system and PHP installation. Search for "error_reporting" and add the E_DEPRECATED constant to the list if it's not already there.
error_reporting = E_ALL | E_DEPRECATED
Save the php.ini file and restart your web server or PHP service for the changes to take effect.
Enabling deprecated warnings in a production environment may not be the best practice, as it can clutter your error logs with warnings.
Check Your Server Configuration
Ensure that your web server (e.g., Apache, Nginx) and any server-related software (e.g., MySQL, PostgreSQL) are compatible with PHP 8. You may need to update or configure them accordingly.
Backup, Backup and Backup
Create a complete backup of your website and database(s) to ensure you can revert to the previous version if something goes wrong during the migration.
Perform the PHP Update
Upgrade your PHP version to PHP 8. The specific steps for this depend on your server environment. For example, if you're using a Linux server, you might need a package manager (e.g., `apt`, `yum`) to update PHP. If you're on a shared hosting platform, check with your hosting provider for PHP 8 availability.
Update PHP to Version 8 on a Linux Server with Apache
To update PHP to version 8 on a Linux server with Apache, you must follow several steps, including adding a repository containing PHP 8, updating your system, and configuring Apache to use the new PHP version. The specific commands and steps may vary depending on your Linux distribution. Here's a general guide that covers the process for a few common distributions: Ubuntu, Debian, and CentOS. Please adjust the commands as needed for your distribution.
First, update the package repository cache and upgrade the installed packages.
sudo apt update sudo apt upgrade
Install PHP 8 and the necessary extensions.
sudo apt install php8.0 If the above command fails, add the PHP repository maintained by Ondrej Sury and try the install again.
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php
sudo apt update Verify the installation to ensure proper upgrade.
php -v Optionally, you may need to install additional PHP extensions if required (e.g., 'php8.0-mysql', 'php8.0-gd', and so on.)
sudo apt install php8.0-mysql php8.0-gd Restart Apache to apply the changes.
sudo systemctl restart apache2
Test Your Website Thoroughly Before and After the Migration
Before converting your website to PHP 8, you must extensively test it to ensure everything works properly. This includes confirming that all functions, including forms, databases, and third-party integrations, work as expected. You should also evaluate the performance of your website after the migration to ensure that it is working smoothly and correctly. Following the migration, it is important to undertake additional testing to check that all modifications and upgrades have been implemented appropriately and that your website is still operational.
Monitor and Optimise Performance After the Migration
Following the migration of your website to PHP 8, it is important to monitor and optimise its performance to ensure that it functions correctly. Keep an eye on the loading speed of your website since any delays can harm user experience and SEO rankings. To analyse your website's performance and identify areas for improvement, use tools such as Google PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix. Check your website's functioning and user experience frequently to ensure everything runs properly. Address any flaws or defects immediately to ensure a smooth user experience.
Deply Updates to Production Servers
Once you've thoroughly tested your website on PHP 8 and ensured everything works correctly, update your production server to run PHP 8. Regularly monitor your website's performance, security, and compatibility with PHP 8.
