Future of 5.4.x

[wslade]

Bruce, I do have a question about your comment to Navigator, yesterday.

It's my understanding the 5.4.x licenses purchased before the release of 1.x will continue to be supported. If the company doesn't plan to support future PHP versions in 5.4.x, doesn't that mean a limited future for the 5.4.x path?

[FSGDAG]

I wouldn't say that 5.4.x wont run on PHP 5. Nicecoder might not be 'offically' supporting 5.4.x on PHP 5, but as myself and many of the other members here have said previous, we've had no problems at all running 5.4.x on PHP 5.

Remember, when something isn't working right, its not only IndexU that you have to look at for the reason / solution. Bruce might agree with me on this, but I would have to say that 40% of issues are from the way hosts have their server configured, another 40 - 50% being some kind of user error.

[wslade]

Thanks FSGDAG.

I responded in Navigator's post but didn't carry the thought over to this post. I'm using Indexu 5.4.1 and my host provides php 5.2.5. Everything is working fine for me. Sorry I didn't make this information clear in this post.

My concern is for the future. Will there be a point where 5.4.x will no longer work with the then current build of php? If so, will 5.4.x be updated or will it become obsolete?

[Bruceper]

V5.4x was written before PHP5 came to be, that being said it will work on MOST PHP5 installations. It all depends on how the host sets up the environment.

Environment issues create tons of troubles and most of the time they are not necessary but the host is thinking they're doing their job and "securing" their installation.

[wslade]

Bruce, thanks for your reply.

Please don't think I'm trying to revisit the recent decisions. I am trying to make the best decisions for me and the software I use.

From my earlier post, my 5.4.1 and php5 is working just fine. My concern is about possible future issues. As an example, what would happen if at some time in the future, php progresses to a point where 5.4.x no longer works?

Thanks

[Bruceper]

Then you'd have to find a reallly old host?

Admittedly v5.4x will not be rewritten. It is there for legacy users. It shall continue to work on many hosts for many years from now.

I don't think that in perhaps two years fro now that users will still want to be running 5.4x when Deluxe will have far outstripped what the 5.4.x version can do. Yes some people are still running 3.2 (scary isn't it?) so I will assume that people may run 5.4x for many years to come. Unless the PHP people totally removes some functions from PHP5 or perhaps 6 then v5.4x will continue to work.

[esm]

V5.4x was written before PHP5 came to be...

PHP5 was released July 13, 2004
INDEXU v5 was released November 25, 2005

Yes some people are still running 3.2 (scary isn't it?)...

the only real issue with running v3.2 is the security issue. just add the following code (taken from INDEXU 5.x) to the application.php file (just above the "configuration variables" section):

  
/*===================================================
    register_globals & magic_quotes_gpc = on
  ===================================================*/
  function safe_extract($var) {
    static $forbidden = array('_FILES', '_ENV', '_GET', '_POST', '_COOKIE', '_SERVER', '_SESSION', 'GLOBALS');
    while (list($k, $v) = @each($var)) {
      if (!in_array($k, $forbidden)) {
        $GLOBALS[$k] = $v;
      }
      else {
        exit;
      }
    }
  }
  function addslashes_deep($value) {
     $value = is_array($value) ? array_map('addslashes_deep', $value) : addslashes($value);
     return $value;
  }
  if (!get_magic_quotes_gpc()) {
    if (!empty($_GET)) {
      $_GET = addslashes_deep($_GET);
      safe_extract($_GET);
    }
    if (!empty($_POST)) {
      $_POST = addslashes_deep($_POST);
      safe_extract($_POST);
    }
    if (!empty($_COOKIE)) {
      $_COOKIE = addslashes_deep($_COOKIE);
      safe_extract($_COOKIE);
    }
  }
  elseif (!ini_get('register_globals')) {
    if (!empty($_GET)) safe_extract($_GET);
    if (!empty($_POST)) safe_extract($_POST);
    if (!empty($_COOKIE)) safe_extract($_COOKIE);
  }

.