{"id":186659,"date":"2020-04-14T02:34:04","date_gmt":"2020-04-14T02:34:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/premium.wpmudev.org\/blog\/?p=186659"},"modified":"2020-04-07T21:35:03","modified_gmt":"2020-04-07T21:35:03","slug":"how-to-update-php-in-wordpress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/how-to-update-php-in-wordpress\/","title":{"rendered":"Supercharge Your Site: How To Update Your PHP in WordPress"},"content":{"rendered":"

Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound! Okay, maybe not that last part. However, when you keep your PHP up to date, you inherently enhance your website\u2019s performance, security, and SEO. That’s pretty super in our opinion.<\/p>\nOct 2020: We tested all the best WordPress hosts! Find out how we compare.<\/span>View Results<\/span><\/a>\n

In this article, I\u2019ll be going into why PHP is crucial for WordPress, how it works, and how to keep it current.<\/p>\n

Plus, we\u2019ll show you some additional solutions to keeping your PHP in shape. You\u2019ll then know what steps to take to ensure your site isn\u2019t crime-ridden with bugs, slowness, and insecurities.<\/p>\n

Your site will be such a hero for protecting its assets and keeping everything running smoothly, it may just have to wear a cape…<\/p>\n

\"Keeping
An updated PHP can create a super website.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What is PHP?<\/h2>\n

To give you a quick backstory on it, we\u2019ll go back to 1994, when PHP was originally developed by Rasmus Lerdorf<\/a> in the mean streets of, well, I don\u2019t know for sure (and I don\u2019t know if they were \u2018mean\u2019).<\/p>\n

Since then, it\u2019s become one of the most popular scripting languages for the web.<\/p>\n

The name was originally derived from Personal Home Page\/Forms Interpreter<\/strong>. It\u2019s a script language and interpreter that is freely available and used mostly on Linux Web servers.<\/p>\n

Put simply, PHP is a programming language used on websites. However, what’s unique about PHP, is that it\u2019s a server-side language<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

You see, websites use two types of languages. There’s a client-side language<\/strong>, and then there\u2019s the server-side language<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

So what\u2019s the difference?<\/p>\n

Client-side languages (like HTML and JavaScript) do their work on the client system. An example of this is the MacBook of the person who is viewing your WordPress site.<\/p>\n

PHP, on the other hand, does all of its work on the server, where your site is hosted<\/a>.<\/p>\n

WordPress uses PHP so that it’s possible to interact with the database and to retrieve data. What that means is it uses PHP to get things from the database and then to output them as HTML.<\/p>\n

A variety of PHP tags and functions that WordPress provides is what enables this to occur on your page.<\/p>\n

PHP is beneficial with WordPress because it\u2019s your link between your web page and the database.<\/p>\n

If a visitor requests a page on your site, WordPress will interact with the database on the server-side and \u2014 kazam!<\/em> \u2014 output the page.<\/p>\n

\"Example
Example of PHP code embedded in an HTML document.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Instead of using static HTML for each page, PHP generates pages dynamically. This simplifies things by saving you the time and hassle of creating loads of static web pages for your site.<\/p>\n

Up, Up-date, and Away!<\/h2>\n

Now that you know what PHP is… what\u2019s with the updates, and why are they important?<\/p>\n

First, to be clear on what we\u2019re looking at, let\u2019s start by mentioning that PHP uses a point versioning system to manage its releases.<\/p>\n

The first digit is the major version, the second digit is the minor version, and the third digit is the release version.<\/p>\n

So, let\u2019s say it\u2019s version: PHP 7.4.3<\/strong> that was released in February 2020.<\/p>\n

7 represents the major version, 4 represents the minor version, and 3 is the release version.<\/p>\n

There are three main categories for support when it comes to these versions.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Active Support:<\/strong> These versions are actively supported. That means when bugs or security issues get fixed, regular point releases occur.<\/li>\n
  2. Security Only:<\/strong> Versions where there\u2019s just support for critical security threats and releases and are made as-needed instead of on a schedule.<\/li>\n
  3. End of Life:<\/strong> When versions are no longer supported and can be exposed to unpatched security susceptibility.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Many updates have rolled out since 1994, and it\u2019s important to keep up with them because of these three major reasons. Otherwise, your site will eventually collapse in defeat.<\/p>\n

    How to Check PHP Version in WordPress<\/h2>\n

    It\u2019s simple to find out what version of PHP your site is using. You can access this information right from the WordPress dashboard.<\/p>\n

    Go to Tools <\/strong>> Site Health<\/strong> first.<\/p>\n

    \"The
    The Site Health area in WordPress.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    This will tell you the status of your site. As you can see, in this example mine is Good<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

    Also, some recommended improvements are displayed, and if your PHP is outdated, this would also display here.<\/p>\n

    From this point, you can check your version of PHP by clicking the Passed Tests<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

    \"Version
    This version of PHP is 7.3.14.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    It even has a dropdown to learn more about PHP and for additional information.<\/p>\n

    For additional ways, see our article on how to tell what PHP functions are enabled on your server<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    Save The (Up)Date<\/h2>\n

    To quickly recap… we now know why updates happen, and where to find your version of PHP in WordPress.<\/p>\n

    But one other thing to mention before we continue, is that necessary updates for plugins, themes, etc., don\u2019t always happen.<\/p>\n

    PHP falls into this same boat. And the reality is, many businesses, hosting providers, sites, and developers are not supporting the latest version of PHP.<\/p>\n

    Sometimes it\u2019s simply due to laziness, other times it’s a lack of resources (e.g. funds to provide a developer to upgrade).<\/p>\n

    Common reasons why the latest PHP version is not being supported:<\/strong><\/p>\n