New in Rector 0.12 - The Latest PHP in a Single Import

This feature is available since Rector 0.12.

April 2022 update

Since Rector 0.12 a new RectorConfig is available with simpler and easier to use config methods.

The most used feature of Rector is to keep you updated with the latest PHP. PHP 8.1 was released almost a month ago, so many projects started to use Rector to upgrade to PHP 8.1. There is a new import in your rector.php with every new version.

Soon, your config is cluttered with a list of imports. How can we reduce this complexity to a single line? How can we handle your-favorite-framework upgrade in second?

How do you upgrade to PHP 8.1 in 2 steps?

Register new PHP 8.1 set in rector.php:

 use Rector\Set\ValueObject\SetList;
 use Rector\Config\RectorConfig;

 return function (RectorConfig $rectorConfig): void {
     $rectorConfig->import(SetList::PHP_55);
     $rectorConfig->import(SetList::PHP_56);
     $rectorConfig->import(SetList::PHP_70);
     $rectorConfig->import(SetList::PHP_71);
     $rectorConfig->import(SetList::PHP_73);
     $rectorConfig->import(SetList::PHP_74);
     $rectorConfig->import(SetList::PHP_80);
+    $rectorConfig->import(SetList::PHP_81);
};

And run Rector:

vendor/bin/rector

That's it! Yet, there is a code smell lurking.

Error-Prone Complexity

High complexity leads to a high error rate. What could go wrong with such a configuration?

  • we can accidentally skip one of the versions - what version do we miss? 7.2
  • we skip lower versions - the PHP 5.3 and 5.4 contain many valuable rules, but our code will still run the old syntax
  • the more versions we want to upgrade, the longer config gets

Config made Simple with Level Set

We wanted to lower complexity and remove these errors. That's why we add a new feature in Rector 0.12 - Level sets.


Now instead of gazillion lines with set imports, you can use just the single latest level:

use Rector\Set\ValueObject\LevelSetList;
use Rector\Config\RectorConfig;

return function (RectorConfig $rectorConfig): void {
    $rectorConfig->sets([
        LevelSetList::UP_TO_PHP_81,
    ]);
};

That's it! No more place for mistakes.

The LevelSetList also includes the PHP target version parameter to ensure all rules are applied.


Next time you'll need to upgrade PHP, you can change only 1 line:

 use Rector\Set\ValueObject\LevelSetList;
 use Rector\Config\RectorConfig;

 return function (RectorConfig $rectorConfig): void {
     $rectorConfig->sets([
-        LevelSetList::UP_TO_PHP_81,
+        LevelSetList::UP_TO_PHP_82,
     ]);
 };

There are also Rector\Set\ValueObject\DowngradeSetList configs that make sure you downgrade with ease too!


Happy coding!