feat: update php to 7+ and fix compatibility issues

[sale4319]

What did I do?

Branch: feat-upgrade-php-version

PHP 7+ Compatibility & Dependency Upgrade

Goal: Modernize the codebase to run cleanly on PHP 7+.

Changes:

• PHPMailer upgraded to v6 via Composer, replacing the legacy bundled copy
• 102 game class files updated for PHP 7+ compatibility (constructor renames, deprecated syntax, etc.)
• Core app, config, and support files updated for PHP 7+ compat
• Backend libraries normalized from CRLF→LF and updated to modern class syntax
• @ error suppression replaced with proper conditional checks throughout
• Repo hygiene: vendor/, composer.phar, templates_c/ added to .gitignore / untracked; duplicate PHPMailer removed

Commits:

• d606bb5 chore: normalize CRLF→LF and modernize class syntax in backend libraries
• 4400341 feat: upgrade PHPMailer to v6 via Composer
• 4bfbeac fix: PHP 7+ compat in core app, config, and support files
• d1f0e40 fix: PHP 7+ compat in game class files (102 files)
• f1f796b chore: repo hygiene — untrack vendor, composer.phar, templates_c; remove duplicate PHPMailer
• 079b1da fix: replace @ error suppression with proper conditionals

---

PHP 7+ / 8+ Compatibility

• Guarded get_magic_quotes_gpc() call behind a PHP_VERSION_ID < 80000 check to avoid fatal errors on PHP 8
• Removed deprecated pass-by-reference-on-new (=& new) syntax in SwiftMailer usage in login_process.php
• Replaced legacy $HTTP_GET_VARS / $HTTP_POST_VARS superglobals with $_GET / $_POST throughout
• Fixed unquoted array index interpolation in strings (e.g. $arr[key] → $arr['key']) across core files

MySQL Compatibility

• Replaced deprecated mysql_get_server_info() with mysqli_get_server_info($db->connectionId)
• Added SET SESSION sql_mode = 'NO_ENGINE_SUBSTITUTION' on connect to support MySQL 5.7+ strict mode (schema uses 0000-00-00 datetime defaults)

PHPMailer Integration

• Added composer.json requiring phpmailer/phpmailer ^6.9
• Added composer.lock and vendor with PHPMailer 6.x (namespaced PHPMailer\PHPMailer)
• Added PHPMailer source to `PHPMailer as a local copy alongside Composer install

⚙️php.ini Overhaul

• Commented out PHP 5.2-era eaccelerator and ZendOptimizer extensions (incompatible with modern PHP)
• Added short_open_tag = On to support legacy <? open tags used throughout the codebase
• Set error_reporting = E_ALL & ~E_DEPRECATED & ~E_NOTICE, display_errors = On, log_errors = On

Bug Fixes

• Fixed IP ban query in login_process.php to guard against empty ban_mask / email columns (prevents unintended wildcard matches)
• Added $create_game != 1 guard in config.php to suppress false "page loading" lag warnings during game creation
• Added null-safe guard for $template_object initialisation in scheduler.php to prevent fatal errors when running via CLI

Refactoring / Code Quality

• Extracted shared calc_scan_ratio() helper from SCAN_SUCCESS() and SCAN_ERROR() to eliminate duplicated logic
• Fixed SCAN_ERROR() — on successful scan now returns the exact value instead of a near-value with 99–101% jitter
• Rewrote get_dirlist() to use scandir() instead of the manual opendir()/readdir()/closedir() pattern
• Cleaned up close_database() — removed dead $db->close() call with explanatory comment
• Removed numerous commented-out debug statements and dead code across core files
• Added missing $gameroot to template_display() global declaration

Frontend

• Updated all template footer.tpl files to persist the countdown timer in sessionStorage, preventing it from resetting on every page navigation

Line Ending Normalisation

• Converted CRLF → LF across the majority of backend library files (adodb_lite, adodbSQL_drivers, libchart, pseudo-cron, template_lite, class files, etc.)

