PHP Compatibility Checker Plugin

The WP Engine PHP Compatibility Checker can be used by any WordPress website on any web host to check PHP version compatibility.

This plugin will lint theme and plugin code installed on your WordPress site and give you back a report of compatibility issues as reported by Tide for you to fix. Compatibility issues are categorized into errors and warnings and will list the file and line number of the offending code, as well as the info about why that line of code is incompatible with the chosen version of PHP. The plugin will also suggest updates to themes and plugins, as a new version may offer compatible code.

This plugin does not execute your theme and plugin code, as such this plugin cannot detect runtime compatibility issues.

Please note that linting code is not perfect. This plugin cannot detect unused code-paths that might be used for backwards compatibility, and thus might show false positives. We maintain a whitelist of plugins that can cause false positives. We are continuously working to ensure the checker provides the most accurate results possible.

This plugin relies on Tide that constantly scans updated versions of plugins and themes in the background. Your scan results should be near real-time, but if not that just means Tide has not yet scanned your specific plugin or theme version. Please be patient as this may take up to 10 minutes for results to be returned from Tide. Please see the FAQ for more information.

Update to PHP 7.4

• Use this plugin to check your site for compatibility up to PHP 8.0!
• As of July 2022, 8.52% of WordPress websites run a PHP version older than PHP 7.0.
• These versions of PHP have been deprecated and unsupported for over 2 years.
• Only 7.1% of WordPress websites run PHP 8, the current main version of PHP.

Disclaimer

While this plugin is written to detect as many problems as accurately as possible, 100% reliable detection is very difficult to ensure. It is best practice to run comprehensive tests before you migrate to a new PHP version.

The plugin was created by WP Engine to help the WordPress community increase adoption of modern PHP versions. We welcome contributors to this plugin, and are excited to see how developers and other WordPress hosts use this plugin.

To disclose security issues for this plugin please email [email protected].

Note: Go to ‘Plugins’ > ‘Add New’ in the WordPress admin and search for “PHP Compatibility Checker” and install it from there.

To manually install:
1. Upload phpcompat to the /wpengine-wp-content/plugins/ directory
2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress

You will find the plugin options in the WP Admin Tools => PHP Compatibility menu. Once you click run it will take a few minutes to conduct the test. Feel free to navigate away from the page and check back later.

1. 

   Main screen: compatibility checker options

2. 

   Compatibility results screen

1.6.3

Fix issue where Buffer was not available to the scans.

1.6.2

• Update packages.

1.6.1

• Fix issue on update where old files were included.

1.6.0

• Changed from running PHP Compatibility scans on your WordPress server to using scan data from Tide.
• Removed phpcompat WP-CLI command.
• Update dependencies.

1.5.2

• Removed PHP 5.2 checks
• Fixed PHP 8 issue where plugin cannot cannot be uninstalled.

1.5.1

• Added Smart Plugin Manager to whitelisted plugins.

1.5.0

• Added support for PHP 7.3 compatibility checks.

1.4.8

• Update dependencies.

1.4.7

• Better translation support.

1.4.6

• Switched to new PHPCompatibilityWP library to help prevent false positives.

1.4.5

• Use plugin version number to enqueue scripts and styles.

1.4.4

• PHP 5.2 Support & PHP 7.1 and 7.2 Lints.
• Updated call to action sidebar depending on platform.

1.4.3

• Fixed Composer issue.

1.4.1

• Updated PHP_CodeSniffer to fix a security advisory.
• Whitelisted a number of plugins.

1.4.0

• Updated UX for viewing PHP errors to be more intuitive and require less scrolling.
• Added links for non-technical users who need assistance from developers to fix PHP errors or to test their site in PHP 7 enabled hosting environments.

1.3.2

• Added a “Clean up” button and uninstall.php.
• Added phpcompat_phpversions filter.

1.3.1

• Whitelisted a number of plugins.

1.3.0

• Updated the PHPCompatibility library to latest version. Should fix many false positives.
• Changed language and added help text to Admin UI.

1.2.4

• Fixed Composer issue.

1.2.3

• Updated the PHPCompatibility library to latest version.
• Whitelisted TablePress.

1.2.2

• Whitelisted UpdraftPlus and Max Mega Menu.

1.2.1

• Updated the PHPCompatibility library to latest version.

1.2.0

• Updated the PHPCompatibility library to latest version.
• Added support for PHP 5.6

1.1.2

• Fixed issue with WordPress notices breaking the plugin header.
• Changed the way we send and parse JSON.
• You can now restart an in progress scan.
• Updated download.js to v4.2 for better Safari compatibility.

1.1.1

• Fixed bug with active job display.
• Updated progress bar calculation.

1.1.0

• Test results now persist page reloads.
• Failed tests will show an overview of the results.
• The scan timeout is now configurable using a filter. See the FAQ for more details.

1.0.3

• Fixed a bug in the WP-CLI command.
• Added a handful of PHP 7 compatible plugins to the whitelist.

1.0.2

• Added additional role protections.
• Changed the UI colors to better understand output at a glance.
• Exclude checking node_modules and tmp directories.
• Added support for child theme’s parent theme.

1.0.1

• Updated compatibility library with a few bugfixes.
• Added skip logic to prevent checker from hanging.

1.0.0

• Major update to add PHP 7 checking support.
• Improved the UX of the progress bar.
• Fixed bug with the way the plugin menu was registered.

0.1.0

• Initial version.
• PHP 5.5, 5.4, and 5.3 Support.
• Basic WP-CLI Commands.