PHP5 for OpenVMS

[Simon L Jackson]

We have various PHP5 applications which are then back ported to PHP4 for use on OpenVMS. However, this is becoming increasing difficult and it would be much better to have PHP5 available for use with SWS.

Has anyone ported or is porting PHP5 to OpenVMS or does anyone know of such a port or any efforts in that direction.

[Jeremy Begg]

Hi Simon,

There was some discussion on this topic in the Info-WASD mailing list earlier this year.

* in February there was news that HP were intending to bring out PHP5 for OpenVMS "toward the end of this year".

* in May, Willem Grooters accosted HP about this at the Bootcamp in Nashua. He reported that "without guarantee: a PHP 5.1 release has been announced for the end of this year (that is: 2008)."

I suggest you discuss this with your nearest OpenVMS Ambassador. Customer pressure *does* bring results!

Regards,
Jeremy Begg

[Simon L Jackson]

Hi Jeremy,

Thanks for that update.

I have now also found a comment from Jim Lanciani indicating a similar time frame. This is related to http://www.woertman.com/VMSTUD2007/Open_Source_&ebiz%20update%20tud2007.ppt

I'm not sure if any of the people mentioned so far could provide an indication of whether this release is likely soon.

I also note PHP 5.1, whereas 5.2 would be better at this stage, as 5.2 has now been out for more than 2 years and thats what we are using on Tru64 Unix and Linux.

Cheers

[Robert Atkinson]

Simon, I also spoke to some of the managers in charge of porting PHP 5 to VMS, and got similar answers.

I guess we have to give it until next year, but after that I suggest we use the Info-WASD list users and VMS ITRC to start pushing again.

Rob.

[RF Thomas]

We too are running into a large number of applications that require PHP 5.1 and later. Aside from all of the obvious and traditional benefits of the OpenVMS platform, the lack of software to effectively support VAMP applications is forcing our customers to ask for non-VMS solutions.

HP could increase the demand and viability of OpenVMS and the platforms is runs on by creating/supporting more current ports of the VAMP stack.

[Ian Miller.]

You should send some feedback to HP via the form on the HP OpenVMS web site

"Please use the following form to submit product or business questions or comments about HP OpenVMS. "

http://h71000.www7.hp.com/fb_business.html

[labadie_1]

May be HP should open the PHP code for VMS, and let the VMS community port it. I am convinced some people would have a close look, port it and fix the bugs.

Just my 2 cents.

[Craig A Berry]

labadie,

The sources have always open. You can get them here:

http://h71000.www7.hp.com/openvms/products/ips/apache/csws_source.html

Whether the VMS-specific changes to PHP 4.x are at all relevant/applicable to PHP 5.x is a different question.

[Simon L Jackson]

Note that PHP 5.2.6 has now been released for OpenVMS - see http://h71000.www7.hp.com/openvms/products/ips/apache/csws_php_200_relnotes.html
- however, the source kit doesn't yet seem to have this version, so we can't build extensions yet.

[Kris Clippeleyr]

Simon,


however, the source kit doesn't yet seem to have this version, so we can't build extensions yet.

Correct.
We too need the sources, and have filed a case with HP. They're now searching the source kit for us.

Regards,
Kris (aka Qkcl)

[Robert Atkinson]

The latest HP release of PHP 5 does have a number of 'features', so make sure you thoroughly test it before letting it near your Production systems.

Rob.

[Simon L Jackson]

HP have just released CSWS_PHP 2.1 at http://h71000.www7.hp.com/openvms/products/ips/apache/csws_php.html for which they have also released the sources at http://h71000.www7.hp.com/openvms/products/ips/apache/csws_php_source.html

Now to build PHP_SOAP...

[Robert Atkinson]

Top release notes, I see :-

"New features included in CSWS_PHP V2.1 are as follows:

· CSWS_PHP V2.1 provides improved performance, enhanced GD extension, and enhanced session extension. It works with the HP Secure Web Server Version 1.3-1 and 2.1 and higher. It does not work with SWS Version 2.0."

[Simon L Jackson]

Yes.

I couldn't actually discern what has changes since 2.0 back in May other than the source now being available, which is not even mentioned in the highlights.

I have unpacked the sources and php_soap is present, so I am hopeful at this stage that it might be possible to build it. I wish HP would start adding some more modules now they have built PHP5.

My wish list includes:

php_soap
http (pecl)
ps (pecl)

Any other requests out there?

[RF Thomas]

We have been using PHP 2.1 since its release was posted on this thread. The only problem that has come up involved some in-house code the needed to have the file locations in opns changed due to a change in (correction of???) the file name parsing.

The new version has allowed us to install and test several software packages that either needed heavy patching or would not run at all under the prior version.

The MySQL support is vastly improved allowing fuller use of MySQL 5.1

A problem area involves the implementation of the PHP email functions. Many of the packages that we have installed can not properly interface with the SMTP and VMS Mail systems.

[Robert Atkinson]

Personally, I'd like to see more VMS integration.

Ability to read VMS files by index would be great. Integration with some of the main lexical functions, especially management of queues and UAF.

I could probably give a 50 page list!!

[Simon L Jackson]

Re sending emails.

We have found on OpenVMS and other platforms (including Linux and Tru64) that the PEAR Mail packages are better than the inbuilt API. As PEAR doesn't seem to be part of CSWS_PHP 2.1 (must add that to the list) I tend to PEAR install stuff on a Linux or Tru64 machine and just copy the appropriate scripts onto OpenVMS. This approach worked under PHP4 and I will be testing it shortly under PHP5.

[Simon L Jackson]

We have also built some of the missing pieces.

See http://www.sysworks.biz/swpub_php.php for some details.

Please note that we had to extend PHPSHR by adding vectors for the additional shareable images to use. The HTTP and SOAP extensions seem to work well with web services written in PHP and Ruby on Linux. If anyone needs more information or is interested in other extensions, please don't hesitate to contact me.