10.1.0 PHP/Postgres out of date??

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gbl
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10.1.0 PHP/Postgres out of date??

Post by gbl »

Timetrex just auto-updated to 10.1.0, and now I'm seeing this message in red:

WARNING: System stack components (PHP/POSTGRES) are out-of-date and not supported with this version of TimeTrex! Please upgrade them immediately!

Local install on Ubuntu 12.0.4 LTS. Just updated PHP and Postgres, warning remains.

What am I missing here?

% php --version
PHP 5.3.10-1ubuntu3.25 with Suhosin-Patch (cli) (built: Oct 3 2016 16:53:10)
Copyright (c) 1997-2012 The PHP Group
Zend Engine v2.3.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2012 Zend Technologies
with Suhosin v0.9.33, Copyright (c) 2007-2012, by SektionEins GmbH

% psql --version
psql (PostgreSQL) 9.1.3
contains support for command-line editing
--
Gordon B Lugauer
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shaunw
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Re: 10.1.0 PHP/Postgres out of date??

Post by shaunw »

TimeTrex v10 and newer requires PHP v5.4 or newer.

Please see the release notes for more information: https://help.timetrex.com/v10.0/enterpr ... 10.0.0.htm

Ubuntu 12.04 is end-of-life'd this April, so we would recommend upgrading to the latest Ubuntu LTS release as soon as possible.
gbl
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Re: 10.1.0 PHP/Postgres out of date??

Post by gbl »

This particular server might not be able to be upgrade past 12.04 for some time, as newer versions break some other critical software due to hard linking to specific versions of libicu. But that isn't a timetrex issue.

So, if I cannot run PHP 5.4 on this server, how do I A) downgrade timetrex to where it was before the auto-update; B) turn off auto updates?

Looks like the only thing that is failing for me right now is that I cannot mark pay periods as Closed, which isn't the end of the world. Still, and auto-update that didn't check or request an update to vital dependencies is not appreciated. The auto-updater should've checked the version of PHP, then stopped when it was not at a sufficient version instead of completing the update.
--
Gordon B Lugauer
President, Board Game Barrister, Ltd
GBL@BoardGameBarrister.com
Office: 414-988-1717 x1700
Direct: 414-988-1700 Fax: 414-988-1716

The Board Game Barrister has a restaurant!
The Oak & Shield Gaming Pub
http://OakAndShieldPub.com
shaunw
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Re: 10.1.0 PHP/Postgres out of date??

Post by shaunw »

That message shouldn't affect pay periods being closed or not, if you are running into an issue there it is likely something different.

As for downgrading, the only way to do that safely would be to restore from a backup prior to the upgrade.

See the following post for instructions on disabling auto-upgrades:
http://forums.timetrex.com/viewtopic.ph ... 636#p19636

However keep in mind that TimeTrex isn't designed to not be upgraded on a regular basis (hence the main reason for auto-upgrade) and makes use a lot of cloud services, so if you fail to upgrade on a regular basis some functionality will cease to function at some point. Of course if you are using TimeTrex for payroll, you must absolutely upgrade on a regular basis (as often as monthly) or you will guarantee incorrect payroll calculations.

Additionally if you don't upgrade at least once per year (versions are only supported for up to one year), you risk never being able to upgrade at all, which of course means certain failure of your system at some undetermined time. So the message that you are seeing currently will reappear as another message in a few months complaining that your TimeTrex version is severely out of date once its no longer supported, which may be too late to prevent some of the above issues.

Since we don't control other software that interacts with TimeTrex, regular upgrades are important to keep things running smoothly, a recent example of that is Chrome v55 turned out to not be fully compatible with TimeTrex versions 9.1.X and older, so if you aren't running TimeTrex v10.0, you may run into problems using newer versions of the Chrome web browser.
gbl
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Re: 10.1.0 PHP/Postgres out of date??

Post by gbl »

Yes, I understand how system entropy works.

In our case, we use Timetrex for schedule, timeclock, and timesheets only. Payroll is not a concern for updates for us.

The Chrome example is off-point. In the case we are discussing, Timetrex auto-updated such that it was incompatible with existing system tools *that it could have checked as part of the auto-update, then aborted*. Why not generate the error pre-update?

