OpenX Blog

Developers: Should we only support PHP 5?

Tags: Developers, OpenX

by Scott Switzer on February 27th, 2008

Over the years, there has been quite an effort to support as many versions of PHP and MySQL as possible. This makes it easier for publishers to install OpenX with as little hassle as possible. In the past year, there has been a large effort to convince web applications and web hosts to drop support for PHP 4. In fact, the PHP folks have announced the end of life of PHP 4 (sniff, sniff), with security fixes stopping on 8/8/08.

While it is only a matter of time before we drop PHP 4 support, we are considering removing support for versions of OpenX above v2.5. If this decision is made, this will mean that from May/June 2008, OpenX will require PHP 5.

Here are some of the reasons:

Pros

Faster time to develop
Simpler, more maintainable code
Better libraries (most PHP libraries are now being developed only for PHP 5)
Our new plugin system can take advantage of PHP 5 tools and libraries
Test cycles take much shorter (automated tests do not need to run over all iterations of PHP 4)

Cons

Publishers with PHP 4 will either have to upgrade PHP or switch hosting providers if they want to move to versions of OpenX beyond v2.5

Who does this affect?

When we did analysis of who would be affected, we looked at publishers who are on a recent version of OpenX (2.3 and above). Roughly 65% of these users are already using PHP 5.

In addition, people who do not have the technical expertise to upgrade to PHP 5 can use our hosted version (when it comes out of beta!).

Please let me know in the comments or through our email address (hello at openx dot org) what your thoughts are. Please be specific why you want to keep or drop support for PHP 4.

We really want community involvement in this decision.

Thanks.

31 Comments »

My vote goes for (only) the PHP5 version!

Comment by Kevin VDS — February 27, 2008 @ 4:20 pm

My vote goes also to PHP 5. I think there are lot’s of Pros and even more could be found at http://gophp5.org/ - and don’t forget to get onto that list: http://gophp5.org/projects

Comment by Tobias Schwarz — February 27, 2008 @ 5:51 pm

It is too soon to drop support for PHP 4.

I feel support for PHP5 should be road mapped but not in a version due out this summer! Most other OSS projects have more realistic targets to drop support for PHP4 in late 2008 or 2009.

Comment by usrbingeek — February 27, 2008 @ 6:04 pm

Tobias,

Thanks for the feedback. We will most definitely get on the list if/when the community supports a PHP 5 decision.

Thanks,
Scott

Comment by Scott Switzer — February 27, 2008 @ 7:09 pm

usrbingeek,

While we are in alpha/beta stages for v2.5, we have committed to PHP 4 support for this version. This will be the version that people will download once it is stable, in 3 months or so.

The next version, v2.7, will be the version that we are proposing starting PHP 5 only. This version will probably be stable toward the end of 2008. I hope this gives you more of a sense of our time frames. The blog post was a bit misleading because while development will start PHP 5 in 3-6 months, it will only matter to end users later in the year.

Cheers,
Scott

Comment by Scott Switzer — February 27, 2008 @ 7:13 pm

You are really leaving a lot of people off the table if you only support php 5. I have many boxes that still run php 4 and have no plans on upgrading them until redhat support goes out of service.

Comment by Jeff O'Hara — February 27, 2008 @ 8:16 pm

Go for it

Comment by verdonv — February 27, 2008 @ 9:05 pm

The first sentence in the second paragraph “we are considering removing support for versions of OpenX above v2.5.” confused me. I’d suggest adding “PHP 4″ to it so it says “we are considering removing support for PHP4 in versions of OpenX above v2.5.”

Are there old versions of OpenAds/OpenX available for download? I wouldn’t mind exploring the package on my servers which don’t have PHP 4 yet. I agree with Jeff O’Hara’s comment above.

Comment by Michael Clark — February 27, 2008 @ 9:48 pm

Personally we are still using PHP4 BUT if openx would require PHP5 we would simply set aside resources to upgrade the servers to etch once we had to.

If it would make development faster (as I would think it should), it means a better product. Just do it.

Comment by tsb — February 28, 2008 @ 9:12 am

Yes, I am for only supporting PHP5 from now on. This way OpenX can concentrate in perfecting future innovations instead of focusing on a small group that has not updated.

Comment by Marcos — February 28, 2008 @ 12:27 pm

Here’s another vote for php 5 only. At this point, I think the positives outweigh the negatives.

