Pains and Gains of Upgrading PHP

Features and improvements of PHP versions 5.3, 5.4 and 5.5, along with some performance information and tips for upgrading to the latest and greatest.

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1. Pains and Gains of PHP Upgrades Lorna Mitchell, PHPNW December 2013
2. About Recent Versions of PHP Version Released End of Life 5.2 November 2006 January 2011 5.3 June 2009 July 2014 5.4 March 2012 Release + 3 years 5.5 June 2013 Release + 3 years
3. Current PHP Installations
4. Pains of Upgrades • cost (time and money) • risk
5. Gains of Upgrades • shiny new features • better security • better performance
6. Not All Upgrades Are Equal • to 5.3: climbing a mountain • to 5.4: flying leap • to 5.5: nobody will notice
7. to PHP 5.3
8. PHP 5.3 is Full of Goodness • namespaces
9. PHP Namespaces Namespaces allow modularity and separation • classes, constants and functions belong in namespaces • namespaces can be nested • much easier pick-and-mix of frameworks/libraries • avoids naming collision • key ingredient for PSR-0
10. Namespaced Library File <?php namespace Lorna; class Nonsense { protected $words = array("wibble", "squeak", "howl", "pop"); public function speak() { return $this->words[ array_rand($this->words)]; } }
11. Namespaced Calling Code <?php include 'lorna/nonsense.php'; use Lorna\Nonsense; $nsense = new Nonsense(); echo $nsense->speak(); $other = new \StdClass();
12. PHP 5.3 is Full of Goodness • namespaces • anonymous functions
13. Anonymous Functions <?php $things = array("name" => "Alice", "colour" => "Blue", "origin" => "Dreams"); function formatit($value, $key) { echo $key . ": " . $value . "\n"; } array_walk($things, "formatit");
14. Anonymous Functions <?php $things = array("name" => "Alice", "colour" => "Blue", "origin" => "Dreams"); array_walk($things, function ($value, $key) { echo $key . ": " . $value . "\n"; });
15. PHP 5.3 is Full of Goodness • namespaces • anonymous functions • better DateTime • SPL data structures • works on Windows • E_DEPRECATED error reporting level • late static binding • __DIR__
16. Upgrading to 5.3: Gotchas new reserved words: namespace, goto log message changes requires MySQL > 4.1 full info: http://lrnja.net/ZpvknE (php.net)
17. to PHP 5.4
18. PHP 5.4 is a Leap to the Future • improved performance, reduced memory footprint
19. PHP Performance
20. PHP 5.4 is a Leap to the Future • improved performance, reduced memory footprint • built-in webserver
21. PHP's Own Webserver php -S dev.project.local:8080 -t /var/www/cool-project/web -c php-ini.development routing.php
22. PHP 5.4 is a Leap to the Future • improved performance, reduced memory footprint • built-in webserver • traits
23. Simple Traits Example <?php trait Audit { public function getAuditTrail() { return "nothing changed"; } } class Princess { use Audit; // General princess class description: // soldering, tree climbing, the usual }
24. Simple Traits Example <?php $daisy = new Princess(); echo $daisy->getAuditTrail();
25. PHP 5.4 is a Leap to the Future • improved performance, reduced memory footprint • built-in webserver • short array notation, array dereferencing
26. Short Array Notation <?php $game[0] = 'paper'; $game[1] = 'scissors'; $game[2] = 'stone'; $game = array(0 => 'stone', 1 => 'paper', 2 => 'scissors'); $game = [0 => 'scissors', 1 => 'stone', 2 => 'paper'];
27. PHP 5.4 is a Leap to the Future • improved performance, reduced memory footprint • built-in webserver • traits • short array notation, array dereferencing • less nonsense
28. Upgrading to PHP 5.4: Gotchas new reserved words: trait callable insteadof no register_globals, short open tag etc turn on E_DEPRECATED on your 5.3 platform compile PHP 5.4 and use the webserver
29. Upgrading to PHP 5.4: Gotchas new reserved words: trait callable insteadof no register_globals, short open tag etc turn on E_DEPRECATED on your 5.3 platform compile PHP 5.4 and use the webserver beware APC issues
30. to PHP 5.5
31. PHP 5.5: Better Again • password hashing features
32. Easy Password Hashing <?php $pass = "secretpassword"; $hashed = password_hash($pass, PASSWORD_DEFAULT); echo $hashed; $2y$10$Q7Rm.Cmcu4lbvI7.C2q4Z.1LLoh4C63vBSffl
33. Easy Password Hashing <?php $existing_hash = '$2y$10$Q7Rm.Cmcu4lbvI7.C2q4Z.1LLoh4C $pass = "secretpassword"; if(password_verify($pass, $existing_hash)) echo "All good"; else echo "Go away"; For PHP < 5.5: http://github.com/ircmaxell/password_compat
34. PHP 5.5: Better Again • password hashing features • generators
35. PHP Generators Simpler than iterators - a function returning a sequence of values. <?php function getValues() { // totally trivial example yield "Apple"; yield "Ball"; yield "Cat"; }
36. PHP Generators Simpler than iterators - a function returning a sequence of values. <?php $stuff = getValues(); foreach($stuff as $thing) { echo $thing . "\n"; }
37. PHP 5.5: Better Again • password hashing features • generators • try/catch/finally
38. Try/Catch/Finally Finally is a clause that always gets run <?php try{ $fp = fopen("textfile.txt", "w+"); // do stuff } catch (Exception $e) { echo "Stuff went wrong"; } finally { // either way, close the file fclose($fp); }
40. PHP 5.5: Better Again • password hashing features • generators • try/catch/finally • built-in opcode cache • Turn on opcache.enable and opcache.enable_cli • use APCu https://github.com/krakjoe/apcu
41. Upgrading to PHP 5.5 • turn on E_DEPRECATED on your 5.4 platform • compile PHP 5.5 and use the webserver
42. In Summary
43. Upgrade, FFS
44. General Upgrade Plan • check the changelog: http://php.net/ChangeLog-5.php • turn on E_DEPRECATED • test with the webserver, run unit tests with new binary • upgrade test platform • pecl extensions will need a reinstall • go for it :)
45. Any Questions? Contact me • @lornajane • http://lornajane.net
46. Appendices
47. PHP Version Adoption • Version 5.3 52.2% • Version 5.2 35.3% • Version 5.4 9.8% • Version 5.1 1.9% • Version 5.5 0.7% • Version 5.0 0.1% • Version 5.6 < 0.1% (From http://w3techs.com, 1 December 2013)
48. PHP Performance Comparisons Average time to run bench.php on my laptop • 5.2.17: 3.77 seconds • 5.3.23: 2.63 seconds • 5.4.15: 1.98 seconds • 5.5RC1: 2.11 seconds