PHP Compatibility Scanner helps you assess whether your site’s code (plugins and themes) is likely to run on newer versions of PHP. It performs static analysis using PHP_CodeSniffer and the PHPCompatibilityWP ruleset to flag code patterns that are incompatible with the selected target PHP version.
What the plugin does (at a glance):
– Compares your current runtime PHP (baseline) to a selected target PHP version (8.0–8.4).
– Scans plugins and themes, then highlights only the new issues that would appear on the target version (the “delta”).
– Shows results in a clear report on the Tools screen and adds small badges on the Plugins list screen.
– Lets you pause, resume, or stop a running scan.
Important limitations of static analysis:
– Static analysis can miss issues in dynamic code paths and can generate false positives. Treat results as guidance, not guarantees. Always test site functionality on a staging environment before upgrading PHP in production.
Features
- Select a target PHP version (8.0, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4)
- Scan all plugins or select specific ones
- Scan all themes or select specific ones, with an option to also scan a parent if a child theme is selected
- Pause/Resume/Stop controls for long scans
- Clear report of only the new issues between baseline (current runtime) and target
- Plugin list badges showing a quick summary for the last scan
Privacy
All analysis runs locally on your server. No data is sent to external services by this plugin.