Beyond the Button

Here at the museum we are starting to upgrade all of our servers and web code to PHP 5. We primarily use a mix of PHP and MySQL to drive just about everything in our web code (with a few minor exceptions).

Here are a couple of the resources I have been following to understand the problems and advantages we will see from upgrading.

PHP's Migration manual - Start at the source. PHP.net's tips of what to look for in your upgrade.

What's all this OOP stuff about? - Discussing some of the Object Oriented Programing aspects of PHP5.

An impetus for change - On February 5, 2008 a bunch of tools that are built on PHP will stop supporting PHP 4 all together. Drupal, the content management system we use here for many of our sites, is one of the participants. So um, yeah, we sorta HAVE to upgrade. Not that we were holding out or anything, but this is a good motivator. Follow the link to watch a slightly ominous countdown ticker.

10 things you (probably) didn't know about PHP - Not necessarily about upgrading but a great list of, "wow, I didn't know it could do that," tips for PHP. Several of these are only available in PHP5.

11 cool things about PHP that most people overlook - Another good list of obscure tips for useful code in PHP5.

ps - Yes, I know we are woefully behind the times and that PHP6 is just around the corner, but hey we work at a non-profit, give us a break.