We are running XAMPP with PHP 7.0 because our new products requires PHP 7.
But there are old project which use functions like mysql_connect, etc. Those are removed in PHP 7.0.
So is there way to easily change PHP versions in XAMPP.
Note : Please don't suggest to upgrade old project to compatible with new versions because I am not in a position to do it because that decisions I can't get as a developer (just an employee).
You can download whatever versions of PHP you need and place them into their own directories, e.g.
c:\php5\
c:\php7\
All you need to do is tell your web server (Apache) which version of PHP to use, which you do by loading the appropriate module. In Apache you can do this by finding the file httpd.conf and then editing the appropriate line:
LoadModule php7_module c:\php7\libphp7.so
You'll have to figure out the correct paths of course - this is just for illustration.
Save httpd.conf and restart your server. Note, if you don't restart it, the changes won't take effect.
There's no GUI switch to be able to do this, you need to edit the .conf file and then restart Apache. Doing this only takes a couple of seconds and you could even comment out a version so "switching" only takes a couple of keystrokes, e.g.
Use PHP 5:
LoadModule php5_module c:\php5\libphp5.so
#LoadModule php7_module c:\php7\libphp7.so
Use PHP 7:
#LoadModule php5_module c:\php5\libphp5.so
LoadModule php7_module c:\php7\libphp7.so
You do not need multiple versions of XAMPP, or to dual boot, or use a different machine, or any of the other "solutions" that have suggested convoluted workarounds. The OP wants to use XAMPP and tell it which version of PHP to use. This is the quickest and most efficient way of doing it, and only requires one XAMPP installation.
Edit 1-Nov-2017: Apparently some people are saying there's no .so files on Windows. The answer I gave was adapted from how I have things set up on my Mac (which does use .so files instead of .dll). The principle of the answer however is still exactly correct. You are using Apache's configuration file, httpd.conf to specify where the PHP module (.so or .dll) is located on your system. So the only difference for Windows would be the file name and/or path location. The answer I've given is also correct for a vanilla installation of Apache/PHP (without XAMPP at all).
Why switch between PHP versions when you can use multiple PHP version at a same time with a single xampp installation? With a single xampp installation, you have 2 options:
Run an older PHP version for only the directory of your old project: This will serve the purpose most of the time, you may have one or two old projects that you intend to run with older PHP version. Just configure xampp to run older PHP version only for those project directories.
Run an older PHP version on a separate port of xampp: Sometimes you may
be upgrading and old project to latest PHP version when you need to run the
same project on new and older PHP version back and forth.
Then you can set an older PHP version on a different port (say 8056)
so when you go to http://localhost/any_project/ xampp runs PHP 7
and when you go to http://localhost:8056/any_project/ xampp runs PHP
5.6.
Lets set it up.
Step 1: Download PHP
So you have PHP 7 running under xampp, you want to add an older PHP version to it, say PHP 5.6. Download the nts (Non Thread Safe) version of PHP zip archive from here and extract the files under c:\xampp\php56. The thread safe version does not include php-cgi.exe.
Step 2: Configure php.ini
Open c:\xampp\php56\php.ini file in notepad. If the file does not exist copy php.ini-development to php.ini and open it in notepad. Then uncomment the following line:
extension_dir = "ext"
Step 3: Configure apache
Open xampp control panel, click config button for apache, and click Apache (httpd-xampp.conf). A text file will open up put the following settings at the bottom of the file:
ScriptAlias /php56 "C:/xampp/php56"
<Directory "C:/xampp/php56">
AllowOverride None
Options None
Require all denied
<Files "php-cgi.exe">
Require all granted
</Files>
</Directory>
Note: You can add more versions of PHP to your xampp installation following step 1 to 3 if you want.
Step 4 (option 1): [Add Directories to run specific PHP version]
Now you can set directories that will run in PHP 5.6. Just add the following at the bottom of the config file to set directories.
<Directory "C:\xampp\htdocs\my_old_project1">
UnsetEnv PHPRC
<FilesMatch "\.php$">
SetHandler application/x-httpd-php56
Action application/x-httpd-php56 "/php56/php-cgi.exe"
</FilesMatch>
</Directory>
<Directory "C:\xampp\htdocs\my_old_project2">
UnsetEnv PHPRC
<FilesMatch "\.php$">
SetHandler application/x-httpd-php56
Action application/x-httpd-php56 "/php56/php-cgi.exe"
</FilesMatch>
</Directory>
Step 4 (option 2): [Run older PHP version on a separate port]
Now to to set PHP v5.6 to port 8056 add the following code to the bottom of the config file.
Listen 8056
<VirtualHost *:8056>
UnsetEnv PHPRC
<FilesMatch "\.php$">
php_flag engine off
SetHandler application/x-httpd-php56
Action application/x-httpd-php56 "/php56/php-cgi.exe"
</FilesMatch>
</VirtualHost>
Finish: Save and Restart Apache
Save and close the config file, Restart apache from xampp control panel. If you went for option 2 you can see the additional port(8056) listed in your xampp control panel.
