Install XML RPC for PHP 7.2 on Ubuntu Linux

Posted on | by Jason Snelders

Background

One of the components in a web application solution we’re developing uses xmlrpc_encode_request() in PHP.

It was executing fine in most of our systems systems – development and multiple test servers – but while trying to run it for the first time in my development environment I received the following error:

Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Call to undefined function xmlrpc_encode_request()

So off to Google I go and, find a few answers, have a couple of mis-starts, then finally get it working.

 

Solution

The solution was very simple.

  1. Install the xmlrpc extension. 
    sudo apt-get install php-xmlrpc
  2. Restart Apache web server 
    sudo service apache2 restart

As a sanity check, create a PHP file (e.g. info.php) and add the following:

<?php
echo 'XMLRPC is ', extension_loaded('xmlrpc') ? 'loaded' : 'not loaded';
?>

When you run the file it you should see “XMLRPC is loaded” if all is good.

If you’re still having trouble, try updating your php.ini file to include:

extension=xmlrpc.so;

and/or

extension=php_xmlrpc.so;

Unfortunately, if you still have trouble then I apologise and suggest hitting Google/Bing/DuckDuckGo/StackOverflow again and playing around with search terms that meet your specific Linux/OS/PHP versions.

 

More Background

I started with a search for “Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Call to undefined function xmlrpc_encode_request” then “lamp Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Call to undefined function xmlrpc_encode_request”, and had these results:

But they were aimed at PHP 5.x (by the way, if you’re still on PHP 5.x then update! It’s no longer supported and you’re now a security risk).

Then I refined my search to “apt-get php 7.2 xmlrpc” and had:

And I found the helpful suggestion for the info PHP file (you could also just run phpinfo(); in a file) at: