Collective Access and PHP 8

marcjohnson

Hello,

I hope you are well.

Is there a date for when CollectiveAccess will be available and compatible with PHP 8?

Best

seth

The PHP 8 compatible code is on GitHub in the dev/php8 branch. We have been letting several sites use it for a few months to isolate remaining issues, as PHP 8 compatibility required significant changes to the code base. We had hoped to have it released in the first quarter of 2023, and obviously that didn't happen. At this time, I'd guess we'll have a release ready by the end of May.

marcjohnson

Can you confirm that it is "safe" to update to PHP 8?

Or put differently is PHP 8 on Collective access up and running (public release)?

Thank you.

atzemaej

Can I inquire about the status of a php8.1 compatible update as well? My provider is insisting that I switch over to php8.1. My site is ready for that, except for CollectiveAccess.

Thanks,

Eisso

monica

Eisso, I suggest you run a test instance of the php8 code to test it works with your data and then if there are any bugs report them, this helps get the code closer to being officially released. Then if it works as expected you can upgrade your production.

Monica

atzemaej

Monica,

I just did that for both Providence and Pawtucket. Providence seems to work flawlessly from what I have seen in the last few hours. I am attaching the configuration check for both versions.

Pawtucket works fine as well, but there a few (very) minor things that seem different. You can compare the php7.4 version and the php8.1 version at https://theoldtownmuseum.org/Catalog (for php8.1) and https://theoldtownmuseum.org/Catalog_Old (for php7.4). The main problem that I see is that for the php8.1 version the number of dots at the bottom of the gallery seems to vary (in spite of the fact that the number of photos obviously does not change unless I add one or make a photo private), but maybe I never noticed this in the previous versions.

One thing I am a little bit concerned about is my theme (such as it is) for Pawtucket, as there have been quite a few changes in the default theme files. I do not know how vital these rewrites are, but it probably is good to rewrite my theme accordingly. Now, it is my understanding that any file in the default theme is overruled by a file with the same name in a custom theme. This is how I set up my theme. However, if I want to customize say default/conf/app.conf, do I actually need to copy the whole file to my theme and make the changes there (while leaving the rest of the code unchanged) or does it suffice to create a file conf/app.conf in my theme that only has the changes that I want to make (sort of like child themes in WordPress)? In other words, does a theme overrule the default theme on the file level or on the individual setting level? The latter would be nice as that would allow me to keep better track of the changes plus that I would have to make fewer changes when there is another code rewrite. It appears I made changes to 19 files for my theme, so if my theme could consist of only 19 files containing only the changes that I made, it would be much easier to adjust my part of the code for another code rewrite and not have some old line of code cause problems down the road.

Thanks,

Eisso

atzemaej

Still trying out the php8.1 version of CollectiveAccess. Today, I got my first warning! So far I did not have any warnings, but then I got this one for just this one record:

Warnings:

Undefined array key "useRomanNumeralsForCenturies" [/home/museumweb/theoldtownmuseum.org/main/CollectiveAccess/app/lib/Parsers/TimeExpressionParser.php:4293]

My guess was that it had something to do with the date set to 20th century. Changing the date to 1900 indeed made the warning go away. However as I tried to put 20th century back in, I got even more warnings:

Warnings:

Undefined variable $vb_is_range [/home/museumweb/theoldtownmuseum.org/main/CollectiveAccess/app/lib/Parsers/TimeExpressionParser.php:1763]

Undefined variable $vb_is_range [/home/museumweb/theoldtownmuseum.org/main/CollectiveAccess/app/lib/Parsers/TimeExpressionParser.php:1771]

Undefined variable $vb_is_range [/home/museumweb/theoldtownmuseum.org/main/CollectiveAccess/app/lib/Parsers/TimeExpressionParser.php:1772]

Undefined array key "hours" [/home/museumweb/theoldtownmuseum.org/main/CollectiveAccess/app/lib/Parsers/TimeExpressionParser.php:2396]

Undefined array key "minutes" [/home/museumweb/theoldtownmuseum.org/main/CollectiveAccess/app/lib/Parsers/TimeExpressionParser.php:2397]

Undefined array key "seconds" [/home/museumweb/theoldtownmuseum.org/main/CollectiveAccess/app/lib/Parsers/TimeExpressionParser.php:2398]

