New Wave PHP

Recent Versions of PHP

Version

Released

End of Life

5.2

November 2006

January 2011

5.3

June 2009

July 2014

5.4

March 2012

September 2015

5.5

June 2013

June 2016

5.6

August 2014

August 2017

7.0

Q4 2015

Release + 3 months

New Wave PHP

New Wave PHP

Data from http://w3techs.com

Changes in PHP

Register Globals is Gone (5.4)

Upgrade PHP and see many undefined
(simple) variables.
To fix each undefined variable:
replace $username with
$_GET['username'] or $_POST['username']
in each case

Echo Shortcut (5.4)

PHP 5.4 removes short_open_tag config option
<? is never valid - s/<?/<?php/
<?= is always valid

Error Reporting: E_STRICT

E_ALL includes E_STRICT in PHP 5.4+

You can either:

1. Fix your errors
2. Turn it off again using
E_ALL&~E_STRICT

Timezone Settings (5.4)

PHP refuses to guess the timezone and will
warn you.
It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings.
You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the
date_default_timezone_set() function.
In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this
warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier.

Fix it by setting date.timezone in php.ini:

date.timezone = "Europe/London"

Call Time Pass By Reference

PHP Fatal error: Call-time pass-by-reference has been removed

This error says "don't pass references in

when the function didn't expect them, you
fool"

Call Time Pass By Reference

You can pass by reference. Declare function:
<?php
function inspire(&$person) {
// be inspiring
}

Call with just $ and not &

<?php
inspire($current_user);

Traits (5.5)
Traits are building blocks for classes

Traits can:
build on one another
be used together
are inherited by child classes

Traits
<?php
namespace Silex\Application;
use Monolog\Logger;
trait MonologTrait {
public function log($message,
array $context = array(),
$level = Logger::INFO) {
return $this['monolog']->addRecord($level,
$message, $context);
}
}

Traits
To use a trait:
<?php
use Silex\Application;
class MyApplication extends Application
{
use Application\MonologTrait;
$app->log("Something went wrong");

DateTimeImmutable (5.5)
<?php
$d1 = new DateTime();
print_r($d1);
$d1->add(new DateInterval('P4D'));
print_r($d1);
DateTime Object (
[date] => 2015-01-09 10:43:26
...
)
DateTime Object (
[date] => 2015-01-13 10:43:26
...
)

DateTimeImmutable
<?php
$d2 = new DateTimeImmutable();
print_r($d2);
$d2->add(new DateInterval('P4D'));
print_r($d2);
DateTime Object (
[date] => 2015-01-09 10:43:26
...
)
DateTime Object (
[date] => 2015-01-09 10:43:26
...
)

Easy Password Hashing (5.5)

$pass = "secretpassword";
$hashed = password_hash($pass, PASSWORD_DEFAULT);
echo $hashed;

Output:
$2y$10$Q7Rm.Cmcu4lbvI7.C2q4Z.1LLoh4C63vBSfflQtfjs52GxhAc.s/G

(you may need to make your password

columns larger)

Easy Password Hashing

$existing_hash = '$2y$10$Q7Rm.Cmcu4lbvI7.C2q4Z.1LLoh4C
$pass = "secretpassword";
if(password_verify($pass, $existing_hash))
echo "All good";
else
echo "Go away";

For PHP < 5.5:

http://github.com/ircmaxell/password_compa
t

PHP Generators (5.5)

Simpler than iterators - a function returning a
sequence of values.
<?php
function getValues() {
// totally trivial example
yield "Apple";
yield "Ball";
yield "Cat";
}

PHP Generators
Simpler than iterators - a function returning a
sequence of values.
<?php
$stuff = getValues();
foreach($stuff as $thing) {
echo $thing . "\n";
}

MySQL is Deprecated (5.5)

The original mysql extension now emits
E_DEPRECATED warnings.
Instead, use:
PDO
The mysqli extension, which is similar
to the original mysql one

Built-in OpCache (5.5)

Replaces APC - beware this is disabled by
default.

Turn on opcache.enable and

opcache.enable_cli

Variadic Functions (5.6)

function concatenate($transform, ...$strings) {
$string = '';
foreach($strings as $piece) {
$string .= $piece;
}
return($transform($string));
}
echo concatenate("strtoupper", "I'd ", "like ",
4 + 2, " apples");

Argument Unpacking (5.6)

Let PHP unpack your args

$email[] = "a@example.com";
$email[] = "Hi there";
$email[] = "Thanks for registering, hope you like it";
// old syntax
mail($email[0], $email[1], $email[2]);
//new syntax
mail(...$email);

Argument Unpacking
Let PHP unpack your args

$email[] = "Hi there";

$email[] = "Thanks for registering, hope you like it";
mail("someone@example.com", ...$email);

Namespaced Functions (5.6)

Have always been able to namespace
functions

Can now import them, like classes

include "Lib/Many/Layers/functions.php";
use function \Lib\Many\Layers\deep_func;
deep_func();

Upgrading An Existing System

Performance Comparison

How To Upgrade
Turn on E_DEPRECATED and watch the
logs of your existing platform
Use the PHPCompatibility PHPCS
standard
Compile new PHP and run test suite
Lint check with new version (php-l)
Run application with PHP's webserver
Upgrade a test/staging platform
Go for it!

PHP's Own Webserver (5.4)

php -S localhost:8080

PHP's Own Webserver

php -S dev.project.local:8080
-t /var/www/cool-project/web
-c php-ini.development
routing.php

Finding Platforms
New projects should be PHP 5.5 or later.

Questions to ask:
What versions of PHP are available?
Are backups included?
Which extensions are available, and
can I add others?
Can I get support with my PHP setup?

Unofficial List of Providers

Servergrove
http://www.servergrove.com/
Linode https://www.linode.com/
Digital Ocean
https://www.digitalocean.com/
Siteground
http://www.siteground.com/
Rackspace http://rackspace.com

Questions? (and resources)

Intermediate PHP http://lrnja.net/php-video

Contact me: @lornajane or http://lornajane.net