Greetings! I am planning to have our host to upgrade our OJS site from 3.3.0.13 to 3.4.0.1. Is it better to jump right to 3.4.0.1 from 3.3.0.13 or upgrade to the versions that were released before 3.4.0.1? I plan to back the site up but was wondering if the backed up database may not work with the newer version of PHP. We are at 7.4.33, but community posts have been telling about issues with PHP 8.x. I myself will not be doing the upgrade, but it is good to know what goes on behind the scenes when something is amiss. I appreciate any advice, testimonial, and other experiences. --Arjun
Hello Arjun.
Not a direct answer to your question, but a testimonial about the migration from 3.3.0.13 to 3.4.0.1. We tested this migration (and had to migrate to PHP8). Everything worked fine. BUT, we noticed that a few plugins are not working properly anymore. We decided therefore to postpone the migration and wait until the plugins that we use are updated.
Regards,
jb
Thanks JB!
This is very good to know. I will have to wait a bit longer myself because one of the journals is in the middle of publishing, so I do not want to interfere with that. In your experience, it is better to upgrade to PHP8 first or upgrade the OJS to 3.4.0.1 and then to PHP8? I am thinking of dependencies in the Linux framework. As for plugins: I probably have to make sure that the important ones are ready for upgrade before upgrading, but here is the catch: it may alert you about an upgrade that works in 3.3 but not with 3.4. I will have to create a backup before proceeding, but I have some time left. Thank you very much for your reply.
Best! – Arjun
Happy to help.
Anyway, don’t take my opinon for granted, but as far as I remember, it was not possible for us to finish the upgrade to 3.4.0.1 without PHP8. The good news is that version 3.3.0.18 is working on PHP 7 and PHP8.
jb
Hi all,
One variable in making your choice between 3.3 and 3.4: OJS/OMP/OPS 3.3 are “long-term support” (LTS) releases, meaning we maintain them for 3-5 years after release. OJS/OMP/OPS 3.4 is not tagged LTS, which means it’s on a faster upgrade track, and won’t be maintained for as long. Either way, OJS/OMP/OPS 3.5 will become the next LTS release, and you can/should plan to upgrade to that when it’s released (estimated later in 2024).
More information about LTS releases and PKP’s release strategy here: https://pkp.sfu.ca/2022/02/15/pkp-announces-long-term-support-lts-software-releases/
Both 3.3 and 3.4 should have good PHP8 support, but PHP often revises what it considers error-worthy, so it’s not uncommon for a new release of PHP to have us revising the codebase to resolve errors/warnings in code that was previously not troublesome.
For what it’s worth, the first couple of builds of a new major release typically have a number of small bugs that we work quickly to fix. We’ll be releasing 3.4.0-2 in a few weeks, which will address a number that have come up since 3.4.0-1 was released.
Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team
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Thanks, JB. If your experience suggests one thing, that is more than just opinion. I appreciate you sharing what you know.
Best! – Arjun
Thank you, Alec!
Arjun
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