PHP 7.0.0 on EasyPHP DevServer 14.1 VC11

While waiting for EasyPHP DevServer release v15.10 with bundled PHP 7, I went to install the latest PHP on my machine running v14.1 VC 11. And that was quick and easy. You can do it by following the 8 easy steps below.

Step 1: Download PHP 7.0.0

First, you need a PHP package. You can get it from https://windows.php.net/download/ (or simply click here to download the v7.0.0 VC14 x86 Thread Safe package).

Step 2: Create a PHP7 directory for EasyPHP

Open in your favourite file explorer (I prefer Total Commander, but you can use Windows Explorer too) directory C:\Program Files (x86)\EasyPHP-DevServer-14.1VC11\binaries\php\ and create a new subdirectory php700x151203113333.

Step 3: Unzip the PHP7 package

Now unpack the content of the PHP package php-7.0.0-Win32-VC14-x86.zip to just created directory C:\Program Files (x86)\EasyPHP-DevServer-14.1VC11\binaries\php\php700x151203113333\

Step 4: Create an EasyPHP description file for PHP7

Create a new file with the name easyphp.php inside directory C:\Program Files (x86)\EasyPHP-DevServer-14.1VC11\binaries\php\php700x151203113333\ and add following content to it:

<?php
$phpversion = array();
$phpversion = array(
	"status"	=> "0",
	"dirname"	=> "php700x151203113333",
	"name" 		=> "PHP",
	"version"	=> "7.0.0",
	"date" 		=> "2015-12-03 11:33:33",
	"notes" 	=> "",
);
?>

Step 5: Run EasyPHP

Now start EasyPHP on your machine, visit the PHP Change Version page in your browser http://127.0.0.1/home/index.php?page=php-page&display=changephpversion and select/activate PHP 7.0.0.

IMPORTANT!

When you activate PHP 7.0.0 in EasyPHP, path of PHP files has been changed from

C:\Program Files (x86)\EasyPHP-DevServer-14.1VC11\binaries\php\php700x151203113333\

to

C:\Program Files (x86)\EasyPHP-DevServer-14.1VC11\binaries\php\php_runningversion\

Step 6: Update CURL and SSL libraries

You’ll get two error alerts like

the ordinal 387 could not be located in the dynamic link library php_curl.dll

which means you need to update two DLL’s in the Apache2 directory.

Copy files libeay32.dll and ssleay32.dll from C:\Program Files (x86)\EasyPHP-DevServer-14.1VC11\binaries\php\php_runningversion\ to C:\Program Files (x86)\EasyPHP-DevServer-14.1VC11\binaries\apache\bin\

Step 7: Add PHP7 to the Apache2 config

Edit file C:\Program Files (x86)\EasyPHP-DevServer-14.1VC11\binaries\apache\conf\httpd.conf and comment out line for PHP5:

#LoadModule php5_module "C:/PROGRA~2/EASYPH~1.1VC/binaries/php/php_runningversion/php5apache2_4.dll"

and add a new line for PHP7

LoadModule php7_module "C:/PROGRA~2/EASYPH~1.1VC/binaries/php/php_runningversion/php7apache2_4.dll"

Step 8: Restart EasyPHP

The last step is to restart EasyPHP.

After this, you’ll have PHP 7.0.0 on EasyPHP DevServer 14.1 VC11.