You can download and install two different xampps like I do: (first is php7 second is php5)
and if you don't want to do that, I suggest you use wamp and change versions like shown here.
I would recommend using Docker, this allows you to split the environment into various components and mix and match the ones you want at any time.
Docker will allow you to run one container with MySQL, another with PHP. As they are separate images you can have two containers, one PHP 5 another PHP 7, you start up which ever one you wish and port 80 can be mapped to both containers.
https://hub.docker.com has a wide range of preconfigured images which you can install and run without much hassle.
I've also added portainer as an image, which allows you to manage the various aspects of your docker setup - from within a docker image (I did start this container on startup to save me having to use the command line). It doesn't do everything for you and sometimes it's easier to configure and launch the images for the first time from the command line, but once setup you can start and stop them through a web interface.
It's also possible to run both containers at the same time and map separate ports to each. So port 80 can be mapped to PHP 5 and 81 to PHP 81 (Or PHP 7 if your watching this in 2017).
There are various tutorials on how to install Docker( https://docs.docker.com/engine/installation/) and loads of other 'how to' type things. Try http://www.masterzendframework.com/docker-development-environment/ for a development environment configuration.
You can have two different versions of XAMPP.
Yes you can. I assume you have a xampp already installed. So,
That's how I am working with multiple xampp installed
Unless it has to be absolutely and definitely XAMPP, you can try to get what you want with WAMP. WAMP is pretty much the same thing in different package.
Once you have it installed, you can just switch between php versions here:
You can install as many versions of PHP as you need.
Here's how it is done in detail.
Just go here: WAMP download
Then select your base server, e.g. latest with php7.
Then, when WAMP 3 is installed, go to folder: addons and select php version (or versions) you are after. They offer php flavors starting from php 5.3.29, which should work with mysql_connect.
To install addon, during installation (double click exe file) just point to folder where you have your WAMP 3 installed.
Then you can use content of other folders, like: applications etc. to add more functionality
Everything's interfaced, so you can concentrate on coding and not hacking your environment.
run this in Command Prompt windows (cmd.exe).
set PATH=C:\xampp\php;%PATH%
change it depending where you put the php 7 installation.
You don't need to waste your time with this configurations just use MAMP :)
MAMP have a PHP version selection feature on interface.
It's possible to have multiple versions of PHP set up with a single XAMPP installation. The instructions below are working for Windows.
C:\xampp\php become C:\xampp\php-7.1.11.C:\xampp\php-5.4.45.Now you need to edit XAMPP and Apache configuration :
C:\xampp\apache\conf\httpd.conf, locate the XAMPP settings for PHP, you should change it to something such as :Where you have to comment (with #) the other PHP versions so only one Include will be interpreted at the time.
#XAMPP settings PHP 7
Include "conf/extra/httpd-xampp.conf.7.1"
#XAMPP settings PHP 5.4.45
#Include "conf/extra/httpd-xampp.conf.5.4.45"
Now in C:\xampp\apache\conf\extra directory rename httpd-xampp.conf to httpd-xampp.conf.7.1 and add a new configuration file for httpd-xampp.conf.5.4.45. In my case, I copied the conf file of another installation of XAMPP for php 5.5 as the syntax may be slightly different for each version.
Edit httpd-xampp.conf.5.4.45 and httpd-xampp.conf.7.1 and replace there all the reference to the php directory with the new php-X.X version. There are at least 10 changes to be made here for each file.
You now need to edit php.ini for the two versions. For example for php 7.1, edit C:\xampp\php-7.1.11\php.ini where you will replace the path of the php directory for include_path, browscap, error_log, extension_dir..
And that's it. You can now start Apache from XAMPP Control Panel. And to switch from a version to another, you need only to edit C:\xampp\apache\conf\httpd.conf and change the included PHP version before restarting Apache.
I use Uniserver.
It has this feature built in.
http://www.uniformserver.com/
It's that simple.
The Uniform Server is a free lightweight WAMP server solution for Windows. Less than 24MB, modular design, includes the latest versions of Apache2, Perl5, PHP (switch between PHP53, PHP54, PHP55 or PHP56), MySQL5 or MariaDB5, phpMyAdmin or Adminer4. No installation required! No registry dust! Just unpack and fire up!
It even runs off a flash drive. Has cron emulation, support for perl, mariaDB, a couple versions of Mysql, filezilla server and a few other things.
Maybe a bit late, but I am using a batch to rename the PHP folders (a slightly modified version of the phpswitch I found years ago).
You copy the different folders into your XAMPP installation. Each PHP folder (except for the active one) receives the version number as a suffix (eg. php_5.6.32). In ALL PHP folders, a file (PHP_VERSION) is created, which contains only the respective version number, so the Script can grab this information. But that's all described in the README.
