NAME
PHP - embedded PHP interpreter
DESCRIPTION
The module makes it possible to execute PHP code, call PHP functions and methods, manipulate PHP arrays, and create PHP objects.
SYNOPSIS
use PHP;
General use
# evaluate arbitrary PHP code; exception is thrown
# and can be caught via standard eval{}/$@ block
PHP::eval(<<EVAL);
function print_val(\$arr,\$val) {
echo \$arr[\$val];
}
class TestClass {
function TestClass ( $param ) {}
function method(\$val) { return \$val + 1; }
};
EVAL
# catch output of PHP code
PHP::options( stdout => sub {
print "PHP says: $_[0]\n";
});
PHP::eval('echo 42;');
Arrays, high level
# create a php array
my $array = PHP::array;
# access pseudo-hash content
$array-> [1] = 42;
$array-> {string} = 43;
# pass arrays to function
# Note - function name is not known by perl in advance, and
# is called via AUTOLOAD
PHP::print_val($array, 1);
PHP::print_val($array, 'string');
Arrays, low level
# create a php array handle
my $array = PHP::ArrayHandle-> new();
# tie it either to an array or a hash
my ( @array, %hash);
$array-> tie(\%hash);
$array-> tie(\@array);
# access array content
$array[1] = 42;
$hash{2} = 43;
Objects and properties
my $TestClass = PHP::Object-> new('TestClass');
print $TestClass-> method(42), "\n";
$TestClass-> tie(\%hash);
# set a property
$hash{new_prop} = 'string';
API
eval $CODE
Feeds embedded PHP interpreter with $CODE, throws an exception on
failure.
call FUNCTION ...
Calls PHP function with list of parameters. Returns exactly one
value.
include, include_once, require, require_once
Shortcuts to the identical PHP constructs.
array [ $REFERENCE ]
Returns a handle to a newly created "PHP::Array" object, which can
be accessed both as array and hash reference:
$_ = PHP::array;
$_->[42] = 'hello';
$_->{world} = '!';
If $REFERENCE is a "PHP::ArrayHandle" instance, then the newly
created object is a pheudo-hash alias to the PHP array behind the
$REFERENCE. If no $REFERENCE is given, a new PHP array is created.
PHP::Object->new($class_name, @parameters)
Instantiates a PHP object of PHP class $class_name and returns a
handle to it. The methods of the class can be called directly via
the handle:
my $obj = PHP::Object-> new( 'MyClass', @params_to_constructor);
$object-> method( @some_params);
The relevant class constructor is called, if available, according to
PHP specification, that is different between v4 and v5. The v4
constructor has identical name with the class name; the v5
constructor can also be named "__construct".
PHP::Entity->tie($array_handle, $tie_to)
Ties existing handle to a PHP entity to either a perl hash or a perl
array. The tied hash or array can be used to access PHP pseudo_hash
values indexed either by string or integer value.
The PHP entity can be either an array, represented by
"PHP::ArrayHandle", or an object, represented by "PHP::Object". In
the latter case, the object properties are represented as hash/array
values.
PHP::Entity->link($original, $link)
Records a reference to an arbitrary perl scalar $link as an alias to
$original "PHP::Entity" object. This is used internally by
"PHP::TieHash" and "PHP::TieArray", but might be also used for other
purposes.
PHP::Entity::unlink($link)
Removes association between a "PHP::Entity" object and $link.
PHP::Array->tie($self, $tie_to)
Same as PHP::Entity->tie, but operates on "PHP::Array" objects.
PHP::Array->handle
Returns PHP array handle, a "PHP::ArrayHandle" object.
PHP::options
Contains set of internal options. If called without parameters,
returns the names of the options. If called with a single parameter,
return the associated value. If called with two parameters, replaces
the associated value.
debug $integer
If set, loads of debugging information are dumped to stderr
Default: 0
stdout/stderr $callback
"stdout" and "stderr" options define callbacks that are called
when PHP decides to print something or complain, respectively.
Default: undef
version
Read-only option; returns the version of PHP library compiled
with .
DEBUGGING
Environment variable "P5PHPDEBUG", if set to 1, turns the debug mode on. The same effect can be achieved programmatically by calling
PHP::options( debug => 1);
INSTALLATION
The module uses php-embed SAPI extension to inter-operate with PHP interpreter. That means php must be configured with '--enable-embed' parameters prior to using the module. Also, no '--with-apxs' must be present in to configuration agruments either, otherwise the PHP library will be linked with Apache functions, and will be unusable from the command line.
The "sub dl_load_flags { 0x01 }" code in PHP.pm is required for PHP to load correctly its extensions. If your platform does RTLD_GLOBAL by default and croaks upon this line, it is safe to remove the line.
WHY?
While I do agree that in general it is absolutely pointless to use PHP functionality from within Perl, scenarios where one must connect an existing PHP codebase to something else, are not something unusual. Also, this module might be handy for people who know PHP but are afraid of switching to Perl, or want to reuse their old PHP code.
Currently, not all of PHP functionality is implemented, but OTOH I don't really expect this module to grow that big, because I believe it is easier to call "PHP::eval" rather than implement all the subtleties of Zend API. There are no callbacks to Perl from PHP code, and I don't think these are needed, because one thing is to be lazy and not to rewrite PHP code, and another is to make new code in PHP that uses Perl when PHP is not enough. As I see it, the latter would kill all incentive to switch to Perl, so I'd rather leave callbacks unimplemented.
SEE ALSO
Using Perl code from PHP:
<http://www.zend.com/php5/articles/php5-perl.php>
COPYRIGHT
This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.
AUTHOR
Dmitry Karasik <dmitry@karasik.eu.org>