Ibexa DXP v5: Upgrading a complex codebase from Symfony 5.4 to Symfony 7

This ensures that the developer community working on implementation projects can leverage the latest and greatest tools from the Symfony and PHP ecosystems. The major version upgrade from 4.x series allows us to take a leap forward on the technical front.

The upgrade

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The process of upgrading a large codebase that is used by thousands of developers is no simple feat.

It's a team effort that takes discipline and appropriate tooling. For Ibexa DXP version 5, our approach was structured roughly as follows:

1. Bump PHP version to 8.3
2. Resolve Ibexa DXP deprecations
3. Resolve Symfony 5.4 deprecations (including security layer)
4. Bump Symfony version to 6.4
5. Resolve Symfony 6.x deprecations
6. Bump Symfony version to 7.x

This approach allowed us to tackle removing deprecations layer by layer, eventually reaching the target. A successful technical upgrade from an older framework version up to the latest and greatest.

What it means for developers

It's important to understand that, for end users, this process in itself would not yield many (if any) changes.

But for developers it offers a lot of potential as it allows developers the latest APIs and conventions from the underlying framework. In addition to the pure technical upgrade process, there are new Ibexa specific APIs such as the ability to easily send notifications to content editors and marketers using Ibexa DXP.

Creating e-Commerce workflows with complex pricing and currency use cases is also simpler with the new envelope and stamping APIs added to Ibexa Commerce. There are many other quality of life improvements like this sprinkled in, but to find out more, watch the Session What’s new for Ibexa DXP developers in 2025 from Ibexa Summit 2025:

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Ultimately what we do here at Ibexa is create developer tools. Our DXP is the bedrock developers from our partners use to implement projects for our shared customers. The scope and breadth of these can range from content driven headless CMS implementations to international B2B online sales platforms with real time connectivity to enterprise back office tools such as ERPs and CRMs.

Longevity and stability

As a vendor for the platform, Ibexa needs to take into account the longevity and stability of our software releases over several years. This is why our releases have been fast-track and long-term support releases. This has enabled us to support specific releases for a longer time, while allowing us to innovate and ship new features with fast-track releases.

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The LTS structure has had the downside that people on the latest supported LTS release have not had access to the latest features. In October 2024, we announced a change to our upgrade processes. From LTS versions 4.6 forward, we retired the process of fast-track releases. New features are now shipped as LTS updates that can be installed to Ibexa DXP LTS.

To learn more about this read the full details: How Ibexa DXP's Lifecycle Enhances Feature Delivery

What this means for your projects

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The added benefit is not having to wait for a stable version of a new major release (like V5 is). This means you can release a project with Ibexa DXP V5 on release day and have access to the latest features easily up until the release of Ibexa DXP V6.

For projects on Ibexa DXP 4.6 to have access to the new upgrades, the project needs to be upgraded to version 5. Since the technical changes are significant, you should reserve ample time for the work and testing of the upgrade. Especially if you're doing heavy customization on the security layer such as a custom authentication integration.

In a nutshell

Ibexa DXP V5 is a solid step forward for projects that demand long-term stability and modern development tools. While the Symfony upgrade might not be noticeable for end users, the benefits for developers are significant, including access to the latest Symfony features and new APIs.

On September 10th at 2pm CET,  we'll be hosting a webinar on all of the updates to Ibexa DXP V5, be sure to register now: