What’s new in PHP version 8

Although 2020 brought us the coronavirus pandemic, in November of that same year version 8 of the PHP language also came into our lives. Two years later, Pandora FMS LTS 767 version will be the first full release with version 8.  

Let’s talk about what’s new in PHP version 8

PFMS Web Console

Pandora FMS has several components and where the use of PHP language is most essential is in your Web Console. 

*It also uses other technologies such as JavaScript, AJAX, etc., but the “dark horse” is undoubtedly PHP.

As an example, PHP is the connection tool with the database and the one in charge of generating the HTML code (yes, a programming language generating code for another language), as pillars of greater importance for work.

During these years, the focus has remained on providing full compatibility with PHP 8, being version 760 the first to use this version without losing compatibility with PHP 7.4, introduced in version 759 (PHP 7.2 was active from version 729 to 758).

On November 28, 2022 the life cycle of PHP 7.x ends and therefore from version 766 RRR, in new installations, by default, Pandora FMS uses PHP 8. For existing customers, both Open and Enterprise must keep in mind the upgrade to PHP 8 after obtaining, through Warp update, the 767 LTS version.

Features

The PHP language has dominated the web application market for decades (an estimated 80% presence) and, although it has many detractors, it actually has its good things and its so-not-good things.

One of its features is that it is an interpreted language, for which it takes four steps in its execution.

Although code preloading and advanced cache usage were introduced in version 7.4, in version 8 they reduced the steps to only three, resulting in speed and energy savings.

*It is much more complex than I describe it. I set out here in broad outlines and always for informative purposes.

PHP 8 features 20 new features, from simple things like the use of commas at the end of lists (trailing commas) to the “mandatory” and fully integrated use of JSON format handling.

Although all of these features are completely transparent to developers, a few will be noticeable even in end users. Such as, for example, in the processes of sorting elements, which are now completely stable.

There has been reported an improvement in WordPress of 18% in the number of requests per second able to be performed and in Laravel of 8% of improvement accordingly. 

Both improvements over PHP 7.4 and 7.2.

Implementation

PHP 8 must be implemented by the local area network administrator, so you must follow the data backup (and even recovery) routines before performing a successful update. 

At Pandora FMS, considering that outdated software is one of the six common computer maintenance issues, we have a basic guide for upgrading to PHP 8, depending on the operating system used to run Pandora FMS:

https://pandorafms.com/manual/es/documentation/07_technical_annexes/18_php₈

“PHP is as exciting as your toothbrush. You use it every day, it does the job, it’s a simple tool, so what? Who would like to read about toothbrushes?”

“PHP 8 is significantly better because it contains much less of my code.”

— Rasmus Lerdorf (Humble creator of PHP)

Note: At the time of writing these lines the current PHP version is 8.1 and they are expected to release version 8.2 on December 8, 2022. For more information visit: https://github.com/php.