You’re running PHP 8 by now, right?

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Screenshot of PHP.net supported versions page taken 2022-11-11 where only versions 8.0 and 8.1 are actively supported and version 7.4 is security supported.

WooCommerce had a little blip in this week’s release of version 7.1.0 where the PHP requirement was bumped to PHP 7.4 prematurely. They’ve fixed it, supporting PHP 7.2+ at the moment, but took the opportunity to issue a warning that PHP 7.4 is losing security support in just two weeks time. See PHP supported versions.

This year, following my PHP 8.0 post in January, I’ve been upgrading dozens of WooCommerce sites to PHP 8.0. After all that version was released in December 2020 and contains useful performance improvements. Good hosts flag all outdated versions, which creates a further itch to scratch each time you log into the hosting control panel.

PHP 8.0 involved breaking changes that took longer than usual to prove out in the WooCommerce community. We’ve been ready and it’s getting late to be making that upgrade if you haven’t yet done so. PHP 8.1 released December 2021 and will soon become the recommended version. PHP upgrades normally lag behind one year from their release date to give theme and plugin vendors time to test and fix compatibilities and website administrators time to apply all of those updates and test.

So if your website(s) haven’t yet been upgraded to PHP 8.0+ then you should get a developer such as myself to come in and fix it ASAP. Contact me for a free 30-minute introduction.

Sean D. Conklin

I have been a full-stack CSS, HTML, JavaScript, PHP website developer since 2002. My current specialties have been in WordPress powered sites since 2010, WooCommerce powered online stores since 2017, adding Shopify in 2023. I support dozens of store owners and managers, customizing and growing their businesses quickly, efficiently, in support of open-source citizenship and standards.