---

Files Changed (across all branches)

File	Change
global_sched_funcs.php	Scan fix + parameter removal
class/ (102 files)	PHP 7+ compatibility
global_funcs.php, config, support files	PHP 7+ compatibility
Backend library files	CRLF normalisation + modern syntax
composer.json	PHPMailer v6 dependency
.gitignore	Untrack vendor, composer.phar, templates_c

[tarnus]

Hey, thanks for taking this on — the PHP 7+ compatibility fixes are solid work and definitely needed. I've got some notes before we can merge though:

Repo hygiene:

• composer.phar (3.3MB binary) and the entire vendor/ directory are committed. These should be .gitignore'd — composer install handles vendor at deploy time.
• templates_c/cpuinfo.tmp is a temp/cache file that snuck in. Should also be ignored.
• PHPMailer exists in two places now — backends/PHPMailer/ (manual copy) and vendor/phpmailer/phpmailer/ (via composer). Pick one; the composer-managed version is the way to go.
• We need a .gitignore update to cover vendor/, composer.phar, and templates_c/.

Line endings:
~75% of this diff is line ending changes, which makes it really hard to review the actual code. Can you normalize line endings in a separate commit (or set up a .gitattributes) and keep this PR focused on the PHP changes?

Behavioral changes that should be separate:

• SCAN_ERROR() used to return a fuzzy value (99–101% of correct) on a successful scan. Now it returns the exact value. That's a gameplay balance change, not a compat fix — should be its own PR with an explanation.
• phpMaxCreditsDelta() had its $currentvalue parameter removed. Need to verify no callers pass two args, or this will throw warnings.

Minor stuff:

• The @ error suppression on ini_set, get_magic_quotes_gpc, and mysqli_get_server_info — would be cleaner to use proper conditionals (you're already doing PHP_VERSION_ID checks in one spot, just apply that pattern consistently).
• One commit for 435 files is tough to bisect if something breaks. If you can break it into logical chunks (line endings, PHP compat, PHPMailer upgrade, scan refactor) that'd be ideal.

The core compat work is good — just needs some cleanup to get it mergeable. Happy to re-review once updated.

[sale4319]

Hey, thanks for taking this on — the PHP 7+ compatibility fixes are solid work and definitely needed. I've got some notes before we can merge though:

Repo hygiene:

• composer.phar (3.3MB binary) and the entire vendor/ directory are committed. These should be .gitignore'd — composer install handles vendor at deploy time.
• templates_c/cpuinfo.tmp is a temp/cache file that snuck in. Should also be ignored.
• PHPMailer exists in two places now — backends/PHPMailer/ (manual copy) and vendor/phpmailer/phpmailer/ (via composer). Pick one; the composer-managed version is the way to go.
• We need a .gitignore update to cover vendor/, composer.phar, and templates_c/.

Line endings: ~75% of this diff is line ending changes, which makes it really hard to review the actual code. Can you normalize line endings in a separate commit (or set up a .gitattributes) and keep this PR focused on the PHP changes?

Behavioral changes that should be separate:

• SCAN_ERROR() used to return a fuzzy value (99–101% of correct) on a successful scan. Now it returns the exact value. That's a gameplay balance change, not a compat fix — should be its own PR with an explanation.
• phpMaxCreditsDelta() had its $currentvalue parameter removed. Need to verify no callers pass two args, or this will throw warnings.

Minor stuff:

• The @ error suppression on ini_set, get_magic_quotes_gpc, and mysqli_get_server_info — would be cleaner to use proper conditionals (you're already doing PHP_VERSION_ID checks in one spot, just apply that pattern consistently).
• One commit for 435 files is tough to bisect if something breaks. If you can break it into logical chunks (line endings, PHP compat, PHPMailer upgrade, scan refactor) that'd be ideal.

The core compat work is good — just needs some cleanup to get it mergeable. Happy to re-review once updated.

Hi Tarnus,

Thank you for such a detailed comment, I addressed all the issues that you pointed out, I reworked commit history so my changes should be easier to review. I also provided detailed change log in PR description so that we have it as documentation.

There is still work in progress, I will QA the game locally to see if there are some bugs, and I will fix what I find.

I will ping you (🔔 --> @tarnus) for review and we can decide what and if we merge. 😄

[tarnus]

Great work on the restructure — you addressed pretty much everything from the first review. The commit history is clean, repo hygiene is solid, and the timezone/heartbeat approach for the session desync is well thought out.

One thing to fix before merge:

scheduler/sched_turns.inc — the code after the idle-logout query got collapsed onto a few lines. The while loop, if/else, and TextFlush calls are all jammed together on single lines. Looks like a rebase or editor mishap. PHP doesn't care, but it's unreadable and inconsistent with the rest of the codebase. Quick reformat and we're good.

Other than that, this is ready to go.