I've just noticed (from running a script locally using XAMPP), that a function in a PHP mail script I developed last year has now been deprecated in the latest version of PHP.

I have several clients using that script so it's quite concerning. Currently it appears that they're not running the latest version of PHP so it works okay.

I'm guessing the only solution would be to email each one of them and let them know that I need access to their FTP accounts to update the script?

Is there anything you can do to avoid these situations in future?? What if I had hundreds of clients using this one script? Things would be a lot worse that's for sure.

The same goes for CMS and ecommerce software, I know a lot of companies out there have hundreds of clients running the same software... it must be a nightmare for them when functions are deprecated and they have to update each one seprarately!

You may be offering a higher level of service than most script writers. I suspect most would just correct the script and make a zipped download available with install instructions.

Unless your clients are complete newbs you might try that and include the alternate offer to do it for them if they can't handle it. Surely it does not involve more that ftping a few files to the server.

Very nice of you to care.

Is the function just deprecated or removed?

Does the script "break" on later versions of PHP?

Do you have a maintenance contract or agreement with the clients?

How are you going to sell them upgrades if you will happily (apparently) fix it for nowt?

Systems such as Joomla, Wordpress etc have upgrade capabilities built in, and cPanel or Fantastico and can be set to do "push" upgrades on a schedule.

Thanks for the advice. I assumed it would be up to me to make sure their websites never encounter any problems for some reason!

For some of the clients I never had a contract, although for the price they paid (I was just portfolio building at the time) they can't exactly expect me to constantly check their sites for no additional cost. Having said that, I did tell them to check their contact form every now and then.

Unless that was agreed before I started a project for a client then I certainly would not be checking and updating the scripts without a charge for my services.

Does anybody warn their clients beforehand that upgrades to their hosting plan may stop their website from working properly?

If they were to find out that their contact form had been broken for a couple of months then I shouldn't think they'd be very happy! I wouldn't blame them either. If they paid for a working website, why would they expect it to suddenly break?