Undefined array key "hours" [/home/museumweb/theoldtownmuseum.org/main/CollectiveAccess/app/lib/Parsers/TimeExpressionParser.php:2399]

Undefined array key "minutes" [/home/museumweb/theoldtownmuseum.org/main/CollectiveAccess/app/lib/Parsers/TimeExpressionParser.php:2400]

Undefined array key "seconds" [/home/museumweb/theoldtownmuseum.org/main/CollectiveAccess/app/lib/Parsers/TimeExpressionParser.php:2401]

Undefined array key "useRomanNumeralsForCenturies" [/home/museumweb/theoldtownmuseum.org/main/CollectiveAccess/app/lib/Parsers/TimeExpressionParser.php:4293]

Saving the record again made all but the last one of these warnings go away. Other records do not seem to be affected. It is just this one record for now.

Eisso

seth

There are a number coding patterns that were acceptable in PHP before version 8 but are now warning-worthy. Since the CA codebase dates back as far as PHP 3 in some places, there are a lot of functions that still work fine but now trigger warnings like this. We have been working to resolve all of them, and largely the warnings are gone now. But there are pockets we've missed, including the one above that you have discovered.

The warnings are not errors and do not indicate that anything has gone wrong, only that the PHP 8 coding requirements are not being followed. By default we're pushing these warnings to the screen to make it easier for developers to find and resolve them. You can stop pushing them to the screen by setting

in app.conf. They are still logged if you want to see them, by default in

marcjohnson

Dear Seth,

would you say it is safe to install PhP8 CA version?

seth

Yes.

atzemaej

Hi Seth & Monika,

Aside from the warning, everything seems to work fine with Providence. However, I still am running into problems with Pawtucket, although not so much with its functionality. I have been trying to cut down my theme as much as possible, as I have a fair number of files in my theme that no longer seem to be in the default theme. At the very least, I would like my theme to consist of customized versions of a subset of the files in the default theme. However, no matter what I try, at some point the same thing goes wrong. For whatever reason, Pawtucket stops reading my theme css. It appears everything else works fine. Among other things, this means that my logo is rendered in real size, which is a lot bigger than I want. The custom colors are gone too. Absolutely no idea what triggers this. I am leaving the site as it currently is for now in case you have time to have look at it. It does not seem to be one particular files that causes this behavior. On my latest try, it seemed everything was fine. I did a bunch of hard resets of two different browsers and there were no problems. Then, I took a break and when I refreshed my browser after I came back, the same thing occurred again. When I replace my theme folder with my old theme folder everything is fine again. I know, I probably should leave well alone and just be fine that my old theme still works, but this just baffles me. How is this even possible? I only made very minor changes to 19 files... Could it be that there is some kind of internal caching that delays this strange behavior and makes me think everything is fine. My php8.1 log file does not show anything for the last two hours when all this happened.

Other things I noticed:

The default photo show that pops up when you go to my site behaves erratically. Whereas before it would show three bubbles underneath, now it only shows two most of the time and sometimes even only one. When that happens the photos in view cannot be moved. This behavior seems works on Chrome than on Safari, but they both show it. Initially, the Browse option in the menu would show browsing by object, person etc. On choosing an option it would then jump to the selection without showing window on top of a window that popped up in previous versions. I though this was a feature and I liked it as I never cared much for that weird window construction. However, after a few theme reinstall that window construction seems to back and I cannot get rid of it. While in the object browser, the place facet seems to hang now.

Eisso

atzemaej

Ok, here is another update. After two more tries I did manage to get the kind of theme I want and so far the site has not crashed. Pawtucket seems to be working fine now. The place facet hanging issue seems to have resolved itself too. I also figured out how to get the browse menu instead of the window overlay (I really like that option a lot better). As a bonus, a long standing issue I had with displaying places hierarchically when browsing also resolved itself. Places are now displayed the way I want. So, everything seems to be working fine now, except for the minor issue with the photo gallery/show that I have on the landing page for the catalog (https://theoldtownmuseum.org/Catalog) as described in an earlier comment. Looks like you did a great job transitioning to php8.1! Thanks!

I do have at least three configuration questions, but I think I will be able to figure those out. I also have not tried uploading photos yet, which has given me headaches in the past. Also, Seth, thanks for pointing out that these php warnings can be turned off. That seems the way to go.

