PHP Compatibility Checker

Description

The WP Engine PHP Compatibility Checker can be used by any WordPress website on any web host to check PHP version compatibility.

This plugin will lint theme and plugin code installed on your WordPress site and give you back a report of compatibility issues as reported by Tide for you to fix. Compatibility issues are categorized into errors and warnings and will list the file and line number of the offending code, as well as the info about why that line of code is incompatible with the chosen version of PHP. The plugin will also suggest updates to themes and plugins, as a new version may offer compatible code.

This plugin does not execute your theme and plugin code, as such this plugin cannot detect runtime compatibility issues.

Please note that linting code is not perfect. This plugin cannot detect unused code-paths that might be used for backwards compatibility, and thus might show false positives. We maintain a whitelist of plugins that can cause false positives. We are continuously working to ensure the checker provides the most accurate results possible.

This plugin relies on Tide that constantly scans updated versions of plugins and themes in the background. Your scan results should be near real-time, but if not that just means Tide has not yet scanned your specific plugin or theme version. Please be patient as this may take up to 10 minutes for results to be returned from Tide. Please see the FAQ for more information.

Update to PHP 7.4

• Use this plugin to check your site for compatibility up to PHP 8.0!
• As of July 2022, 8.52% of WordPress websites run a PHP version older than PHP 7.0.
• These versions of PHP have been deprecated and unsupported for over 2 years.
• Only 7.1% of WordPress websites run PHP 8, the current main version of PHP.

Disclaimer

While this plugin is written to detect as many problems as accurately as possible, 100% reliable detection is very difficult to ensure. It is best practice to run comprehensive tests before you migrate to a new PHP version.

The plugin was created by WP Engine to help the WordPress community increase adoption of modern PHP versions. We welcome contributors to this plugin, and are excited to see how developers and other WordPress hosts use this plugin.

To disclose security issues for this plugin please email [email protected].

Screenshots

Installation

Note: Go to ‘Plugins’ > ‘Add New’ in the WordPress admin and search for “PHP Compatibility Checker” and install it from there.

To manually install:
1. Upload phpcompat to the /wpengine-wp-content/plugins/ directory
2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress

You will find the plugin options in the WP Admin Tools => PHP Compatibility menu. Once you click run it will take a few minutes to conduct the test. Feel free to navigate away from the page and check back later.

FAQ

1. Will this work outside of the WP Engine hosting account?

Yes, this plugin can be used any ANY WordPress website on ANY host.

2. Are there WP-CLI commands available?

As of the 1.6.0 release this plugin no longer includes the phpcompat WP-CLI command. If you still require use of that command, then please run version 1.5.2 or older of this plugin as those versions extend WP-CLI and provide commands.

3. A plugin I created is listed as not compatible, what should I do?

We maintain a whitelist of plugins that cause false positives. If your plugin shows up as incompatible but you think that is wrong, please open a GitHub issue on the project, or email [email protected] with info about your plugin and why you know it is compatible (you have automated tests, the failure is on backwards compatibility code paths, etc).

4. Can I use this to test non-WordPress PHP Projects?

Yes! While you cannot use this WordPress plugin to test your non-WordPress projects, you can use the Open Source PHPCompatibility Library that this plugin is built on.

5. Why was my plugin/theme skipped?

If your plugin or theme is not available on www.ads-software.com, then Tide will not be able to scan or return results of that plugin or theme.

If your plugin or theme is available on www.ads-software.com, but Tide is not immediately returning results than it likely means Tide has not yet audited that plugin or theme and within a few minutes results should be available once Tide completes its audit.

6. The scan is stuck, what can I do?

As of version 1.6.0 of this plugin, there should no longer be issues of the scan getting stuck as it no longer runs on your WordPress host server. If you are seeing significantly slow or unresponsive results from a plugin or theme that is available on www.ads-software.com, then please open an issue with those details for the Tide team to investigate why that specific plugin or theme version is not appearing in the Tide results.

7. I found a bug, or have a suggestion, can I contribute back?

Yes! WP Engine has a public GitHub repo where you can contribute back to this plugin. Please open an issue on the Plugin GitHub. We actively develop this plugin, and are always happy to receive pull requests.

The plugin was created by WP Engine to help the WordPress community increase adoption of modern PHP versions. We welcome contributors to this plugin, and are excited to see how developers and other WordPress hosts use this plugin.

To disclose security issues for this plugin please email [email protected].

Reviews

Rubish, get it offline

Okoth1 October 27, 2023

It hangs like many others say. No replies on the forum. You’re giving people false hope.Just get it offline and focus on your other plugins (which are working very well, btw); you’ll do yourself and many others a favor.

very buggy and hangs

theozsnowman May 19, 2023

ran the plugin on quite a few sites and most timeout after a couple of plugins are tested. Lots of false positives and errors. surely there is a better plugin out there?

audit requested does not exist

elffuts May 9, 2023

Useless! Gives a 404 error on plugins that ARE PHP 8 compatible. and then hangs. I’ve been waiting 30 minutes for it to unhang, and I finally gave up. It sure would be nice if this thing worked as advertised. Here’s what I got: MaxButtons Pro 9.5.5 Response status: 404 Message: The audit requested does not exist. Am I supposed to know what that means? How do I fix it? Right now it’s completely useless, and it hangs the software — never goes any farther to get to the rest of my plugins. Not a bit of help as is.

