In order to use the latest version of SubscriptionBoss, version 1.34, then you need to run at least PHP 5.3.
The first user who updated the plugin to Subscription 1.33 encountered problems due to low level API errors but on upgrading from PHP 5.2 to PHP 5.3 the problems were resolved. I decided it was not going to be a productive activity to debug the PHP 5.2 issues as PHP has been at end of life since January 2011. PHP 5.3 has been stable for 2 years and PHP itself is now at version 5.5.3 at time of writing. Therefore I think it is reasonable to force an upgrade to at least PHP 5.3 at this time. The last Infusionsoft ISDK used new PHP 5.3 language features although some of these were replaced in a subsequent minor update.
How Do I Know What Version of PHP My Site Is Running?
If you have purchased hosting in the last 18 months then it probably came with PHP 5.3 installed by default.
However, if your hosting is over a couple of years old and you have not asked to be upgraded you may still be running PHP 5.2
You can check your current version of PHP on the site where you have SubscriptionBoss installed in several ways, however the easiest way is to log in as an administrator and click on SubscriptionBoss in the menu.
This shows the current installed version of PHP and the version required to run the installed version of SubscriptionBoss.
Limited Risks of Upgrading To PHP 5.3
If you are running software (plugins) that have not been updated in over 2 or 3 years there is a small risk that you could suffer a failure if those plugins are using PHP features which have been deprecated.
It is an opportunity to deactivate some of those old plugins if you do not need them any more and the plugins are no longer being maintained. If they are being maintained then you should update them to the latest versions. If you are ambivalent about using the plugins (i.e. they are nice to have rather than required), then it is best to deactivate them before the PHP upgrade and maybe enable them after you have upgraded and have tested everything else is working fine on the new version.
Ask Your Host To Upgrade To PHP 5.3
Most hosts will do the PHP upgrade for you, or at least give you instructions as to what is required.
Choose a quiet time to schedule the upgrade and after your host has upgraded to PHP 5.3 run some tests to make sure everything is working as planned. For example, do an end-to-end test of your sales funnel through to the thank you page.
Upgrading To PHP 5.3 On Hostgator
Hostgator has a page on upgrading to PHP 5.3 on all their various hosting packages so please follow the instructions there.
For many users, all you will need to do is add one line of code to your .htaccess file in the document root of the website where SubscriptionBoss is installed. For example, you would log in to cPanel click on File Manager, enable display of hidden files, and then edit the file /home/youraccount/public_html/.htaccess, adding the following line to the top of the file.
# Use PHP 5.3
AddType application/x-httpd-php53 .php
This is quite handy as it means you can easily perform the upgrade and only affect a single site. It is also easy to revert to PHP 5.2 if you need to simply by removing the single line of code.
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