"Timetrex would like to upgrade, but PHP must first be 5.4++. You are 5.3. Auto-update will not run until you update PHP to 5.4++."

is so much better than

"Timetrex auto-update complete. ERROR: PHP is incompatible."

Does it make sense how this is different than your Chrome example, and how your admonishments to regularly update your system ring hollow?
--
Gordon B Lugauer
President, Board Game Barrister, Ltd
GBL@BoardGameBarrister.com
Office: 414-988-1717 x1700
Direct: 414-988-1700 Fax: 414-988-1716

The Board Game Barrister has a restaurant!
The Oak & Shield Gaming Pub
http://OakAndShieldPub.com
shaunw
Posts: 7839
Joined: Tue Sep 19, 2006 2:22 pm

Re: 10.1.0 PHP/Postgres out of date??

Post by shaunw »

gbl wrote:In the case we are discussing, Timetrex auto-updated such that it was incompatible with existing system tools *that it could have checked as part of the auto-update, then aborted*. Why not generate the error pre-update?
"Timetrex would like to upgrade, but PHP must first be 5.4++. You are 5.3. Auto-update will not run until you update PHP to 5.4++."
is so much better than
"Timetrex auto-update complete. ERROR: PHP is incompatible."
Notice that the message says "not supported", it doesn't say that TimeTrex won't function or that things are broken, but that message was designed to get the point across under no uncertain terms that future upgrades may not be possible, and by the time you see that message you should have had at least 90-days prior notice if you read the release notes upon each upgrade.
WARNING: System stack components (PHP/POSTGRES) are out-of-date and not supported with this version of TimeTrex! Please upgrade them immediately!
The approach we took to this change was as follows:
1. We announced in release notes back in October 2016 that TimeTrex v10 will require PHP v5.4+ upon its release while still ensuring that it worked on previously supported versions of PHP.

2. After approx. 90 days if you still haven't upgraded it displays the specific warning message that you are seeing, stating that its not supported with the PHP version installed on your system. TimeTrex continues to function as usual still though.

3. After another 30-90 days, new versions of TimeTrex will absolutely not function or install on unsupported versions of PHP.

Also keep in mind that officially the PHP developers stopped supporting PHP v5.3 almost two years ago, and v5.6 is the oldest supported version at this time, but it too is just in the security fix stage of its life (http://php.net/supported-versions.php). So the overwhelming majority of people using TimeTrex will never see the message that you are currently seeing, as they are already running v5.4 or newer.

While officially we don't support nor recommend using any product that isn't supported by its original creators (this includes web browsers, operating systems, PHP, Apache, PostgreSQL, etc...) we take changing the requirements very seriously and go to great lengths to support the oldest possible versions we reasonably can and to give as much notice as we reasonably can when such a change does take place.
gbl
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Joined: Wed Jan 02, 2008 11:47 am
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Re: 10.1.0 PHP/Postgres out of date??

Post by gbl »

Ok, that's fine. If I'm stuck at this version for awhile, I can live with that.

Thanks,

-G
--
Gordon B Lugauer
President, Board Game Barrister, Ltd
GBL@BoardGameBarrister.com
Office: 414-988-1717 x1700
Direct: 414-988-1700 Fax: 414-988-1716

The Board Game Barrister has a restaurant!
The Oak & Shield Gaming Pub
http://OakAndShieldPub.com
rjandreski
Posts: 23
Joined: Fri Oct 03, 2014 10:52 am

Re: 10.1.0 PHP/Postgres out of date??

Post by rjandreski »

I'm getting this same error. I have auto update enabled. Running TimeTrex Community Edition On-Site on Windows Server 2008 R2. Where do I get the installation files to do the manual install?
shaunw
Posts: 7839
Joined: Tue Sep 19, 2006 2:22 pm

Re: 10.1.0 PHP/Postgres out of date??

Post by shaunw »

rjandreski wrote:I'm getting this same error. I have auto update enabled. Running TimeTrex Community Edition On-Site on Windows Server 2008 R2. Where do I get the installation files to do the manual install?
You can always download the latest version from here:
https://www.timetrex.com/onsite_communi ... p=download
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