What's new in PHP 8.3+

Minimum PHP version updated

The application now requires PHP 8.3 as the minimum version.

Database updates

BIGINT columns
All columns containing crmids are now BIGINT (for new installations). When creating columns that store crmid, always use BIGINT (or I8 when using adodb datadict).

TINYINT columns
All columns containing only boolean integers (e.g., 0/1 for checkbox fields uitype 56, deleted=0/1, or various status columns with only small ints) are now TINYINT (or I1 when using adodb datadict).

Licence tag requirement

A new SPDX license tag is now mandatory in all vtenext core files (php, js and tpl) that are not external libraries.

/*************************************
 * SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2009-present Vtenext S.r.l. Società Benefit 
 * SPDX-License-Identifier: LicenseRef-vtenext-business-license 
 ************************************/

New libraries

All third party libraries now must be imported via composer (living in the /vendor/ folder), or placed in the /vendor-extra/ folder. Libraries in vendor-extra are automatically included in the class path.

Important note

Whenever a new library is added, either via composer or manually, the following command must be executed to refresh the classmap:

composer dump-autoload -o

Libraries updated

Library Previous version New version phpmailer/phpmailer 6.6.5 6.9.3 ezyang/htmlpurifier 4.13.0 4.18.0 mpdf/mpdf 8.0.12 8.2.5 league/iso3166 2.1.5 4.3.2 league/oauth2-client 2.7.0 2.8.1 league/oauth2-google 3.0.4 4.0.1 spomky-labs/otphp 10.0.3 11.3.0 joypixels/emoji-toolkit 6.6.0 9.0.1 phpoffice/phpspreadsheet 1.8.2 4.1.0 phpseclib/phpseclib 3.0.42 3.0.43 jaybizzle/crawler-detect 1.3.0 1.3.4 hubspot/hubspot-php 2.0 5.3.0 slince/shopify-api-php 2.5 3.1.0 zendesk/zendesk_api_client_php 2.29 4.1.0 lesstif/php-jira-rest-client 1.41 5.9.0

Libraries added

web-token/jwt-library 4.0.4 php-amqplib/php-amqplib 3.7.3 econea/nusoap 0.9.18 dragonmantank/cron-expression 3.4.0 qualityunit/tnef-decoder 1.2.9 sabre/vobject 4.5.6 flipboxdigital/oauth2-hubspot 1.0.1 stevenmaguire/oauth2-salesforce 2.0.1 stevenmaguire/oauth2-zendesk 2.1.0 automattic/woocommerce 3.1.0 monolog (replaces log4php) 3.8.1

Libraries moved to vendor

The following libraries have been moved from various locations to /vendor/ or /vendor-extra/:

include/nusoap → moved to vendor modules/Settings/ProcessMaker/thirdparty/cron-expression → moved to vendor modules/PDFMaker/classes/simple_html_dom.php → moved to vendor-extra include/magpierss → moved to vendor-extra modules/Morphsuit/utils/RSA → replaced with phpseclib in vendor modules/Newsletter/bounce_driver.class.php → moved to vendor-extra modules/Messages/src/attachment_tnef → moved to vendor modules/Messages/src/Squirrelmail.php → moved to vendor-extra smartoptimizer → moved to vendor-extra (updated minifier, added brotli and zstandard support) portal/nusoap → moved to vendor portal/include/htmlpurifier → moved to vendor include/pChart → patched and moved to vendor-extra include/freetag → fixed and moved to vendor-extra modules/VteSync/vendor → moved to main vendor modules/VteSync/VteSyncLib/src/Connector/Jira/vendor → moved to main vendor

Removed libraries

log4php - Being replaced with monolog vtlib/SimplePie - No longer used include/antlr - Not working, grammar unknown and never used modules/SDK/examples/intellisense - Removed modules/Calendar/iCal/ical-parser-class.php - Not used modules/Calendar/iCal/iCalendar_*.php (Bennu) - Replaced with sabre/vobject modules/Calendar/iCal/iCalcreator - Replaced with sabre/vobject include/Zend - Simplified gdpr/include/vtwsclib/lib/Zend - Removed portal/include/Zend - Removed videlalvaro/php-amqplib - Replaced with php-amqplib/php-amqplib web-token/jwt-easy, web-token/jwt-key-mgmt, web-token/signature-pack - Replaced with web-token/jwt-library

New configuration files

All new custom configuration files (e.g., custom api token) must be placed in the /config folder. If some configuration is different from dev/prod environments, use the corresponding config file in /config/.

config.$envType.php: Overrides of PHP configuration and global variables for a specific environment type phpstan/*: Configuration to use when running phpstan logging.php: Configuration for the legacy logs (old log4php)

New Config Variables

The following global config variables have been added to config.inc.php:

`$enableLegacyLogs`

Activate the legacy logs (the old log4php), which logs a lot of stuff in logs/vtenext.log. The usefulness of this log is not certain. Configuration of this log is in /config/logging.php.

`$envType`

Specify the environment type. Possible values:

"prod" (default) "preprod" "dev" "debug"

Each level activates more error messages. The default configuration is in config.inc.php, variable $php_config, overridden by the specific /config/config.$envType.php file.

`$php_config`

Used to specify the default PHP configuration used by $envType.

New Functions and Methods

CRMEntity Methods Update

The old retrieve_entity_info has been renamed to retrieve_html and retrieve_entity_info_no_html to retrieve. This is to make more explicit that there is a HTML conversion going on. The old functions are deprecated, but still working.

CRMEntity::retrieve_html(): Retrieves entity with HTML conversion CRMEntity::retrieve(): Retrieves entity without HTML conversion

Translation Aliases

New convenient aliases for translation functions:

trans(): Alias for getTranslatedString() trans_app(): Alias for getTranslatedString($str, "APP_STRINGS") trans_js(): Alias for getTranslatedString($str, "ALERT_ARR")

New Database Query Methods

New database query methods are available. For details, see: Database Best Practices

New Tools

`tools/changeEnv.php`

Allows to easily change the $envType variable in config.inc.php and automatically execute scripts afterwards. Scripts to execute are located in plugins/envs/make.$env/*.

Important Files and Folders

`cache_local/`

This folder should contain cache files to be stored on the same host as the webserver. It is useful in case of cluster deployment, where the cache/ folder is normally shared, but cache_local/ is only local.

`plugins/envs/`

Contains the scripts to be executed when changing the environment type (e.g., after cloning the prod in the dev host).

Deprecated Libraries

Check the current revision for the list of deprecated libraries and their deprecation reasons.

Removed Libraries

See ticket TT-328904 for the complete list of removed libraries and their removal reasons.

Removed Config Variables

The following config variables have been removed:

`$display_empty_home_blocks`

Never used.

`$php_max_execution_time`

Misleading, since it was applied only in a few cases, and it was always 0, setting the limit to unlimited. Replaced by the $php_config and specific overrides when needed (e.g., Report export, PDF generation).

Removed Files and Folders

`modules/Dashboard`

Removed this module, already deprecated and inactive.

`PEAR.php`

Used only by Dashboard and by obsolete libraries.

`Image/*`

Used only by Dashboard module.

`include/db_backup`

Not used anymore (and also a bad idea to make a full backup on admin logout).

`Smarty/templates_c`

Moved to cache_local/smarty to keep the number of writable folders limited.

`plugins/erpconnectorDir`

This folder was used in the past to perform one-way and two-way synchronizations with external systems. It has now been replaced by the DataImporter tool (user manual).

Migration of libraries to Composer for better dependency management API calls switched to vtenext RestClient Smarty templating engine upgraded to the latest version (^5.4)