Upgrade or not?

  • Resolved okcirmht

    (@okcirmht)


    2 weeks, 6 days ago

    Hi, I am a premium/secure licensee. A long while ago I realized nothing past version 5.0.2 worked properly on my site (still on php 7.4). 5.0.2 still works perfectly and I have no reason to upgrade, unless when I decide to move to php 8+ perhaps (but even then, I would rather keep using 5.0.2 (if still troubles continue).

    My question is: Can I just continue with using 5.0.2? Am I missing anything great by not updating? I did not find any new features (even if working on my site) in the later versions that was worth the trouble of repeating the site break down (perhaps a search pdf feature, but it was not worth the troubles of updating). I have hundreds of pdfs on my site for members. A few times I updated to your later versions, but pdfs windows were off, watermarks did no work, or other features did not work properly, so I just gave up moving past the super working 5.0.2. At that time a helpful support staff said you will be fixing the problems, and the troubles had to do with moving from . I am not sure if they were fixed, though, as far as my experience goes.

    The support person said the following at one point: “So after discussing with the colleagues, it appears that there are some outstanding problems and the watermark centering issue is among them. To give you some context, for the technical reasons we had to move from PDF embedder’s canvas usage to iframe and that original update was the most unsuccessful.?
    We have fixed some of the worst problems since then but we now have to rework some of the previous features that aren’t properly functioning and our further releases may not fix them all at once because of the dev workflow we have. Still, we look forward to reach the point where all of the settings will work properly again as they previously were.”

    Have you “reached that point”? Sorry, if I am not up to date with your plugin upgrades. I appreciate your clarification, since at some point I have to move to php 8+ and have to ask you regarding compatibility issues.

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
  • Plugin Author Slava Abakumov

    (@slaffik)

    Hello there,

    Thank you for providing additional context.

    We made a lot of changes in 5.3.0 released a month ago, including some performance improvements. I don’t know whether you have an active license to see the changelog in wp-admin, but here is a public page with all the details since 5.2.0 release (where we made a big plugin rewrite): https://wp-pdf.com/changelog/

    Technically, 5.0 and 5.3 are very different – even the way PDFs are rendered is different.

    We can’t support an old version, as we don’t even have a test playground for it anymore. v5.0 was released a lot of years ago, and it’s not working with PHP 8 correctly.

    The watermark rendering logic was almost fully rewritten in 5.3.0 – and you have more options to control the look of the Watermark (especially if you are using the Block Editor).

    So I would highly recommend to start upgrading your site(s) to PHP 8.2 (this is the most stable version among all PHP 8 for core WordPress and all plugins) and also PDF Embedder Secure to 5.3.0.

    As a reminder, starting from Premium 5.2, you must have both PDF Embedder (the free one, from www.ads-software.com) and PDF Embedder Premium (Secure) installed and activated.

    Premium 5.3.0 requires Free 4.9.0.

    I hope this helps.

    Thread Starter okcirmht

    (@okcirmht)

    Dear Slava Abakumov,

    All your notes are very helpful. I do have an active license (and now with your assurance will continue with it despite still using the old version), and will look at the link. But I did not know that free version needs to be installed as well with the new post 5.2 versions, and all the changes introduced. I am not yet ready to plunge in php 8.2 due to other plugin consideration and fearing past tries that failed since I rushed through it. I still find your plugin to be most stable and friendly in the old version I am using, and am hoping that one day I will be able to use the latest version in php 8.2. It is being suggested by my other older plugins as well. Thanks for taking the time for explaining the situation clearly.

    Thread Starter okcirmht

    (@okcirmht)

    Just to add, reading the linked changelog it seems I can even try 5.3.0 in my existing PHP (since it is compatible with 7.2). My WP is up to date. So, can you confirm that even in my existing PHP, if I install 5.3.0 and latest free version it can still work (perhaps not as fully as in PHP 8.2, but still doable in my existing Php 7.4? If so, I may try it on a day I feel most courageous!

    Plugin Author Slava Abakumov

    (@slaffik)

    Yes, using PDF Embedder free 4.9.0 and PDF Embedder Premium (any plan) 5.3.0 on a PHP 7.4 should work totally fine.

    There is no functionality limitations when using an older version of PHP on your server. The difference is only in the PHP performance itself (newer versions tend to be faster and more secure).

    From plugin point of view – it doesn’t matter whether it’s PHP 7.2 or PHP 8.2.

    Thread Starter okcirmht

    (@okcirmht)

    That is very helpful, thanks Slava. I hope that I will be able to try the new version.

    For the sake of those in my shoes who may try also, we need to make sure those cache/minifying plugin exemptions are implemented (I have mine for the older version). I can see that you have updated instructions for those trying the new version in the link you had provided (or thereabouts).

    I will let you know when I try in this thread, but it may not be too soon, as I have to take a deep breath before I try, since things (plugins, themes, and how pdfs are located) are different on each site. I have a (same) pdf serving as a review file that is enacted by way of another plugin on all product/publication pages via a short code entered in the pdf file’s description in the Media. I am not sure whether it will work as expected.

    A while ago, when I had problems with this plugin, I tried others, but came back to this since it is most stable in securing files, and in rendering them (in the version I am still using). So, I hoped for things improving in new versions of PDF Embedder. Overall, I wish you success in improving the plugin, as I realize it must take lots of work and time to do so.

    Take care, and thanks for taking the time for explaining things.

    Plugin Author Slava Abakumov

    (@slaffik)

    Thank you for kind words!

    And no problems, I was glad to clarify things.

    Good luck with the migration.

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
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