More and more hosting companies are upgrading their servers to run php 5.3. For most carts, this will mean an error log file full of deprecated error messages – warnings that one day, the functions being used will be removed entirely and the script will break.
If you’re running an older version of your oscommerce-based cart software (eg Cre Loaded 6.4.1, Oscommerce 2.2 etc) you will find that your error log file will fill up with deprecated messages from a number of files still using old calls like ‘ereg’ and ‘ereg_replace.’
You could switch these error messages off if you can control the error_reporting configuration on the server you’re on, but there’s a chance that when php 5.4 is adopted by hosting companies (RC6 of this was released January 2012) many of these deprecated messages now will become broken scripts then.
Updating most of these old calls can be fairly easy – here is a reference table that will help:
ereg() = preg_match()
ereg_replace() = preg_replace()
eregi() = preg_match() with the ‘i’ modifier
eregi_replace() = preg_replace() with the ‘i’ modifier
split() = preg_split()
spliti() = preg_split() with the ‘i’ modifier
As an example – cre loaded 6.4.1a B2B file /includes/functions/general.php :
if (ereg('^[0-9]+$', $value)) {
would become
if (preg_match('/^[0-9]+$/', $value)) {
(note ereg becomes preg_match and the forward slashes (delimiters) are added in)
Other deprecated functions and directives are more involved and may in fact only be configurable by the hosting company if they don’t allow custom php.ini files. There are other examples in the code that can simply be removed to upgrade to php 5.3.x and will stop the deprecated message.
A popular old check in Cre Loaded is a 6.2 version check – this from /admin/includes/runtime/orders/RC_orders_boxesbottom.php:
if (defined('MODULE_ADDONS_RECOVERCARTS_STATUS') && MODULE_ADDONS_RECOVERCARTS_STATUS == 'True') {
if (defined('PROJECT_VERSION') && ereg('6.2', PROJECT_VERSION)) {
$rci = tep_admin_files_boxes(FILENAME_RECOVER_ABANDONED_CARTS, BOX_RECOVER_ABANDONED_CARTS, 'SSL','tdate=' . $tdate, '0');
} else {
$rci = tep_admin_files_boxes(FILENAME_RECOVER_ABANDONED_CARTS, BOX_RECOVER_ABANDONED_CARTS, 'SSL','tdate=' . $tdate, '2');
}
}
In this case the ‘upgrade’ would be to remove the old version check (bypassing the need for the deprecated ereg check), so the file looks:
if (defined('MODULE_ADDONS_RECOVERCARTS_STATUS') && MODULE_ADDONS_RECOVERCARTS_STATUS == 'True') {
$rci = tep_admin_files_boxes(FILENAME_RECOVER_ABANDONED_CARTS, BOX_RECOVER_ABANDONED_CARTS, 'SSL','tdate=' . $tdate, '2');
}
Third-party modules may cause grief when your hosting company upgrades to php 5.3.
At the time of writing this, Magneticone’s modules that use Zend Optimizer for decoding will break as Zend hasn’t provided a backward compatible version of the ZO for scripts using php 5.2.x. Magneticone’s advice in this situation is to use the ioncube versions of the scripts only (as they haven’t upgraded their modules to use the standalone ZO php 5.3 version either.) Nuisance.
If you’re unsure about these changes, contact me for a quote to help you upgrade from php 5.2 to php 5.3