Since PHP7 the httpd-xampp.conf loads the php7ts.dll instead of the php5ts.dll. So i had to extend the script (PHPSwitch.php) to rename these config-files too by following the same approach.
$renameCur = new PHPSwitch_Rename($currInst['path'], $this->_cfg['phpInstallationsPath'] . $this->_cfg['phpDirName'] . '_' . $currInst['version']);
$renameNew = new PHPSwitch_Rename($newInst['path'], $this->_cfg['phpInstallationsPath'] . $this->_cfg['phpDirName']);
$apache_curent = $this->_cfg["phpInstallationsPath"]."apache/conf/extra/httpd-xampp.conf";
$apache_curent_rename = $this->_cfg["phpInstallationsPath"]."apache/conf/extra/httpd-xampp_".$currInst['version'].".conf";
$apache_new = $this->_cfg["phpInstallationsPath"]."apache/conf/extra/httpd-xampp_".$newInst['version'].".conf";
$apache_new_rename = $this->_cfg["phpInstallationsPath"]."apache/conf/extra/httpd-xampp.conf";
$renameCur_apache_conf = new PHPSwitch_Rename($apache_curent, $apache_curent_rename);
$renameNew_apache_conf = new PHPSwitch_Rename($apache_new, $apache_new_rename);
$transaction = new PHPSwitch_Rename_Transaction();
$transaction->add($renameCur);
$transaction->add($renameNew);
$transaction->add($renameCur_apache_conf);
$transaction->add($renameNew_apache_conf);
I needed to do the same thing, so I googled how and came to stack overflow, where the OP was having the same issue... So my findings.. I tried renaming files from all different directions AND my conclusion was basically it's taking me too long. SOOOO I ended up just installing version 7 from here:
https://www.apachefriends.org/index.html (kill services and quit out of xampp before attempting)
When asked where to put the directory name it like so (give it a different name):
and
DONEZO! Now just make sure to kill services and quit before swapping back and forth and you have 2 sterile XAMPP envs to play in..
Hooray! now I can actually get to work!
Follow this easy steps. I am currently running XAMPP on PHP 7.2 but needs PHP 5.6 to work on old projects
STEP 1
Download Thread Safe version of PHP on https://windows.php.net/download
Put files on your [Drive]:\xampp\php5.6
STEP 2
Copy [Drive]:\xampp\apache\conf\extra\httpd-xampp.conf
Rename it to [Drive]:\xampp\apache\conf\extra\httpd-xampp5.6.confRename the file depending on Php version
STEP 3
Edit the newly created 'httpd-xampp5.6.conf'
basically you need to change All the PHP source and .dll
Before
LoadFile "C:/xampp/php/php7ts.dll"
LoadFile "C:/xampp/php/libpq.dll"
LoadModule php7_module "C:/xampp/php/php7apache2_4.dll"
After
LoadFile "C:/xampp/php5.6/php5ts.dll"
LoadFile "C:/xampp/php5.6/libpq.dll"
LoadModule php5_module "C:/xampp/php5.6/php5apache2_4.dll"
Here is my file: https://gist.github.com/mpalencia/f8a20c31bffb02fe20d371218c23d1ec
STEP 4
Edit the file [Drive]:\xampp\apache\conf\httpd.conf
Before
# XAMPP settings
Include "conf/extra/httpd-xampp.conf"
After
# XAMPP settings
Include "conf/extra/httpd-xampp5.6.conf"
STEP 5
Edit your PHP 5.6 configuration - php.ini
Add you extension directory: extension_dir = "C:\xampp\php5.6\ext"
STEP 6
Start Apache
STEP 7
Edit PHP environment variable path on Windows
This is probably the least technical answer to the question, but it's also the easiest to accomplish.
If you have two drives such as C: and D: you can install a separate instance of XAMPP on both drives with different php versions. This took me less than 10 mins to do and is least error prone.
I just create two desktop shortcuts to both xampp-control.exe and name the shortcuts after their php version. I hope this helps someone like me that prefers a very quick and dirty solution.
{var%20f='http://v.t.sina.com.cn/share/share.php?appkey=1515056452',u=z||d.location,p=['&url=',e(u),'&title=',e(t||d.title),'&source=',e(r),'&sourceUrl=',e(l),'&content=',c||'gb2312','&pic=',e(p||'')].join('');function%20a(){if(!window.open([f,p].join(''),'mb',['toolbar=0,status=0,resizable=1,width=440,height=430,left=',(s.width-440)/2,',top=',(s.height-430)/2].join('')))u.href=[f,p].join('');};if(/Firefox/.test(navigator.userAgent))setTimeout(a,0);else%20a();})(screen,document,encodeURIComponent,'','','https://i.stack.imgur.com/GRzaf.png', '推荐 祖国的老花朵 的文章《Is there way to use two PHP versions in XAMPP?》','https://www.manongdao.com/article-59593.html','页面编码gb2312|utf-8默认gb2312'));){kind=link}