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Check the compatibility of your WordPress theme and plugin code with PHP Compatibility Checker

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This is how I checked the compatibility of my WordPress theme and plugin (code) with PHP Compatibility Checker

Aside

I have a number of guides on moving away from CPanel, Setting up VM’s on AWS, Vultr or Digital Ocean along with installing and managing WordPress from the command line. PHP is my programming language of choice.

Now on with the post

Snip from: https://wordpress.org/plugins/php-compatibility-checker/

What is PHP Compatibility Checker

> 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 inside your WordPress file system and give you back a report of compatibility issues 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 WP-Cron to scan files in the background. The scan will get stuck if the site’s WP-Cron isn’t running correctly. Please see the FAQ for more information.

Install PHP Compatibility Checker

PHP Compatibility Checker

I instaled by SSH’ing to my server and opening my WP Plugins folder

I grabbed the latest download URL from here (hover over the download button), at the time of writing this was the latest version: https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/php-compatibility-checker.1.4.6.zip

I downloaded the plugin on my server (then unzipped it and deleted the zip)

Enable PHP Compatibility Checker Plugin

I enabled the plugin

Enable the Plugin

I clicked on the following message

> You have just activated the PHP Compatibility Checker. Start scanning your plugins and themes for compatibility with the latest PHP versions now!

Start Scan

I already have PHP 7.2 installed so let’s scan my site. PHP 7.3 will be available in December and it is already being tested in beta.

Scan PHP 7.2

PHP Versions

PHP Versions

Site Scanning

PHP Compatibility Checker site scanning is very business-like

Site Scan Progress

PHP Compatability Checker Scan Results

2 of 22 plugins I use were not PHP 7.2 compatible (WordFence and WP Meta SEO)?

PHP Compatibility Report

I read on twitter that Wordfence may be a false positive.

Clicking toggle details reveal why the scan failed. A Two Factor Auth plugin was all OK.

Scan Results

Your results will hopefully be…

> PHP 7.2 compatible

Of if errors exist it should explain why it did not pass.

FILE: /www-root/wp-content/plugins/wp-meta-seo/jutranslation/jutranslation.php
> —————————————————————————————-
> FOUND 1 ERROR AFFECTING 1 LINE
> —————————————————————————————-
> 251 | ERROR | The function is_countable() is not present in PHP version 7.2 or earlier
> —————————————————————————————-

I can’t wait for PHP 7.3 scanning.  I will update this post in December 2018 after PHP 7.3 is released.

Good luck and I hope this guide helps someone

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Revision History

v1.0 Initial post

Installing and managing WordPress with WP-CLI from the command line on Ubuntu

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Here is a really simple way to manually manage WordPress installations on Ubuntu.

My previous WordPress (and related) guides

My Server Setup Guides

Go to https://make.wordpress.org/cli/handbook/installing/ and read the install instructions.

How to install wp-cli on Ubuntu

First read this post too install WordPress from the command line. You should install WordPress here.

Telnet to your server (SSH)

Did the file download?

Execute

Make the file executable and move it to /usr/local/bin/wp

Now you can run wp-cli by typing the following from the command line

Read the official wp-cli quick start guide https://make.wordpress.org/cli/handbook/quick-start/

Ever since I moved my WordPress to a self-managed server I have not been able to update my plugins and I have not installed an  FTP server (by choice for security reasons).

Wordpress manual update plugins page

Let’s see if we can update plugin with wp-cli

Yes, it worked

I have now updated all active plugins from one command line.

WordPress Plugins

I have been unable to update WordPress itself since I moved my website (without an FTP server).

Update WordPress

Let’s try and update WordPress with wp-cli.

Run this command.

Success

WordPress version

Awesome 🙂

Now time to create a few executable bash files to update plugins and WordPress files in future.

Update WordPress Plugins Bash Script

Contents

Make Executable

Update WordPress Bash Script

sudo nano /scripts/updatewordpress.sh

Contents

Make Executable

More Commands

More commands can be found here: https://developer.wordpress.org/cli/commands/

Information on exporting tables can be found here https://developer.wordpress.org/cli/commands/db/export/

Site Wide Search and Replace

Results

If you are updating past pages and post links do include https look for www alos

When you are ready to run the replace remove the

As always, backup your database and files before you make changes.

This was the easiest way to update my WordPress site and force existing links use https links.  Of course, you can downgrade https links if you don’t want to have https anymore.

Troubleshooting

wp needs to be run from the root folder of your web server (or it will report an error). You can specify a path location as a parameter  too ( –path=’/path/to/wordpress’)

All the following the wp command if you are logged in as root (not recommended for security reasons).

Adding “Advertisement” text above Google ads in all WordPress pages and posts, read this guide on setting up AdSense on your blog (unless you go Auto Ads).

Official Troubleshooting guide here

I had an issue where I received error messages running the wp tool, iI fixed this editing my php.ini file and changing this..

memory_limit = 128

to

memory_limit = 128M

The M made all the difference after I restarted PHP/NGINX.

to this

Thank You, Kerry Hoath for the tip on this awesome cli tool.

fyi: WordPress fixed a SQL injection vulnerability and the wp-cli tool helped me update WordPress from the CLI.

Update Themes

Update Plugins

Update WordPress Core

Donate and make this blog better




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v1.5 Updating WordPress themes, plugins or core

v1.42 added ‘cd /www’ before calling wp cli.