I managed to upgrade to 2.4.4 from 2.4.2 on php 7.2 directly, and the process was relatively straight forward, though I have to say I did manage to delete a few things on 2.4.2 before I upgraded 2.4.4. and had no choice but to make it work. Luckily I had created backup from FA itself.

One problem I came across was similar to what has been discussed in this post https://frontaccounting.com/punbb/viewtopic.php?id=7778 

I got an error before installation begins and pointed it to "maintenance_db.inc" file at line 186, but I applied same logic as mentioned in the link and replaced count  by count_array and installation was successful.

    // update per company files
     $cnt = max(1, count($db_connections));
    for($i = 0; $i < $cnt; $i++) 

So far so good, and everything seems to be working fine.
I haven't been able to use import items extension on 2.4.4 though I tried everything but that can wait.

Thank you all for all the help.

https://frontaccounting.com/punbb/viewtopic.php?pid=33023#p33023 Hoping to hear, it worked

I am going to try and move to 2.4.4 along with php 7.2 over the weekend.

I am planning to do a fresh install and use the back from my prod of 2.4.2 before I migrate over completely.

Hope it all goes well or else I'll be back with lot of questions again.

Because upto FA 2.4.3 ,it throws error on php 7.0 and above. But from 2.4.4 it works fine there.

So if you want to use 2.4.2 on php 5.6 its fine. But if you upgraded the server php version. you need to swtich to FA2.4.4.

Otherwise you need to update the program manually by checking the changes log of FA.

anyway, you need to upgrade program of FA to 2.4.4.  and connect the 2.4.2 database. only few field differences are there. That i already stated above for your understanding purpose

The upgrade, however may not be that straightforward across PHP versions. Various users experiences on and off the wiki/forum will need to be referred.

Upgrade of PHP version will affect older FA installs. The older PHP functions / syntax may have gotten removed in later PHP versions.

1. I can install 2.4.2 and 2.4.4 both on php7.1 and php7.2?

2. Once 2.4.x is installed on certain php version, the php version cannot be updated for same installation to work with higher php version ? (e.g. I have 2.4.2 installed on php5.6, but when I upgrade to php7.1, I start getting errors).

Take a backup of the FA DB and the scripts (if you have specific versions of extensions / customisations).

The DB v10.x is that of the MySQL plugin replacement called MariaDB.

There are no real MySQL DB changes from v2.4.2 to v2.4.4 other than some records for the sys_prefs table records and their dependencies.

Sorry to pick your brains again but, the problem I have in next few days is that my web services provider is going to stop supporting both php 5.6 and 7.0 completely, so I need to make sure that my existing installation 2.4.2 keeps working smoothly on php 7.1 or if possible php 7.2.

Right now when I change my php from 5.6 to 7.1, within my web services control panel, I encounter below error message, which I did try solving using this post but, it gave few more errors.

Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Call to undefined function user_company() in /customers/4/6/2/portuk.com/httpd.www/fa/includes/errors.inc:85 Stack trace: #0 /customers/4/6/2/portuk.com/httpd.www/fa/includes/session.inc(376): error_handler(8192, 'Methods with th...', '/customers/4/6/...', 19, Array) #1 /customers/4/6/2/portuk.com/httpd.www/fa/includes/session.inc(376): include_once() #2 /customers/4/6/2/portuk.com/httpd.www/fa/index.php(18): include_once('/customers/4/6/...') #3 {main} thrown in /customers/4/6/2/portuk.com/httpd.www/fa/includes/errors.inc on line 85

For now I want to make sure that I can keep working on 2.4.2, and if possible update to 2.4.4 in order to avoid more complications when it comes to updating to new versions.

As for above, I don't mind strict settings switched off, but I really don't know where or how to switch them off.

To clarify on MySQL version: You are running MariaDB not MySQL, MariaDB 10.0 is compatible with MySQL 5.6, and MariaDB 10.2 is compatible with MySQL 5.7.

So it depends on what your last digit is?

Read about it here

Hi Ponocho1234,

You are right, I am running below MariaDB, which according to link in your post is equivalent of MySQL 5.6.

Software version: 10.1.30-MariaDB-1~xenial - mariadb.org binary distribution

Thank you

   * FA version  2.4.4
   * DB version 2.4.1

So it depends on what your last digit is?

Read about it here

The function user_company() is in includes/current_user.inc and expects the default company to be defined in the config_db.php file for use on the login screen if no company is available / selected as yet.

The files that changed from FA v2.4.2 to FA 2.4.4 and those that changed thereafter to the current GitMaster are available in the announcements page from where you can sequentially overwrite the existing ones without having to install them (the install folder's files may be ignored).

The databases may have to be upgraded on first admin login into each company.

Along with the PHP 7.1/7.2 upgrade you also run the risk of getting your MySQL version upgraded too to 5.7.x which may need some strict setting to be switched off like zero date.

I need to update to 2.4.4 and with php7.1 or 7.2, as php5.6 and 7.0 won't be supported by one.com post mid Nov 18.

But I want to make sure i can have continuity of system in order to avoid manual entry or re-entry of transactions.

If I check mysql version via myphp, I think it is 10.x.x something, way ahead than 5.7.x.

I really need some help and clarity on how to go about this.

The files that changed from FA v2.4.2 to FA 2.4.4 and those that changed thereafter to the current GitMaster are available in the announcements page from where you can sequentially overwrite the existing ones without having to install them (the install folder's files may be ignored).

The databases may have to be upgraded on first admin login into each company.

Along with the PHP 7.1/7.2 upgrade you also run the risk of getting your MySQL version upgraded too to 5.7.x which may need some strict setting to be switched off like zero date.

With new database I meant the one I create within we hosting.

Also, can someone please let me know about the php7.1 or php7.2 usage?