It's that time I think...

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seodevhead
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It's that time I think...

Post by seodevhead »

Well, I think it is finally time for me to make the move and upgrade from PHP 4.4.1 to the latest stable, 5.2.1.

The reason I want to make this upgrade now is because I am rolling out MASSIVE amounts of new web applications on the server and would rather upgrade before the rollout (so I can test everything out) rather than roll everything out and upgrade sometime later with fear.

I have been reviewing the "Migrating from 4 to 5" Section of php.net:
http://us2.php.net/manual/en/migration5 ... atible.php

.. and it seems that I will be okay, but a lot of the stuff seems to be OOP stuff, which is my weakest skill and I have used a little bit of OO code from books/online tutorials for things like pagination, etc. So I'm a little weary if this stuff will work, but that is why I want to test 5.2.1 before rolling out all my new applications.

But the main thing I am worried about, other than incompatible code, is any installation/compile type stuff that may change any "default" settings I had with php 4. Like for instance, I heard mysql support is disabled by default. I've noted that. But is there any other things I should take not of? GD graphics library, ImageMagick? Any of this kind of stuff of worry for me? I am not good with configuration files, in fact, I've never touched an .ini file before. Luckily, I do have a great managed dedicated host, and the guys who do everything server-wise for me are EXCELLENT. But I still need to know what to tell them because they don't know what I need.

So any advice, suggestions, or guidance you can give on getting migrated over to php 5 would GREATLY be appreciated, if not for anything but to simply calm my fears. I will probably have a pit in my stomach during the install... waiting for hell to break loose after. Or am I completely overreacting?

Thanks so much. Take care.
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Kieran Huggins
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Post by Kieran Huggins »

You could open a dreamhost account and test your software on it - you can roll back and forth between php 4 and 5 in the CP.

Another option would be to use a WAMP package like Uniform Server and change the directories between php4 and php5 - I can send you a pre-installed PHP5 folder for Uniform Server (which has 4 installed by default) if you like.
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