MANY Incorrect, False results – both ways

dave22n April 25, 2023

Rates several themes and plugins as compatible, which definitely are not and have crashed under newer PHP versions (Random Text 0.3.0, WP Bakery 6.0.5, Slideshow 2.3.1 (dereg’d since Apr ’22)) — and has rated several themes and plugins as incompatible which seem to work fine under PHP 7.4 previous versions (Duplicator 1.5.3.1, LayerSlider WP 6.8.2, UpdraftPlus – Backup/Restore 1.23.3, WP Mail SMTP 3.7.0). So to have false evals of plugins and themes, both directions, makes this a useless tool and a waste of time. It’s a great idea of course, but with the errors I’ve seen it means it can’t even be relied upon to give some clues in a PHP problem hunt. If I’m missing something will happily change my tune — because like ChatGPT, it sure gives some attractive, confident-looking answers! And linting ought not be so buggy as all this. Truly quite surprised.

Useless

Bob0221 April 19, 2023

Obviously the website’s current php is working or the website wouldn’t render. But you have no way to check future php versions and website compatibility. I wanted to see if my website would be compatible to PHP 8.0. This plugin redirects you to LocalWP …. whatever that is.

Works as advertized

Website Rob April 7, 2023

WordPress 6.2.0PHP 8.0 and 8.1PHP CC Plugin 1.6.1 Although plugin page says: “check your site for compatibility up to PHP 7.4!”, I found when using the plugin it will automatically use whatever PHP version the site is using–up to PHP v8.0. Tried using 8.0 and then 8.1 but the results showed were still only up to 8.0. No errors, no problems, just results I could use. Based on screenshots shown on the plugin page, the new interface is very nice, make one choice then go. This is a no maintenance plugin – bonus!

Contributors & Developers

Changelog

1.6.3

Fix issue where Buffer was not available to the scans.

1.6.2

• Update packages.

1.6.1

• Fix issue on update where old files were included.

1.6.0

• Changed from running PHP Compatibility scans on your WordPress server to using scan data from Tide.
• Removed phpcompat WP-CLI command.
• Update dependencies.

1.5.2

• Removed PHP 5.2 checks
• Fixed PHP 8 issue where plugin cannot cannot be uninstalled.

1.5.1

• Added Smart Plugin Manager to whitelisted plugins.

1.5.0

• Added support for PHP 7.3 compatibility checks.

1.4.8

• Update dependencies.

1.4.7

• Better translation support.

1.4.6

• Switched to new PHPCompatibilityWP library to help prevent false positives.

1.4.5

• Use plugin version number to enqueue scripts and styles.

1.4.4

• PHP 5.2 Support & PHP 7.1 and 7.2 Lints.
• Updated call to action sidebar depending on platform.

1.4.3

• Fixed Composer issue.

1.4.1

• Updated PHP_CodeSniffer to fix a security advisory.
• Whitelisted a number of plugins.

1.4.0

• Updated UX for viewing PHP errors to be more intuitive and require less scrolling.
• Added links for non-technical users who need assistance from developers to fix PHP errors or to test their site in PHP 7 enabled hosting environments.

1.3.2

• Added a “Clean up” button and uninstall.php.
• Added phpcompat_phpversions filter.

1.3.1

• Whitelisted a number of plugins.

1.3.0

• Updated the PHPCompatibility library to latest version. Should fix many false positives.
• Changed language and added help text to Admin UI.

1.2.4

• Fixed Composer issue.

1.2.3

• Updated the PHPCompatibility library to latest version.
• Whitelisted TablePress.

1.2.2

• Whitelisted UpdraftPlus and Max Mega Menu.

1.2.1

• Updated the PHPCompatibility library to latest version.

1.2.0

• Updated the PHPCompatibility library to latest version.
• Added support for PHP 5.6

1.1.2

• Fixed issue with WordPress notices breaking the plugin header.
• Changed the way we send and parse JSON.
• You can now restart an in progress scan.
• Updated download.js to v4.2 for better Safari compatibility.

1.1.1

• Fixed bug with active job display.
• Updated progress bar calculation.

1.1.0

• Test results now persist page reloads.
• Failed tests will show an overview of the results.
• The scan timeout is now configurable using a filter. See the FAQ for more details.

1.0.3

• Fixed a bug in the WP-CLI command.
• Added a handful of PHP 7 compatible plugins to the whitelist.

1.0.2

• Added additional role protections.
• Changed the UI colors to better understand output at a glance.
• Exclude checking node_modules and tmp directories.
• Added support for child theme’s parent theme.

1.0.1

• Updated compatibility library with a few bugfixes.
• Added skip logic to prevent checker from hanging.

1.0.0

• Major update to add PHP 7 checking support.
• Improved the UX of the progress bar.
• Fixed bug with the way the plugin menu was registered.

0.1.0

• Initial version.
• PHP 5.5, 5.4, and 5.3 Support.
• Basic WP-CLI Commands.