Hello Rose.

Passthru is used to execute command line for linux and windows. Yes, it is mandatory requirement because videos need this php passthru to be enabled.

Can you consult with your webhosting provider to enable passthru function?

Hope this help

Just for information in regards of hosting providers it is quite rare that user can activate or desactivate Php passthru.
You will need to make the demand systematically to your webhosting provider in order to enable it.

Yes, that is correct. Most hosting provider doesn't allow you to override this behavior.

the question then becomes... why is stackideas requiring settings that the user has little control over? I am finding issues with the entire videos system because of this.

I am really sorry for the delay of this reply as it is a weekend for us here. In order for php script to invoke ffmpeg, it needs to run a system command. Without ffmpeg, there is no way to compress uploaded videos or even generate thumbnails.

"passthru" allows php scripts to execute system commands such as "ffmpeg".

ffmpeg is another issue. Why are these being implemented? are there workarounds? Can videos simply be linked like they usually are, or are we forced to upload/encode/store?

Hi Kane,

I am really sorry for the delay of this reply as it weekends for all of us here.

FFMpeg are widely use for video encoding and support most of the video extension. The main feature for this is it will allow EasySocial to encode the video with a standard format of .mp4 . This is a good feature if you want to upload a video that are recorded from your phone or camcorder directly to EasySocial without utilizing any 3rd party video hosting like youtube.

If the video are simply uploaded without any encoder to standardize the video format, other user on your site will having issue to play the video on their browser due to possibility of unsupported format of the video extension.

On the other hand, you can use the legacy method where you can upload the video to youtube and use the link to automatically embed the video in EasySocial.

Hope these can clarify the issue that you have here.

i am also trying to upgrade and get the message "enable PHP Passthru" what shall i do?

Hey Creative,

If you do not rely or use video uploads, you could ignore that and proceed with the installation This is just a warning that video uploads would not work if php passthru has been disabled (In case users post a support thread on our forums about not being able to upload videos)

I am also getting it and the hosting company refuses to enable it due to security risk.
Too bad you need this when it is pretty much impossible to enable it.

Hey Daniel,

The reason why it needed this php function passthru is because when you upload the video in your site, the system need to executes the FFMpeg command to encoding the video so that all the video which you uploaded in your site, it will playable on all the different browser.

If you do not use this upload video feature in Easysocial, you can turn off this php function passthru from your server.