Title: [Plugin: Breadcrumb NavXT] PHP version error message
Last modified: August 19, 2016

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# [Plugin: Breadcrumb NavXT] PHP version error message

 *  Resolved [Josh Leuze](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jleuze/)
 * (@jleuze)
 * [15 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-breadcrumb-navxt-php-version-error-message/)
 * Hi John, I was using Breadcrumb NavXT 3.7.0 on my local dev setup and uploaded
   it to a server that is using PHP 5.1.6 and ran into this error:
 * > Your PHP version is too old, please upgrade to a newer version. Your version
   > is 5.1.6, this plugin requires 5.2.0
 * I have a bunch of plugins installed on this site and it took me a bit to figure
   out which one was giving me this error. Might I suggest including the name of
   your plugin in this error?
 * Glad to see how well Breadcrumb NavXT is supporting custom post types and taxonomies,
   it’s been a big help on some recent projects!
 * [http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/breadcrumb-navxt/](http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/breadcrumb-navxt/)

Viewing 10 replies - 1 through 10 (of 10 total)

 *  Plugin Author [John Havlik](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mtekk/)
 * (@mtekk)
 * [15 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-breadcrumb-navxt-php-version-error-message/#post-1827000)
 * Hi Josh,
 * Yeah, I’ve been playing around with that code lately. In the SVN Trunk it will
   now deactivate the plugin automatically, if `is_admin()` evaluates as true (or
   to put it another way, the `deactivate_plugins()` function is available). I added
   the plugin name in the error, it’s in the SVN Trunk right now.
 * Not to be preachy, but PHP 5.1.6 is over 4 years old. Also, you probably should
   deactivate plugins before updating them. I know I don’t do it this way on my 
   testbed (testbeds are for breaking stuff), but on live sites it’s usually a good
   idea (plus Breadcrumb NavXT usually needs a deactivation/activation cycle to 
   do settings upgrades between versions, though there are ways around this now).
 * Anyways, this is related to: [http://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-breadcrumb-navxt-php-520-requirement-notification-renders-wp-dashboard-useless](http://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-breadcrumb-navxt-php-520-requirement-notification-renders-wp-dashboard-useless)
 *  Thread Starter [Josh Leuze](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jleuze/)
 * (@jleuze)
 * [15 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-breadcrumb-navxt-php-version-error-message/#post-1827020)
 * I wasn’t updating the plugin, my local dev setup has PHP 5.2 so the plugin was
   running fine while I was developing the site. It was when I migrated the site
   to a live server with an older version that I got the error, so that probably
   a pretty fringe case.
 * This is actually the second time I’ve ran into this with a plugin. But I’m not
   about to downgrade my local setup, so hopefully when WordPress starts requiring
   5.2 it will force more webhosts to quick slacking!
 *  [icc97](https://wordpress.org/support/users/icc97/)
 * (@icc97)
 * [15 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-breadcrumb-navxt-php-version-error-message/#post-1827258)
 * I hit the same problem, it rendered the whole site useless. Had to downgrade 
   to v1.6.0. Unfortunately upgrading to PHP 5.2 is very difficult as I’m dealing
   with a legacy Fedora 3 machine
 *  [Whitegoodshelp](https://wordpress.org/support/users/washerhelp/)
 * (@washerhelp)
 * [15 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-breadcrumb-navxt-php-version-error-message/#post-1827294)
 * This plugin is always breaking my Blog. It’s done it more than once before but
   never with such catastrophic consequences as locking me even out of my control
   panel so I couldn’t disable it. I had to connect by ftp and delete the breadcrumb
   folder to get back into my control panel and restore my blog.
 *  Plugin Author [John Havlik](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mtekk/)
 * (@mtekk)
 * [15 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-breadcrumb-navxt-php-version-error-message/#post-1827298)
 * > This plugin is always breaking my Blog. It’s done it more than once before…
 * How? Do you have an example? Without an example there is nothing I can go on 
   to attempt to resolve the issue. As for requiring PHP5.2, I am not backing down
   on the requirement, and have made some improvements to the message per my reply
   to JLeuze above. These will be in 3.8.0, but by then you might as well get your
   host to install a version of PHP 5.2 or even better PHP 5.3.
 *  [Whitegoodshelp](https://wordpress.org/support/users/washerhelp/)
 * (@washerhelp)
 * [15 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-breadcrumb-navxt-php-version-error-message/#post-1827300)
 * Hello mtekk. I upgraded it once before and my Blog just displayed a blank page.
   It turned out that the code had been changed and I had to move the lines of code
   calling the script from its previous place to another location to get it to work.
 * Regarding this present incident, I wouldn’t object to you requiring any version
   of php, or even changing things within the code that made it only work under 
   ridiculously rare circumstances. It’s a free plugin and I find it very useful
   but you can change it however you like. My objection is if an author changed 
   criteria so that when their users update it, it doesn’t just not work but it 
   completely brings down the Blog. I couldn’t even get back into my control panel
   to disable the plugin and if I hadn’t thought to use ftf to delete the breadcrumb
   folder I would have been left without a working Blog.
 * I can only assume it was an unexpected situation from your point of view and 
   surely the plugin isn’t deliberately written knowing it will cause a fatal error
   if it can’t find the “right” version of php? I thought error handling in software
   allowed contained reactions to not finding the right environment to run in?
 * I can only assume you had no idea the blog would be brought down if the wrong
   php version was installed or otherwise you would have not allowed the plugin 
   to install unless it had checked for the right version first or at least warned
   people not to update it unless they had checked they were running the later php
   version. I updated it using automatic update.
 *  Plugin Author [John Havlik](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mtekk/)
 * (@mtekk)
 * [15 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-breadcrumb-navxt-php-version-error-message/#post-1827301)
 * How long ago was it when you had to move the calling code? I do not remember 
   anyone else having issues with the location of the calling code, except for a
   brief period of time when placing the calling code within the loop caused issues.
 * The entire “lock out” issue, as I stated earlier, and in the other thread you
   replied to, was an unintended consequence. WordPress’ behavior on plugins that
   throw errors, or die on activation seems to be non-ideal to say the least (IMHO
   it should auto deactivate unless in debug mode).
 * Finally, when you said
 * > I’ve now had V5.2.16 installed and get exactly the same error
 *  in the other thread, what exactly did the message/error say?
 *  [Whitegoodshelp](https://wordpress.org/support/users/washerhelp/)
 * (@washerhelp)
 * [15 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-breadcrumb-navxt-php-version-error-message/#post-1827304)
 * Hello mtekk: Thanks for your response. It was a year or two back. I think it 
   was not long after I’d started using it and there was an update. I said previously
   that the earlier incident caused a blank page but I should have said it caused
   my header and sidebar to be displayed but no content. If you didn’t get any other
   reports it may have been something peculiar to how I had it installed or my wordpress
   skin. All I remember was I had to move the calling code somewhere else.
 * I apologise for using the phrase “always breaking my blog”, I was a bit angry
   at losing my blog. As it is a major part of my livelihood I get quite stressed
   if it goes down.
 * Regarding this current issue if it is WordPress’s fault it’s a very serious bug
   that needs fixing. As I said before surely the number one thing to be avoided
   is for a Blog to be taken offline.
 * I contacted my hosting company and they said –
 * > “5.1.6 is an old verison in upstream terms. However it is the chosen version
   > for CentOS 5 to distribute. Because CentOS versions are released and supported
   > for 5 years, towards the end of their life the default versions of applications
   > may seem old, but are kept up
   >  to date security wise by back-porting bug fixes.
   > CentOS 6 is due out in the next few months which will distribute PHP 5.3.x,
   > but again this will be supported for 5 years, and will seem out of date by 
   > the time we get to 2015!”
 * I don’t know if that’s true or not but if so there could be a lot of people with
   an old version of php.
 * When I received the message “I have upgrade PHP which is now at version 5.2.16.”
   I tried breadcrumb again and exactly the same thing happened. I just got a blank
   page with the same warning that my php version was too old and had to delete 
   the breadcrumb folder again. I wondered if was somehow a caching issue but I 
   tried reloading my blog with a control + refresh.
 * I think this plugin is one of the essential plugins and I don’t like being without
   it.
 *  Plugin Author [John Havlik](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mtekk/)
 * (@mtekk)
 * [15 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-breadcrumb-navxt-php-version-error-message/#post-1827305)
 * Well the blank parts of a page thing could have been the bug when the plugin 
   was called in the loop. That should be fixed now.
 * It sounds like your hosting company doesn’t like to do software updates after
   installing the OS off of a disk. CentOS has a wiki page for updating PHP to 5.2.
   x and it is quite simple:
 * >  # rpm -qa |grep php
   >  # yum update # service httpd restart
 * Source: [http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/PHP_5.1_To_5.2](http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/PHP_5.1_To_5.2)
   
