title: Joomla: Problems when migrating from PHP 5.2 to 5.3
body: <p>My hoster will stop supporting PHP 5.2 in a few weeks, which is why I have to switch to PHP 5.3. I'm using Joomla 2.5 to manage the content of a site. In the backend of the hoster, I switched to the new PHP version with the click of a button, but that made the site crash with the error below.</p>
  
  <p>Apparently, my code is not ready for PHP 5.3. How can I update the joomla code to the new PHP? Or should joomla handle the new PHP version without a problem and something I added actually causes the error? The only code that is from me is the template that loads a custom design.</p>
  
  <p>I'm kind of stuck here and don't really see the connection between joomla, PHP and also how the hoster backend new that I was using an old PHP. Any suggestions whould be appreciated....</p>
  
  <hr>
  
  <p>The error. Note: this is copied from another site, I loaded a backup to fix the error on my site, but apart from the paths it was exactly the same:</p>
  
  <pre><code>jos-Error: Application Instantiation Error
  
  JFactory :: getApplication() @ /home/parolevo/public_html/tiptopart/index.php:28
  JApplication :: getInstance() @ /home/parolevo/public_html/tiptopart/libraries/joomla/factory.php:102
  JSite -&gt; __construct() @ /home/parolevo/public_html/tiptopart/libraries/joomla/application/application.php:208
  JApplication -&gt; __construct() @ /home/parolevo/public_html/tiptopart/includes/application.php:48
  JApplication -&gt; _createSession() @ /home/parolevo/public_html/tiptopart/libraries/joomla/application/application.php:173
  JFactory :: getSession() @ /home/parolevo/public_html/tiptopart/libraries/joomla/application/application.php:1046
  JFactory :: createSession() @ /home/parolevo/public_html/tiptopart/libraries/joomla/factory.php:152
  JSession :: getInstance() @ /home/parolevo/public_html/tiptopart/libraries/joomla/factory.php:661
  JSession -&gt; __construct() @ /home/parolevo/public_html/tiptopart/libraries/joomla/session/session.php:155
  JSession -&gt; _start() @ /home/parolevo/public_html/tiptopart/libraries/joomla/session/session.php:118
  session_start() @ /home/parolevo/public_html/tiptopart/libraries/joomla/session/session.php:492
  JSessionStorageDatabase -&gt; read()
  JFactory :: getDbo() @ /home/parolevo/public_html/tiptopart/libraries/joomla/session/storage/database.php:67
  JFactory :: createDbo() @ /home/parolevo/public_html/tiptopart/libraries/joomla/factory.php:308
  JError :: raiseError() @ /home/parolevo/public_html/tiptopart/libraries/joomla/factory.php:723
  JError :: raise() @ /home/parolevo/public_html/tiptopart/libraries/joomla/error/error.php:251
  JError :: throwError() @ /home/parolevo/public_html/tiptopart/libraries/joomla/error/error.php:176
  call_user_func_array() @ /home/parolevo/public_html/tiptopart/libraries/joomla/error/error.php:214
  JError :: handleMessage()
  JFactory :: getApplication() @ /home/parolevo/public_html/tiptopart/libraries/joomla/error/error.php:705
  JError :: raiseError() @ /home/parolevo/public_html/tiptopart/libraries/joomla/factory.php:99
  JError :: raise() @ /home/parolevo/public_html/tiptopart/libraries/joomla/error/error.php:251
  </code></pre>