Apache Friends Support Forum

Hi all,

I run XAMPP with PHP 5.3.1 locally and PHP 5.2.8 remotely. I would like to use more of the features in 5.3. So I have some questions:
1) How can I upgrated my local version of PHP to 5.3.3 without breaking things?
2) Will there be an XAMPP version that includes 5.3.3 soon?
3) Does anyone know of any hosting sites that support 5.3.3? Most only support up to 5.2.x or below.
4) Are there any gotchas I should know about migrating to 5.3.3 from 5.2.x?

Thank you,

JustMe

Hi,

JustMe wrote:1) How can I upgrated my local version of PHP to 5.3.3 without breaking things?

Frequently asked, but: This board doesn't give support for updating any of the single components of the XAMPP package.

JustMe wrote:2) Will there be an XAMPP version that includes 5.3.3 soon?

no! Still now there is no beta Version or something else from a new XAMPP version of Windows released. Oswald reported here that there are some open issues which will be solved first.

JustMe wrote:3) Does anyone know of any hosting sites that support 5.3.3? Most only support up to 5.2.x or below.

PHP 5.3.3? I know any hoster that support this last version. My Hoster (all-inkl) supports PHP 5.3.1 as cgi Module. There aren't many hosters that support PHP 5.3 because the differences are so big that many scripts need to be changed. Hoster always try to have a PHP environment on which most of the scripts will run.

JustMe wrote:4) Are there any gotchas I should know about migrating to 5.3.3 from 5.2.x?

What do you mean by "gotchas"?

If we can't go forward, how about backwards? I would like to install the Wikimedia program but it is not compatible with php 5.3.1. It is compatible with 5.3.2 or 5.3.0. Are there plans to upgrade to 5.3.2? If not, how do I downgrade 5.3.1 to 5.3.0?

Thanks

Not to be cheeky with anyone in particular -

But this topic has been beaten to death here, usually with Altrea and Nobbie (sometimes me) posting the 'bad news'. XAMMP packages are suites (effectively) and there is no easy way to 'mix and match'.

However, its no huge task to install Apache, PHP and MySQL (pretty much as you wish). Then you can get just about the right package for whatever you choose to do, with a few disclaimers. The big pluses +++ for doing this ARE; you will gain far more insight into how these tools work, you will be able to do more things with them (such as run the package that won't run at the moment), you will be able to get help in more places -- as you will be running 'default, full-install versions' that are easier to debug and patch, and -- finally -- making them all work together (integration) will teach you 'what does what' (a topic that few really understand well).

As someone who has both workstations and servers, on various Linux and Windows OS'es setup in both suites -- like WAMP and XAMPP -- and fully installed service by service, I can tell you the learning curve difference is not so great. The reason -- the suites have many gotcha's that are only discovered by running right into them when you try to do something recommended on another forum or website, that using the working assumptions of a full product install on a 'real server'.

All that said, I think XAMPP is great for experimentation and limited personal site building. Its fantastic if you really want to use as intended -- for local development, testing and learning.

LOL - Long live XAMPP!!!

Thanks for your advice. What you say is the completely correct way to learn about software. However, I am just a beginner. I just want to use XAMPP for testing sites. I think just fixing one of the programs would be easier and faster than learning how to use all three. I do plan to learn more but not at this time. Now I just want to get XAMPP to work with Wikimedia.

The reason -- the suites have many gotcha's that are only discovered by running right into them when you try to do something recommended on another forum or website, that using the working assumptions of a full product install on a 'real server'.

as you just did...

The root problem is that the PHP in XAMPP is an Apache module compiled to work with a specific version. (that is my best understanding of the situation, I didn't do the integration work) As a result, you can't mix and match 'pieces'.

Sooo - you should look through the 'archive' of previous XAMPP versions on SourceForge until you find one that fits your requirements. You'll need to do a bit of research prolly, as I don't know a page that lays out all the components in each version. (Google is man's best friend now -- poor pooches!)

http://sourceforge.net/projects/xampp/files/

Maybe 1.7.0 might work.

Good Luck with your Mediawiki project

Here is a list of PHP 5.3 hosting companies

Hi,

If you are on Linux, I posted how to perform a temporary PHP upgrade here: http://nexus.zteo.com/blog/2010/09/22/u ... pal-happy/

-Chris.