   The first checks for installed php components, the second does the install, the
   third restarts apache.
 * I noticed one thing with the checking code, I look at the superglobal `PHP_VERSION`
   for the check, but report using `phpversion()`. If after updating you get where
   it says a version over 5.2 in the message (e.g. the warning becomes non logical),
   then it may be something with the global.
 * The message should have contained two version numbers in it, like the example
   JLeuze posted:
 * > Your PHP version is too old, please upgrade to a newer version. Your version
   > is 5.1.6, this plugin requires 5.2.0
 * Where “5.1.6” would be what ever version of PHP your site is running. If that
   is blank, then your host is trying to hide their PHP version. If that version
   is still 5.1.x or 5.0.x (where x is a number), then your host lied to you about
   upgrading the PHP version. If that version number is 5.2.x (where x is a number),
   then as explained above, `PHP_VERSION` and `phpversion()` are for some reason
   two different versions (and something I need to look into).
 *  [Whitegoodshelp](https://wordpress.org/support/users/washerhelp/)
 * (@washerhelp)
 * [15 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-breadcrumb-navxt-php-version-error-message/#post-1827317)
 * Hello mtekk: I just restored the breadcrumb plugin folder and reactivated the
   plugin, which I’m glad to report now works ok. I can only assume there was some
   delay between them sending me the email telling me the php was upgraded and me
   actually using it.
 * I agree that 5 years seems a ridiculously long time to keep a version although
   they say they keep it up to date with security upgrades. I don’t know how much
   php changes but clearly things do normally function ok with a 4 year old version
   as your plugin is the only issue I’m aware of on all my sites and Blogs.
 * It still seems a risky thing to make the plugin require a pretty up to date php
   version as there must be many with older versions but I’m glad to have the plugin
   back because I think it’s useful and good for seo to have a breadcrumb trail.
 * Andy

Viewing 10 replies - 1 through 10 (of 10 total)

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 * 10 replies
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 * Last reply from: [Whitegoodshelp](https://wordpress.org/support/users/washerhelp/)
 * Last activity: [15 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-breadcrumb-navxt-php-version-error-message/#post-1827317)
 * Status: resolved