By tesliana on

Folks,

(1) Is PHP 5 required for Drupal 5.x or better yet, what is the best version of PHP and MySQL to have for a shared hosted Drupal site ?

(2) How many of you are running PostgreSQL, how wells does it work for core modules and just how good or bad are contributed ones ?

P.S. Reading the handbook, it seems that PHP 5 is not required but the language around PHP 5 is not the clearest and I need to be certain.

Thanks.

⋅ Categories: Drupal 5.x

Comments

hintbw’s picture

hintbw commented

1. PHP5 is not required to run Drupal 5. However I would recommend running it on PHP5 (see nicklewis.org for a commentary on why). I have used it equally well on MySQL 4 and 5 and so would recommend it on MySQL 5.

2. I have not run it on PgSQL, but the core Drupal supports it as do many add-on modules. The more add-on modules you put in Drupal the more you are likely to run into one that hasn't coded support for PgSQL. Generally, things are tested more frequently on MySQL than PgSQL. That is just my observation from comments on Drupal.org since I don't run Drupal on PgSQL.

dan33’s picture

dan33 commented

I just installed Drupal 5.1 on a host that uses PHP4.4.4, and have not noticed any problems at all.

nancydru’s picture

nancydru
she/her/hers
Primary language English
Location Boston
commented

I am certain that as time passes, more and more developers will include code that only runs on php 5. I try to avoid it, but I keep seeing things that were improved in 5.

how good or bad are contributed ones

As with all things there are probably some bad ones. They will largely die a quick death because this community will not tolerate them for very long.

Nancy W.
Drupal Cookbook (for New Drupallers)
Adding Hidden Design or How To notes in your database

NancyDru

klusener’s picture

klusener commented

So then the first thing a person new to drupal should do is install PHP 5.0 ??

vm’s picture

vm commented

not necessarily. you can install the verison of PHP you are comfortable with. Drupal runs fine under PHP 4.3.3 see: http://drupal.org/requirements

PHP 5.x provides some enhancements that may or may not be of benefit to you. As previously stated, there are a few modules that require PHP 5 and will not run on PHP 4. If you aren't intending on using PHP 5 type modules, then PHP 4.3.3 would work for you, if you so chose.

side note, you wouldn't want PHP 5.0, if you were looking at PHP 5, you would want PHP 5.2.1 or the latest stable release of PHP 5.x.

If you are using a webhost, PHP will already be installed on the servers, most hosts, have a version of PHP 4 and PHP 5 , so you could use either / or. More information on that should be in your hosts documentation.

If you are taking your own machine and working with Drupal, you may want to seek out a prebuilt server environment like XAMMP, or WAMP. There are quite a few to choose from and they all work perfectly well. Google will be your friend with seeking out which package is best for you.

dan33’s picture

dan33 commented

My host (shared hosting) allows me to switch between PHP4 and PHP5. PHP4 is just enabled by default. I don't have any particular problem using PHP5, I was just answering the fellows questions.

Pugwash-1’s picture

Pugwash-1 commented

Hi Dan33 & others

I'm a newbie to drupal

Tried to install

Not succeeded yet

uploaded the some volume files to root using ftp uploader...

20 min later a mass of files have been added

But on home page I find

Fatal error: Call to undefined function: db_set_active() in /freeola/users/7/6/sr0680567/htdocs/includes/bootstrap.inc on line 796

I guess I have done something in the wrong order.

Any ideas?

Dave
AKA Capt Pugwash

vm’s picture

vm commented

watch this videocast with reagards to installing drupal 5 : http://drupal.org/videocasts/installing-5

Steven_NC’s picture

Steven_NC commented

I opened 2 browser windows. One to watch the video and one to install with. Even with triple checking everything it took only about 10 minutes.

I wish there were more "over-the-shoulder" videos like this. It was much simpler than the text directions seemed. For noobs like me it can quickly calm the fear factor.

nancydru’s picture

nancydru
she/her/hers
Primary language English
Location Boston
commented

I use the two window technique a lot. Even if you're reading directions, one window for them, the other to do it with.

Nancy W.
Drupal Cookbook (for New Drupallers)
Adding Hidden Design or How To notes in your database

NancyDru

tesliana’s picture

tesliana commented

How many of you are using something like this, how well does it work and what do I need to set it up ;?)
___________________________________
Svi smo mi zarobljenici svojih ličnih iskustva.
We are all prisoners of our own experiences.

vm’s picture

vm commented

I have in the past used two video cards with two monitors, but reverted back to one large screen with a high resolution.

nancydru’s picture

nancydru
she/her/hers
Primary language English
Location Boston
commented

My biggest problem is one brain - and it's wearing out.

Nancy W.
Drupal Cookbook (for New Drupallers)
Adding Hidden Design or How To notes in your database

NancyDru

AutoInsurance Guy’s picture

AutoInsurance Guy commented

Of all the things I've lost... I miss my mind the most ;)

I'd still like to have 2 monitors though, despite the fact that I'm not sure how often I'd take full advantage of them!