Thanks again,

Eisso

monica

Hi Eisso,

Glad everything is working out for you. I can't help with the carousel on the homepage, but I can say that it's happening the same way on the demo https://demo.collectiveaccess.org/pawtucket/ . It's like random number of images are appearing on each load and the amount being shown differs each time.

laks

Hi, just wondering about this. Any news about the php 8.0 update? I am moving to a new server that only has php 8.0 :/

Thanks!

monica

It hasn't been made into an official release, but the dev/php8 branch on GitHub (both Providence and Pawtucket) are in stable condition.

laks

{"embed-error":true}

thanks for the update. I will try it.

AdminBoB

I understand that CA is open-source software maintained by Whirl-i-Gig which means that it is not a high priority or a well-maintained/well-funded product, however, this thread about PHP 8 support was created in March 2023, over a year and a half from the time of this post. PHP 7.4.33 has not been supported (went end of life) since November 2022, approximately 2 years from this post, and PHP 8.0.30 has not been supported (went end of life) since November 2023, approximately 1 year from this post. It has also been made clear in this post that there is a GitHub branch that is stable and works on PHP 8, but the CA download site still only offers 1.7.16 which is only supported on PHP 7.

There comes a point where there is a general responsibility issue here. You are creating a situation where your community is forced to used insecure technology, unless they are tech savvy enough to get on GitHub and upgrade.

I would propose that it's time for you all to either release the PHP 8 compliant version as the general supported release or reach out to your base community to see if there are any developers that would be willing to assist in getting the PHP 8 compliant version finished.

It would be appreciated to know Whirl-i-Gig's stance on all of this is. Thanks.

seth

We would love volunteers to assist on a new release. None have been forthcoming, generally for lack of time, interest or expertise.

We fund our work through consulting projects and services around the software. These funded projects drive development both in terms of new features and ongoing updates for compliance and compatibility. We don't get a whole lot of support from the community present on this forum. That's ok. This is a niche market, where most users are not developers, and most developers that are around don't really understand the discipline-specific requirements, which can often be complex and in the weeds.

Packaging new development up for the broader community is certainly something we want to do, but obviously it hasn't been a priority. There are many many components to test (from single sign on to media processing to support for lots of external APIs), and every user has a list of the ones that are super-important to them. I think we've made the mistake of thinking that there would be a point at which it was all tied up and ready to go, but the TODO list constantly gets both shorter and longer at the same time.

Given the (admittedly belated) recognition of this fact, we've targeted a few critical issues that need to be dealt with (namely the dependency on CKEditor 4, which is firmly EOL now) and then it will be released. As mentioned in another thread, the CKEditor changes are being tested now. Once they've passed that we'll prepare a release. The CA PHP8 code has been in production at dozens of sites for years so there's no point in not releasing it now.

yelto

It might be useful to announce what needs testing (branch? RC?) and since a string freeze must be in effect, what the current procedure for localization is (with fresh pos) for a call for translators. In any case, better any release now than a better release later.

AdminBoB

@seth I completely understand your point and thank you for your detailed response.

It's good to hear that once the CKEditor 4 issue is resolved that the CA PHP8 code will be released.

As for your comment, "We don't get a whole lot of support from the community present on this forum." I certainly can appreciate your challenges. However, you don't get if you don't ask, and you all don't seem to be asking for people to step up and help. I'm not sure if @yelto is a developer or not, but clearly, they are curious about the need, which means there will be others out there too.

Perhaps you all need do some or all of the following:
1) Pin a post to the top of the support forums asking directly and clearly for developer assistance.
2) Place a similar request on the homepage, and by the download links / download page.
3) Send emails to all registered users of the support forums asking for assistance.
4) Or, start a GoFundMe campaign to hire a resource, and send the campaign link to all of your customers, support forum users, and general user base, since many people find it easier to support with their wallet.

You may not be dealing with a community that is rich in developers that have spare time, but you are dealing with a community that is extremely good at fundraising, because many of them are non-profits. I would suggest you leverage their strengths to assist you in starting a capital contribution campaign to get the funds you needed to support the product. Although your user base may be a niche market, I'm sure they don't want to see the product go away from lack of funding and support as that will leave them in a far worse position.

Please consider some of these 'thinking outside of the box' suggestions to make moving this project forward easier for you and your team.

Thanks.