Here’s What You Need to Know About PHP 7 for a Better Enterprise Development

It’s probably no secret that PHP 7 has started a new trend in web development. For a plethora of reasons and more, it’s no less than “top-notch” in terms of reduced memory consumption and app performance improvement overall. And if you wish to learn more about the latest innovative features that come with this technology, then please keep reading; the best is yet to come!

What’s New in PHP 7?

• Everyone knows PHP 7’s a real revolution in the world of web development process.
• This new technology can help us to create new applications that don’t consume too much memory and work significantly faster.
• Despite the fact that ordinary people usually think this innovation’s useful only for programmers and IT-specialists, we can declare that PHP 7’s key to success for enterprises, too.
• You can create high-quality websites of your firms with excellent performance, allowing you to serve more concurrent users without adding any hardware.
• It’s one of the biggest innovations in the market since the latest big release of PHP in 2004.
• Then, such technologies were obsolete, and progressive web developers and entrepreneurs sought something new and impressive, what could “blow their mind”.
• As a result, they got PHP 7 in 2015.

Why PHP 7 Works for the Enterprise?

• As we’ve said, most people think new features of PHP are useful only for developers, but the real situation says otherwise.
• In fact, many successful enterprises around the world refer to this technology to run their business in the online sphere.
• According to recent studies, more than a half of all web applications are made with the aid of PHP, and this serves as a basis for more than 22 million websites.
• Thus, no one wonders why enterprises are interested in both the development and improvement of PHP.
• Many businesses work on the platform, and it brings in millions in revenue.

Features of PHP7

Now, we’re going to consider the most significant features of PHP7.

• PHP 7, not PHP 6
  • Of course, we understand that this “innovation” is not the most interesting feature of PHP 7, but let’s not ignore it altogether.
  • Most people don’t know that the version released earlier was called PHP 5.6.
  • After its release, and some significant discussion between the team involved, developers decided that they wanted to create a “big update” of their most recent technology, which would later be known as PHP 6 and would be released right after PHP 5.6.
  • However, PHP 6 did not reach the final stages of mass production and remained an ordinary pilot project.
  • The new update was called PHP 7.

• An exclusively new Zend Engine

  • Zend Engine II was used in the previous PHP 5 series.
  • Zend Engine II improved the current functionality and added an extensible object model.
  • In addition, it ensured a significant performance enhancement for the PHP.
  • However, PHP 7 got a completely new version of the engine, which was called PHP # NG or Next Generation.

• Scalability & Performance in PHP 7

  • The most important benefit of the new PHP New Generation is an impressive performance improvement.
  • The team of developers who created PHP 7 reorganized the Zend Engine and optimized consumed memory.
  • So, what were the results?
    • The Zend Engine team declared that web developers could make their lives easier with the aid of PHP 7.
    • It not only forces your code to run faster, but it also gives you a possibility to reduce the number of servers involved, which you have to use to serve the same number of users either way.

• Facilitates Error processing

  • The processing of program errors was always a real problem for PHP coders.
  • Fortunately, the error message mechanism was changed.
  • Now, users would have an opportunity to replace errors with exceptions.
  • If one could not “catch” the exception, it meant that PHP would convert the exceptions to fatal errors.
  • After that, it would process them in the same way as they were originally made in the earlier versions of PHP.

• Available on 64-bit Windows systems

  • It’s a well-known fact that a traditional environment of PHP is Linux, not Windows system.
  • That’s why the previous series didn’t provide the possibility to run it on 64-bit Windows.
  • But PHP 7 changed this situation because it ensured a consistent 64-bit support.
  • As a result, one could now use this technology on a 64-bit Windows system without any problems.

• Declarations of scalar type

  • There are now two options made available, and they’re coercive and strict.
  • Coercive is set as the standard default.
  • One may now additionally enforce more parameters than before, and these include integers, strings, booleans, and floating-point numbers.
  • They can augment other types first released in an earlier version: PHP 5.

How Do I Upgrade PHP 7?

• In most cases, the easiest way to upgrade to PHP 7 is simple.
• Just refer to your hosting company and ask them to update your account.
• However, you should understand that your hosting firm has to use PHP 7, too.
• On the other hand, most of these companies understand that PHP 7 is a new trend, which is growing really fast, that’s why they implement this technology without hesitation.
• In addition, if you administrate your website, you can do that on your own, but do not forget about certain pitfalls that may unavoidably ensue.
• You should make sure that your site is compatible with this update, and only after you’re certain, upgrade it to PHP 7.

Conclusion

Thus, the domination of PHP and its newest versions within the latest markets is quite undeniable. Of course, many still wish to not change their PHP 5.6 and upgrade it to PHP 7. However, most professionals are sure that it is an inevitable action; do it now or do it later. So, please upgrade to enjoy all the benefits that solely come with using the newest, exclusive technology of the PHP 7. You won’t regret it.