Topic: PHP 7 and backwards compatibility with PHP 5.4 etc
I have two websites that I have designed and manage that use Cutenews. One is using Cutenews 1.4.6 and the other is using version 2.0.2 (Build ID 202) I have arranged with my reseller to continue to use PHP 5.4 as both sites will crash under PHP 7.
It uses to be the case that PHP was compatible with earlier versions, but no not any longer. I doubt whether a small percentage of users will be able to amend code that runs perfectly under PHP 5.4 or earlier. so I am unable to amend the Cutenews code.
I did try to upgrade both sites to the latest version of Cutenews but even after spending more than a week trying to do so I could not. The PHP 7 incompatible issues are within both versions of Cutenews and only an expert can amend the code. I would have to be spoon fed to amend the code. Maybe someone has found the issues and solved them.
My reseller hosting company wants over £60 a year to continue to provide PHP 5.4 for each site. that is £120 that I will lose unless the clients are prepared to pay, what amounts to a doubling of their website hosting costs.
I will have a look at the upgrade instructions again and report back. I like Cutenews and bearing in mind that I am still using Cutenews 1.4.6 on one of the websites for over ten years without any issues (apart from running out of memory) the only complaint is that Cutenews is NOT EASY to update, as claimed, to a newer version!