Critical error

Hello!

I hope you’re doing well.

Your site may still be reachable when it’s serving from a cached copy.

TSF v5.0 is not compatible with the unsupported PHP 7.3. PHP 7.3 doesn’t recognize the null coalescing assignment operator and will crash when it’s written.

Your site shouldn’t be able to install or update to TSF v5.0 via the WordPress interface, spawning something akin to this message: “This update does not work with your version of PHP. Learn more about updating PHP.”

Bypassing that and forcing the installation or update via FTP will cause an error.

I recommend upgrading to PHP 8.1; that version should work with most up-to-date plugins and themes, plus it’s faster and more secure.

Cheers!

Thanks, so I should contact my hosting website? I don’t know anything about PHP, just using an Hostinger service. ??

Edit: I found this page in my website management; so is it enough I select 8.1? Or 8.2 is better?

https://i.postimg.cc/7ZShf2Qz/IMG-6429.jpg

• This reply was modified 1 year, 3 months ago by Lock.

I’m glad you found the toggle. Did it resolve the issue?

Not all plugins are compatible with 8.2. So, I recommend sticking to 8.1 for now.
8.2 is better for PHP development; users won’t notice a difference (unless a plugin starts requiring at least 8.2).

TSF is compatible with PHP 8.2 and should be with 8.3, but I haven’t verified 8.3 yet — I’d need to upgrade my test server’s OS first.

Yes, it worked with SEO, but 8.1 totally broke some other important plug-in (like “modern footnote”). I guess I will try some other configurations between 7.3 and 8.1, to see if I can see the sweet spot.

7.4 seems to be ok with all plugins (at least they don’t report errors on their section). Let’s see if in a few days WP will send me another critical error message.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 3 months ago by Lock.

TSF works precisely the same on PHP 8.2 as on PHP 7.4.

I recommended 8.1 as a solid middle-ground: PHP 8.1 still receives security updates and is slightly faster than 7.4.

PHP 7.4 is what most WordPress sites use because of the still abound forward-compatibility issues, as you have experienced with Modern Footnotes. Letting the plugin authors know it needs to be tested and addressed is a great way to pave the future.

Good. I’ll let plugin author know.

Many thanks for your explanation and help.

Have a nice day.

I got the same error in line 192 today – but there is PHP 8.1 running. Why is it?

Hi @aquorange,

A server process, such as via cron, may be running your site on PHP 7.3 or below. Please see what process initiated the error and try upgrading it.

If you see the error on your screen as you access your site, then your site may still be using PHP 7.3 or below, which should be addressed.

If you still find issues, please open a new support topic at https://tsf.fyi/support/tsf/new-topic. This way, we won’t bother other users with “topic got a reply” emails.