PHP 8 Not Supported Yet!

[Wayne Luke]

PHP 8 will be released on November 26, 2020. It's a new major version, which means that it will introduce some breaking changes, as well as lots of new features and performance improvements. Right now PHP 8 is in feature freeze, meaning no new features can be added anymore.

-- from https://stitcher.io/blog/new-in-php-8

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With the impending release of PHP 8, I want to point out that the current version of vBulletin 5.6.4 does not support this major release at this time. We are working on making sure that future versions of vBulletin are compatible with PHP 8+. Currently the developers are reworking legacy code and updating the API to be compliant with the changes in the PHP language. In the long run, this will make for a more secure and robust product. If you have any questions please leave them below.

[cbiweb]

I was going to start a thread asking about this, but I see you covered it already, way ahead of my return.

Is there a rough estimation of when vB will support PHP8? I'm well aware of all the usual contingencies of development, so I'm not expecting miracles; just curious about where we stand on this.

[Wayne Luke]

It is under development. Unfortunately, there is quite a bit of vBulletin 4.X legacy code and the software hasn't run "Notice/Warning Clean" in over a decade. All of this needs to be cleaned up. In addition to this, unit tests are being added for this older code so that it can be tested more thoroughly and reduce overall issues in the software. Before this, only newer code specific to vBulletin 5 had unit tests. vBulletin 3 and vBulletin 4 did not support unit tests at all.

I don't have a specific time frame at this moment. However, the next version should support PHP 8.X.

[lange]

It is under development.

Hi,

6 months later.

Can you confirm that it is still under development?

Best Regards

[Wayne Luke]

It is under development. I don't have a specific release date though.

[lange]

I understand this is a developers decision but it would be helpful if we had a rough idea of the release date of the alpha version. Or helpful if we had a rough idea of the level of compatibility with the current themes by default. Personally, I have customized the code for 5.6.4PL1 a lot with the help of a designer. Now I'm about to enter some code (conditionals and other codes) directly into the templates to make my version look like my old forum.

I would be disappointed if everything had to start over in three weeks for example.

[Wayne Luke]

The issues with PHP 8 support isn't about templates or how your site looks and feels. That is all processed by vBulletin's libraries. Changes to templates should not be affected by the PHP version on your server. There is absolutely no reason to wait until PHP 8 is supported. Adding PHP 8 support does not change the functionality of the software.

The issues with PHP8 are related to legacy code held over from vBulletin 3 and 4. Mostly within the AdminCP. This legacy code creates technical debt that needs to be handled. The EOL chart really has no bearing on anything at the moment either.

[lange]

I understand now. I can continue to customize then ...

Thank you very much!