Success Case: PHP Error on Conversion

A customer encountered an issue while attempting to import data from a V2 shop into osCommerce. Despite setting their account to PHP 8.1, they received an error message indicating that a default value for parameters with a class type hint could only be NULL in a specific installation file.

The osCommerce support team clarified that osCommerce 4.x is indeed compatible with PHP 8.1. However, the error was not related to the import script but suggested that the customer was trying to run the osCommerce installation under PHP 5.x.

Upon realizing the misconfiguration, the customer asked how to convert a database that only worked with older versions. The support team advised installing the latest version of osCommerce v4, which requires PHP 7.4, 8.0, or 8.1, and provided a manual to set up the OSC Bridge and import the database.

After setting the system to PHP 8.1 and uploading the OSC Bridge to their live shop, the customer reported that the live shop was still using PHP 5.4 and that the bridge code was generating an error. Upon reviewing the error message, the support team determined that it was an osCommerce v4 installation error rather than an OSC Bridge issue. They asked the customer to verify whether they had uploaded the correct files.

The customer then realized they had confused multiple conversions and confirmed that the error pertained to an installation issue rather than a database conversion. Despite deleting all v4 files and retrying, the error persisted. They also noted that file permissions were set to 664 upon extraction, causing a fatal error before the process could complete.

The support team reiterated that osCommerce v4 cannot be installed on PHP 5.4.45 and requires at least PHP 7.3. They clarified that only the OSC Bridge, which facilitates database export from osCommerce 2.x, could be used on PHP 5.4.45.

By following the support team’s guidance, the customer successfully identified the issue and adjusted their installation process accordingly.