As we already support PHP 8.2, it is not an official PHP release yet. But you can use it for testing purposes, and we recently upgraded our runtime to replace some deprecated functions. The official support for PHP 8.2 within PHsPeed will be PHsPeed version 3.0. This version is currently under test and is planned for release in early 2023. But if you write your application for PHP 8.2, then deploying should not bring issues.

We are working hard on our 3.0 release, which brings a new ribbon-based user interface among some cool new features. In this post, we will mention the most important. With a small disclaimer, it is always possible that we have to skip a feature if our test procedure brings issues. But, so far so good.

To start with the new user interface, look at the next screenshot.

The new ribbon is context-sensitive and will change depending on the action you select and replaces all (sub) menus. Some items have been relocated, and the double functions removed. Our internal developers are quite enthusiastic as they believe that the user interface is more modern, and clean, and functions are more easily found. We hope that you will have the same experience.

The form reveals one of the new features you can expect, an N:M lookup. In this sample, we have a few tables containing persons, pets, and persons with pets. By defining a master-detail between the persons and persons with pets, you can define a lookup on pets. Here we use a multi-select. PHsPeed will apply the changes to the detail record depending on the checkboxes. In this case, you do not need a dedicated toolbar for the detail, as you can define the component to 'listen' to the master data source. You can do similar things with a double-select box.

The definition is done the same way, this is only a different component.

Another feature that is in high demand is an editable grid. Currently we are still building on this, but we expect to be able to release this feature in version 3.0, but for sure in version 3.1.

This feature is implemented as a new feature within the database grid. It also allows the user to add several records at the same time. We are excited about these new features as we close the gap(s) that many of our users reported and were the highest in demand. But please inform us what features you miss and would like to see implemented in release 3.1.

Then a small notice about some questions we got from a few potential users. As you can find elsewhere on our website, we do not provide promotions. If we did so, for instance, around black Friday, we would annoy customers who might have bought the product for a higher price. Or prevent customers from buying and waiting for a better bargain. We want to provide the best product for a fair price, and we need the revenues that PHsPeed brings us. No surprises. When you buy PHsPeed, you know what you are buying and how much it costs. For now and in the years to follow. We believe it is not the art of finding new customers but keeping them!

This release involves further enhancements of the IDE. The release notes can be found here.

This version will verify the defined MariaDB/MySQL port of the loaded project and the configured port and will pop up a dialog to correct the connection. This is implemented to fix the issue reported by our current user pool. The original port 3306 was changed to 3307 which caused issues with older projects.

The (sample) project loader has been upgraded to support the creation of the sample database (if required).

This release also brings an updated implementation of PHP 8.2 and XDebug. Both modules are not been formally released yet, and we deploy the current release candidates. The debugger is not fully tested yet, but it now works on PHP 8.2.

New releases for the modules are optional. If you have a recent version of PHsPeed, then run the config utility and select the incremental updates. New installs should do this automatically; if not, you can use the same procedure. New releases are always announced in our newsletter (subscribe if you haven't), our website, and the IDE landing page.

Although this version is mainly a maintenance release, several things have changed. The first important thing is that you cannot upgrade your current PHsPeed version, but you need to install this version as a new release. There is no dependency anymore on the central ini file. Instead, each version from now on can be installed separately. If you want to uninstall PHsPeed, then just remove the folder. PHsPeed does not store data in your registry.

Some changes affect your current projects, especially on grids used in crud environments. You will find these in the release notes.

Happy coding!