PHP released version 8.3

Today (23rd of November), PHP 8.3 was released. It brings many enhancements and speed improvements. As PHsPeed, we have been working with PHP 8.3 since the first Release candidate, and so far, we have found no issues in our run-time modules, which is good news.

However, we cannot release the support for PHP 8.3 by PHsPeed, although it is fully ready in our development environment. The main reason is that XDebug, the tool that we use in our debugger, is still in the Alpha release. Although it works like a charm, we still consider this a risk, and as a basic principle, we do not want to release PHsPeed versions with tools that do not have a production status and are still in Alpha. For your development, it has no consequences as you can develop under PHP 8.2 and migrate when PHP 8.3 becomes available.

Users of SQL Server need to wait anyway because Microsoft hasn't released their PDO drivers for PHP 8.3 yet. I hope they will release them soon, but it took a couple of months before they released the drivers for PHP 8.2, and it may take a similar amount of time.

Due to changes in XDebug, we had to make some changes in PHsPeed to fix compatibility issues.

The first issue is that the application will generate obscure errors when you start a program in normal mode while XDebug is loaded. We fixed that by loading php.ini, depending on the status. This does take a bit of time as Apache needs to shut down, php.ini copied, and Apache restarted.

Another issue (not XDebug related) is that sometimes PHP files are locked by Apache when you are debugging and closing the debugger. We fixed that by restarting Apache when you run the application.

Finally, there is a DLL conflict between the XDebug environment and Apache environment. They both use a DLL, but of different versions. We have fixed this by changing the Apache environment.

Of course, when we release the next version of PHsPeed, there will also be a lot of improvements, fixes, and enhancements. The list (so far, and not complete).

 - support for PHP 8.3
 - upgraded XDebug
 - upgraded Summernote
 - upgraded JQuery
 - support for dblabel in form generator
 - setting for not-editable form (results in dblabel fields)
 - improved several hints
 - added a button to refresh database connection properties from the db config
 - free html formatted field
 - on creating events, additional remarks are added as an extra guide
 - when selecting an event, the use is also displayed in the property editor
 - if a cdbgrid is used in a module, then user buttons are now supported
 - you can now test your application containing cloudconnector(s) with the application parameters option
 - new property columnwidth for dbtable columns
 - edited record now stay in focus.
 - the rownumber is not reset to 0 after update but rewound to the original.
 - support for multi-step form
 - New lanes component for creating kanban like boards (replacing the current implementation)

// fixes
 - setting dbfields visible/invisible is fixed (could not unset invisible)
 - label pdevtools removed (annoying label with no purpose)
 - bulk edit now accepts label fields
 - label behaves as any input field.
 - snippet code generator simplequery quote fix and improved to only use field in where
 - template component now supports all predefined modes.
 - reimplemented a move of rows/columns to avoid the original issue that sometimes the changes revert.
 - Data structure treeview corrected for the situation that refreshing the tree could caused stacking
 - Required on dropdown is now working
 - Custom fields in DBTable could corrupt insert and update statements.
 - Webserver is reset before run, fixes issues with files being locked while debugging.

PHsPeed is continuously working to improve the product, and we also have great plans for the following releases. But we're always open for good ideas. So if you have remarks, ideas, and even complaints, please let us know.

Happy coding!