UBB.threads PHP Forum Software Community Forums General Off Topic php 7 implementation with new UBB?

Hi guys,

I see the ISPs are starting to really push folks into adopting php 7 with all the fancy Zend optimisation etc.

I did a text search in the Forums there to see if it had been mentioned before and don't see anything obvious.

I need to read through the latest updates and notes I know, but can I a just quickly ask if upcoming 7.6 will have php 7 implementation at all?

There is a thread here (posted at the end of December), PHP7 just came out at the beginning of December; if you take in to account the PHP7 Changelog I wouldn't even really consider running this on a production server until a lot of testing has been done against it; a lot of hosts are just now rolling out PHP 5.6.

PHP7.0 - Released 03 Dec 2015
PHP7.0.1 - Released 17 Dec 2015
PHP 7.0.2 - Released 07 Jan 2016

As UBB.threads 7.6.0 is just waiting on several updates, and PHP7 came out at the beginning of December, no testing has been done (at all) to test compatability; one should assume it won't work however until users have had the time to test on a PHP7 system.

At this point, we're developing on PHP 5.6.17 (my VPS), 5.4.45 (UBBDev), and I believe Isaac's server is 5.6 with the option of 7.0 through his provider. The minimum PHP requirement for 7.6.0 is PHP 5.3

Just like you, I too, am extremely excited to work with PHP 7.x. I've watched a lot of its progression over the years, and have read many of the recent change logs and feature lists they mention. Those changes really have me excited to get my hands on it.

Through my main pro hosting accounts with Bluehost, I'm currently on PHP 5.6.17, with no option to run anything more current on those servers. PHP 7.x is only available to me on my beta build computer that is located inside my own house (not a server).

Bluehost just made 5.6 available, but clearly states as a "beta offering" on their services -- about 2 months ago. IIRC. Bluehost skipped right over 5.5 and they don't give me the option to run the freshest, and "unproven in the wild" versions, as you may have with your hosting company. I am guessing that most other providers of Bluehost's size, are doing the same.

Again, I am extremely excited for PHP7 and really looking forward to having it available to me and every other website I manage and also browse to, but there is no way in hell that I would want it automatically pushed on my server. Especially since the two (60%) of the main softwares I depend on(Codex Gallery 2.3, and ReviewPost 5.2) are at END OF LIFE several years ago. So any showstopping bugs that come up in those 3rd party softwares, will need to be corrected by me. and me alone.

As mentioned above by James, UBBT is planned to be tested on PHP7 at some point soon, and the results will be posted and shared with everyone here.

If your webhost does make PHP7 available to you right now, and you run your main website using it today, please please please post a reply and share your findings with everyone else here. That would be extremely helpful. At this time, there are just a small handful of people working on UBBT760, and most of the final major stuff has been on my plate for the past three months. Probably the most busiest months I've had in a while.

I tested the latest version of UBB (7.6.0) on PHP7 (7.0.6) since I just bought a new license this week and my hosting company gives the option to switch between 5.6 and 7.0 on the go (they also removed versions that go EOL soon such as 5.3 and 5.4). They actually encourage their customers to try 7.0 and if possible, adapt scripts for the future that eventually comes. My own custom CMS merely needed to have some mysql connections adapted to mysqli since PHP7 fully removed the original mysql extension.

The UBB Install script couldn't connect to the database, probably due to similar reasons? I had errors off when I tried, so there weren't any details other than the parsing coming to a halt as soon as the script tried to make a database connection.

After installing succesfully on PHP 5.6, I switched back to 7.0 to see if the installed UBB works. No page loaded with ubbthreads.php, and all (like the forum list, portal, etc) returned errors such as these:


Seems like UBB has several incompatible contructors and database calls. I will likely run PHP 5.6 for years and so will most others, but I like how PHP finally gives in and makes things more strict to actually prevent incompatibility issues in the future. It's kind of similar as to how strict XML originally tried to remedy the 'wild' markup of HTML that was all over the place on different software.

UBB.threads v7.6.0 isn't publicly accessible, as it's currently in Alpha Testing; I assume that you meant v7.5.9.

Until PHP7 becomes more widely spread, it's on the back burner, as we're currently working on completely rewriting the overall base code; we've had some internal discussion about various database driver (MySQL/MySQLi/PDO), but it's not a necessity currently with where development is right now (things like default settings for servers of 2016 vs 2000, mobile compatibility, HTML5, Suhosin compatibility [a PHP security module], and numerous other upcoming changes [which can be viewed here and at UBBDev] are what we've been attempting to tackle since the last release [7.5.9]).

We plan to look into PHP7 compatibility at a later junction however, but it'd be a release after v7.6.0 is out the door.

UBB.threads v7 is not compatible with php7.

PHP7 removed the mysql db connectors. UBB.threads database connectors needs to be rewritten to support mysqli or PDO. It is a major job to do, since the format sequence required for mysqli is much more strict than the sequence used in UBBT.threads v7. Completely unrelated to UBB.threads; This is true for many other legacy scripts.

Since UBB.threads is compatible with PHP5 series (5.1 to the current 5.6), we're currently advising that you continue to use one of these versions of php.

php 7 was released December 3rd, 2015, and it is still quite new (6 months old). It includes an incredible amount of new features, but also introduces many issues, some of which are compatibility issues do to the removal of key features.

http://devzone.zend.com/4693/php-7-glance/

PHP 7.0 timetable - https://wiki.php.net/todo/php70#timetable
PHP 7.1 timetable - https://wiki.php.net/todo/php71#timetable

I am aware of what needs to be done to UBB.threads for it to be compatible with PHP7.x ( http://php.net/manual/en/migration70.php ), and will begin working on these known issues after UBB.threads 7.6.0 is out the door and in to your hands.

I completely agree with you!

I foresee UBB.threads requiring many hours of work to become fully compatible with php7. The end result will be worth it.

Oops, I indeed meant to say UBB version 7.5.9, my mind somehow mixed it up with PHP's 7.0.6 version number. Thanks for pointing that out Gizmo!

And I agree with you id242, PHP7 sure is a neat upgrade on the technical side that can theoretically fix incompatibility issues for decades, but the other things you mentioned actually improve the experience for the forum admins and users, which should be priority for software like UBB.

That said, I'm glad that I finally bought UBB for one of my new sites. I registered here almost a decade ago looking at the options back then (I think this was still from social strata?), but kept using phpBB due to, let's say, a student's limited resources. I haven't had time to set up my forum fully, but I like the exclusive features so far. I really see some handy dandy stuff coming out of Content Islands and the integrated gallery. Keep up the good work!

UBB.threads, UBB.Classic, and UBB.Eve where all forum options which where originally written by Madrona Park, which has had several names since they where formed (Madrona Park, Infopop, Groupee, Social Strata, and now Hoop.la). It was sold to Rick Baker in exchange for his stock in the company, then sold to UBB.Systems. I'm still here, kicking the tires.

Glad to have you aboard

Is Rick still around? I know I had been away for a little while and remember consulting with Rick many years ago over a few things.

I haven't talked with him in years; I talk with David (Nav) on Facebook on occasion (Groupee still hosts UBBDev).

Dave D? I remember when he was a coder for UBB a long time ago. Way back when I was creating add-ons.

Yeah, tha'td be him

Just for reference purposes, I just updated a server to php71, and Joomla and Wordpress run fine on it. The speed of loading is dramatically improved. Fortunately, UBBThreads is on a different server, so that can wait until the work is done.