Front end version 3.10.12 broken. Can´t upgrade Topic is solved

[rmari]

I do not know what happened. My 3.10.12 front end is broken. Administration back end is working.

Front end screen shows
Error: 0 - Call to undefined function str_starts_with()

https://nonamari.com/

If I change the php verion from 7.4 to 8.1 nothing shows in the front end, and the back end has lots of error messages.

thank you for any kind of assistance.

[rmari]

If I try to upgrade to version 4.4 I get an AJAX error message and it stops at 96%

[toivo]

Did you install some new third party extension recently, before the error was displayed in PHP 7.4? Joomla 3.10 does not use the native PHP function str-starts-with(), which was introduced into PHP in PHP 8.

Joomla 3.10 does not work in PHP 8.1 because the recommended version of PHP for Joomla 3.10 is PHP 8.0 and possibly also some third party extension may not support PHP 8. Change or get your host to change PHP back to PHP 8.0.

Go to the Global Configuration and turn on 'Debug System' to see where the errors occur. Post the messages and the PHP call stack here for advice.

Ref. PHP: str_starts_with()

[rmari]

I can quickly change the php version using .htaccess file. If I switch to 8.0 then my screen in the front end it blank and there is no way of seeing the call stack.
Some things work like akeeba backup in the back end under php 8 but if I try to go to articles, global config, etc. my screen is blank and there is no debug info...

No, I did not install anything on this site for the past 4 years. Perhaps something got auto updated incorrectly but I dont know what

[toivo]

If I switch to 8.0 then my screen in the front end it blank and there is no way of seeing the call stack.

There is. A blank screen indicates that a PHP fatal error has occurred. Turning 'Debug System' on in Global Configuration with 'Error Reporting' set to 'Maximum' displays an error message with the name of the script and the line number where the error occurs, followed by the PHP call stack, a list of scripts and function calls that led to the error.

if I try to go to articles, global config, etc. my screen is blank and there is no debug info

Was System Debug turned on? This sounds like a PHP fatal error occurs in a content plugin that is not compatible with PHP 8.

This situation is not unusual, if a website has not been maintained for several years when the host changes PHP to PHP 8, released in late 2020. If some content plugins were installed a couple of years before PHP 8 was released, they can't have been tested in PHP 8 and often fail.

Please post the results from the Forum Post Assistant (FPA) by following the instructions at https://forumpostassistant.github.io/docs/ so that our volunteer Joomla experts can review the configuration and advise.

[rmari]

We can close this issue. Watchful automatically updated the JCE module and now the website works... Thanks for your help.

[toivo]

Good to hear! Thank you for the update.