Molly, starting with oxwall 1.8.3 you must have php 5.5 minimum, upgrade your php to 5.5 and should be ok.  Also check the version using phpinfo() only.  If you dont have the option to do this on your panel then contact your host... WOW! PHP 5.3 really... that is sooo old, what version of oxwall were you running before the update?

Hi Dave,

I was actually running 1.8.3, and I'm quite sure that the PHP version was correct at some point since it's been working fine for the past month, which is how long I've had it. 

I've upgraded to 5.6 today and will attempt the upgrade again in about an hour or so. It's strange, in my cPanel it still says 5.3, but in version manager it's 5.6. We'll let's see how it goes this time!

Thats why we say always check it with phpinfo()   do you know how to use phpinfo() if not ill help you

No, I don't know, I'm quite a noob when it comes to PHP. I'll take all the help I can get!

Now I get an internal 500 error instead..

first the 500, check your error log in ow_log and see if anything is in there, if there is a bunch of stuff then just right click select all delete and save it, then refresh your site and then check it again and let me know if anything is in there. 

now for the phpinfo... 

using the filemanage or the legacy file manger if your using cpanel, create a file in your public_html  and name it something youll remember .php   for example 

checkthisinfo.php   (pick another name)  you dont want people watching this post to look at your phpinfo. 

once you have the file created  whatever.php  then edit it and inside the file put this 

<?php 

phpinfo(); 

then save it, then run that file in your browser,  www.example.com/whatever.php

and look at the php version under Core (its alphabetical)  

if your oxwall is public_html then youll  have to do it differently 

I deleted the bunch of stuff, tried again, got the internal 500 again and the error log is empty now. 

I have the installation on a subdomain, I tried to put the file in both the subdomain and the public_html, but I get this error:

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected 'phpinfo' (T_STRING) in /home/highsoc2/public_html/xxxxx.php on line 3

I guess I'm doing something wrong here..

Tried to put the closer in the code too, ?>, same error. 

When trying to put them in a single line, as such: <?php phpinfo(); ?> I get a different error. (This one I created in the subdomain folder)

Fatal error: Call to undefined function php phpinfo() in xxxx on line 1

no the code is 

<?php

phpinfo(); 

not 

?>

and if your oxwall is in a sub domain then thats good put the file in the public html,  the reason is that oxwall does not like files it does not know and usually kicks an error unless you add the new file to the htaccess so yes put it in the public html and it will work 

you dont need the closing tag for php if everything in a php file is php.. so you dont need 

?>  

I got the code working, and the version is 5.6.7.

ok thanks, remember to delete the file you dont want someone sniffing your dir and looking at that data  

or if you want to keep it then just give it a permission that no one can access like 600, then you can change it back when you want to use it next time. up to you 

let me do some looking here and see what i can find 

https://developers.oxwall.com/forum/topic/4448?page=1

also here is an info page from another site, it will give you some insights as to what is happening (or not happening) 

https://www.keycdn.com/support/504-gateway-timeout/

I've seen that one, and I'm on a Cloud VPS with good internet. But I'm guessing it's a problem for my host, I've contacted them to see what they can do about it.

Yeah it can effect you on a vps too, all a vps is in very simple terms is a partition of a dedi (dedicated) server, they just set it up as a segment is all, and there can be tons of vps's on one ded server so you can still get lag time if something is running on the mainserver which effects all vps's on that server. 

Hi again Dave,

I fixed some stuff and now I get this error: 

Fatal error: Class 'Smarty' not found in xxxx on line 35.

It looks like this in the file:

class OW_Smarty extends Smarty{*this is line 35
    public function __construct()    {        parent::__construct();

Do you know anything about this?