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What benefits will you get when upgrading to PHP 7 for Joomla 4?

On November 17th, 2018, Joomla 4 version alpha has been released for testing. Big upgrade means we will have more great features and updates in Joomla 4, one of them is PHP 7 become the minimum PHP version supported for Joomla 4. In this article, we will give you a clearer look with PHP 7 as well as the benefits it brings us.

PHP 7 is Joomla 4 required PHP version

It can be said that PHP 7 is the latest and well-known programming language for building online apps and sites (about 80 percent online websites developed on PHP). Your server must run PHP 7 at minimum version to be able to test Joomla 4 Alpha version.

Joomla and PHP Release Roadmap

Joomla long-term support launch route

Through this launch route, we can easily realize that after every 4 to 6 years, a new Joomla version will launch:

• 2008: Joomla 1.5  – the 1st  long-term support launched
• 2012: Joomla 2.5 – the second long-term support launched
• 2018: Joomla 3.9 – the third long-term support will be launched soon.

Joomla community is waiting for Joomla 4 release this year, so, no long-term support version is expected until the year 2022.

PHP route:

• PHP 5: no develop anymore
• PHP 5.6: the most modern version of PHP 5 branch, which will be kept security updates until the end of 2018.
• PHP7: is in active development branch which is planned to support until 2023.
• PHP7.2: the latest PHP version recently, will be supported until 2020.

It is the fact that PHP 5 is out of date now, which is a proper reason for Joomla to support the most modern platform that is going to maintain activity with Joomla 4 until next version of longterm support releases.

Joomla’s required PHP version for each release:

Joomla 2.5 – PHP 5.3.x
Joomla 3.0 – PHP 5.3.11
Joomla 3.5 – PHP 5.3.11
Joomla 4.0 – PHP 7.

Advantages of PHP 7?

Performance:  2x quicker  than PHP 5.6

PHP 7 shows a better performance than PHP 5.6 when it runs faster up to 2x. It is also possible to compete with other modern competitors to pure PHP.  For instance, because it is not necessary for PHP 7 to run virtual machine for executing PHP code, it offers a superior performance when comparing to Facebook Hip hop Virtual Machine.

Request Execution

It is possible for Joomla 4 PHP7 to execute up to 2x as many requests on a second comparing to Joomla 3 PHP 5.6

In addition, while more people connect to the online world, it is a rapid growth in the number of users who access the internet by the slow 3G mobile connection. That is the reason why website servers should react quickly. Major changes of PHP have pushed the website performance quality when it runs on PHP 7, it permits developers to create many stunning and interactive websites with responsiveness and fast react to user input.

Work well without requiring many resources

This is a benefit that is not often mentioned, PHP7 runs well even with fewer resources, it helps to reduce maintenance cost and energy consumption.

What should you do to upgrade PHP 7?

It is an easy work to upgrade server, you just need to ask your hosting provider about how to do, however, remember to make sure that all of your site extensions are fully compatible with PHP 7.

Conclusion

That’s all of our article today! Make sure you have a perfect preparation for Joomla 4 release! Thank you so much for reading! If you have any question, please feel free to let us know by leaving a comment below, we will reply as soon as possible!

Image Credit: ThemeXpert

AgeThemes Digital Team

We’re Digital Content Marketing team from AgeThemes Marketplace. We provide quality content for everyone who using open source CMS like Joomla and WordPress. If you have any questions or feedback, feel free leave your comment, we happy to assist you asap.