Comment by David — February 28, 2008 @ 3:18 pm

Yes, they are. But how do I know if the positive comments are all pseudonyms of our developers who do not want to support PHP 4 any more???

Comment by Scott Switzer — February 28, 2008 @ 3:28 pm

PHP 5 was released 3 years ago. It’s time to drop version 4 already!

http://gophp5.org/

Comment by Nightlife Magazine — February 28, 2008 @ 6:54 pm

Another vote for PHP 5.

Let’s make PHP evolve once and for all!

Comment by Andre P. — February 29, 2008 @ 11:14 am

Drop it like a bad habit.

PHP5 has been around long enough for everyone to get they scripts up to version, as well as all the hosts. From my point of view (member of a PHP User Group Board of Coordination) PHP4 has done its job and its just unacceptable to continue using it.

OpenX has enough resources available to do this, seeing that anyone can download 2.4 or migrate to hosted OpenX eventually.

My vote is, drop PHP4, go go go PHP5

Comment by Rafael Dohms — February 29, 2008 @ 6:05 pm

drop 4. focus your attention on making the product better with the current version of php…you’ll spend too much precious time making 4 work.

those users that are on 4 will need an OS upgrade soon anyways.

Comment by Todd Rosner — March 1, 2008 @ 3:14 am

Yes please, drop support for PHP4. It’s time for all kind of PHP4 apps to move one.

Comment by Jens Nedal — March 3, 2008 @ 9:26 am

Drop it! For God’s sake php5 has been around for 2 years!!!

You guys are too democratic… there is no excuse for not shifting to v5 other than lazy admins not wanting to get spend extra hours/days doing a simple migration process.

The benefits far far outweigh the drawbacks, how can you make use of php5 when you have to maintain compatiblity with something I consider by web standards “Legacy”. This is not a cobol program running on a mainframe, this is web development were cycles are measure in months not years.

Comment by omark — March 3, 2008 @ 12:41 pm

Drop PHP4, I mean common, The PHP Group announced the end of life for PHP 4 way back in July of last year. Security updates for PHP 4 are only being posted until August of this year and PHP 6 is in the works! Its time to move on people!

Comment by Dave — March 3, 2008 @ 10:54 pm

Yes, php5 only! php5 classes are much cleaner.

Comment by jonschreiber — March 3, 2008 @ 11:24 pm

I guess it depends. Do you want to maximize the competitiveness of OpenX? Then drop PHP4. I’ve already heard of another open-source competitor in the works - the more time wasted with PHP4 is less time building the application based on the currently available technology.

Comment by Chris — March 4, 2008 @ 2:46 pm

no more PHP4 please

Comment by thomas — March 4, 2008 @ 4:59 pm

If it means smoother development, drop PHP4. We just finished upgrading to PHP5 in anticipation of applications moving forward. From what I gather, PHP4 hanging on is a chicken-or-egg thing for a lot of hosts, someone has to go first! I totally appreciate maintaining backward compatibility when it provides wider accessibility, and I’m sure there will be infuriated OX users whenever you do this, but in the case of PHP4/5/6, it only gets messier the longer you wait.

Comment by tbronson — March 5, 2008 @ 3:28 pm

PHP5 all the way. It’s been around forever and I just got a new box so I’m all PHP5-ified

As to other servers, it’s time. It’s been time for entirely too long. Most applications I’ve come across and use seem to be going the PHP5+ only route at this point. Well worth the change if it makes your life smoother and development quicker at this point in time.

Best of luck and keep up the great product!

Comment by Steven — March 5, 2008 @ 7:09 pm

[...] By the way, if you haven’t upgraded to PHP5 yet, it’s time you start thinking about it. OpenX has a discussion about supporting PHP5 exclusively. Read more about it here. [...]

Pingback by Upgrading OpenAds To OpenX — March 8, 2008 @ 4:32 pm

Developing OpenX with support to PHP5 only almost only has its advantages.
Development will go much faster, code will be optimized and since support is for PHP5 only there will be not extra code affecting performance.

I’ve done quite a lot of OpenAds projects for companies and all of them had at least PHP 5.x or higher installed.

This is the way to go!

Comment by Isaak — March 8, 2008 @ 6:11 pm

[...] If you’re still using PHP4, it’s time you consider upgrading to PHP5. OpenX offers better performance on PHP5. Chances are it will not be compatible with PHP4 in a near future. Read more about this here. [...]

Pingback by Fine-Tuning OpenX For Performance — March 10, 2008 @ 12:06 pm