Community initiative: Drupal 7 contrib on PHP 8.0

Problem/Motivation

PHP 7.0 lost security support in January 2019, PHP 7.1 lost security support in December 2019 and PHP 7.2 lost security support in December 2020. PHP 7.3 still has security support until December 2021 and PHP 7.4 until November 28th, 2022.

When a version of PHP looses security support it becomes a potential vector for security attacks against the site. Similar to keeping the codebase running with the latest releases of core and each module, efforts should be taken to update the OS and all server software with the latest releases, including PHP.

Drupal 7 will have official support through November 2022.

Proposed resolution

Create a community initiative to upgrade Drupal 7 contrib modules and themes to be compatible with PHP 8. Have a standard issue (title, summary, tags) that are posted to projects that need PHP 8 fixes. Send a message to maintainers of all D7 contrib projects asking them to make their projects compatible with PHP 8.

Remaining tasks

Determine a standard issue summary and tags to use for projects which need a compatibility fix.
Write a script to test contrib modules & themes for PHP 8 compatibility and post issues in the respective queue to report the problems.
Send a message to all maintainers of Drupal 7 projects promoting the initiative, asking them to put in a small amount of work to release a PHP 8 -compatible version of their project, or add a comaintainer who could do so.