Why PHP on IBM i

1. Why PHP on IBM i Why, where and how you can and should use PHP on IBM i

2. Who is Jeff Olen and why should we listen to him? • IBM i developer for 20+ years • Vice-President and Co-founder of Olen Business Consulting, Inc. • Author of “IBM i Programmers Guide to PHP”

3. PHP on IBM i - History • As of V5R2 (approx. 2003), IBM i developers have had the ability to compile and run PHP and MySQL in the PASE environment. • April 2006 – IBM selects Zend to bring PHP to the IBM i and announces that it will port PHP development tools (Core, Platform and Framework) to IBM i. • February 2009 – New IBM i shipments come preloaded with Zend Core PHP.

4. Why PHP on IBM i? • Easy to make the transition from RPG to PHP. • Do not need to know object-oriented techniques. • Most popular web development language. • Huge open source community with vast amount of sample code and documentation. • Affordability (Did we mention that Zend Core and Zend Studio for i5/OS are free?) • Extensions for most common applications. • Many more…

5. Zend Core for i5/OS Allows PHP applications to access: • DB2 using RPG-like database access functions • Native RPG, Cobol, C and CL program calls • Native commands • Spool files • Data areas • User spaces • System values • Data queues • Message queues • Job Logs

6. Value-Add for IBM i • By running PHP applications on the IBM i you gain the security, stability and reliability that the IBM i is known for. • Quickly and easily implement new applications. • Open Source applications • Existing sample code • Leverage existing business logic. For example RPG & Cobol programs. • Cost effective web solution (did we mention its free?) • Does not add overhead like some other solutions.

7. Access IBM i DB2 tables with PHP • IBM DB2 functions • Completely system independent • Zend Toolkit Class library – Native File access i5_xxxx • Provides ready access to IBM i DB2 tables • Eases transition from RPG to PHP • MySQL IBMDB2i storage engine • Allows for quickly porting open source applications to DB2 database. • Provides an easy way to prototype IBM i PHP applications without access to an IBM i.

8. How to start • Install Zend Core and/or Zend Platform on your IBM i (Check, it might already be there.) • Start the Zend Core Subsystem and Apache Servers. • Install Zend Studio (or another IDE) on a Windows client. • Get on the internet and download some open source examples and/or simple applications. • Save the sample code in the htdocs directory on your IBM i. • Open a browser and enter the URL. • That’s it!

9. Questions?

10. IBM i DB2 sample <?php // Set the database name. // This is an IBM i System table (it exists on all IBM i machines) $tableName = 'SYSTABLES'; $libName = 'QSYS2'; // create the connection to the IBM i relational database if (!$dbh = db2_connect(“localhost",“jolen",“pass123")) { echo "connection failed.<br>"; echo db2_conn_errormsg() . "<br>"; die(); } // Retrieve a resultset of the column info for the specified table if (!$cols = db2_columns( $dbh, null, $libName, $tableName, '%' )) { echo "columns retrieval failed.<br>"; echo db2_stmt_errormsg() . "<br>"; die(); } // output the Library and name of the table $column = db2_fetch_assoc($cols); echo "Table: "; echo $column["TABLE_SCHEM"]."/".$column["TABLE_NAME"]."<br>"; // output all the column names do { echo $column["COLUMN_NAME"]."<br>"; } while ($column = db2_fetch_assoc($cols)); db2_close($dbh); ?>

11. IBM i DB2 sample output

12. IBM DB2 Function sample Source name: displayColumns.php <?php function displayColumns( $libraryName, $tableName ) { if (!isset($dbh)) { $dbh = db2_connect("localhost", "jolen", "pass123"); if (!$dbh) { echo "connection failed.<br>"; echo db2_conn_errormsg() . "<br>"; die(); } } // retrieve a result set with the column info for the // file specified at the top of the script. if (!$cols = db2_columns( $dbh, null, $libraryName, $tableName, '%' )) { echo "columns retrieval failed.<br>"; echo db2_stmt_errormsg() . "<br>"; die(); } // Fetch the first row and output the file name and library name from the result set. $column = db2_fetch_assoc($cols); echo "Table: "; echo $column["TABLE_SCHEM"]."/".$column["TABLE_NAME"]."<br>"; // loop thru all the result set rows and list all the column names. do { echo $column["COLUMN_NAME"]."<br>"; } while ($column = db2_fetch_assoc($cols)); }

13. IBM DB2 Function sample <?php require_once(‘displayColumns.php'); displayColumns( 'QSYS2', 'SYSTABLES' ); echo "<br><br>"; displayColumns( 'QSYS2', 'SYSROUTINES' ); ?>

14. IBM DB2 Class example Source name: fileinfo.class.php <?php class tableInfo { var $columns; var $table; var $library; var $dbh; function __construct( $libraryName, $tableName ) { if (!isset($this->dbh)) { $this->dbh = db2_connect("localhost", "jolen", "pass123"); if (!$this->dbh) { echo "connection failed.<br>"; echo db2_conn_errormsg() . "<br>"; die(); } } $this->library = $libraryName; $this->table = $tableName; }

15. IBM DB2 Class example Continued // retrieve a result set with the column info for the file specified at the top of the script. function retrieveColumnInfo() { if (!$this->columns = db2_columns( $this->dbh, null, $this->library, $this->table, '%' )) { echo "columns retrieval failed.<br>"; echo db2_stmt_errormsg() . "<br>"; die(); } } // end of function // retrieve a result set with the column info for the file specified at the top of the script. function displayColumnInfo () { echo "Table: "; echo $this->library."/".$this->table."<br>"; $firstpass = TRUE; while ($column = db2_fetch_assoc($this->columns)) { if ($firstpass) { $firstpass = FALSE; echo "<table border=1><tr>"; foreach ($column as $key => $value) { echo "<th>".$key."</th>"; } echo "</tr>"; } echo "<tr>"; foreach ($column as $value) { echo "<td>".$value."</td>"; } echo "</tr>"; } echo "</table>"; } // end of function } // end of class code

16. IBM DB2 Class example <?php require_once(‘fileinfo.class.php'); $sysTables = new tableInfo('QSYS2','SYSTABLES'); $sysRoutines = new tableInfo('QSYS2','SYSROUTINES'); $sysRoutines->retrieveColumnInfo(); $sysRoutines->displayColumnInfo(); $sysTables->retrieveColumnInfo(); $sysTables->displayColumnInfo(); ?>

17. Questions?

18. Important Links IBMDB2i storage engine install and docs: http://solutions.mysql.com/engines/ibm_db2_storage_engine.html IBM Redbook on IBMDB2i: http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/sg247705.html?Open PHP Extensions http://pecl.php.net IBMDB2 documentation http://www.php.net/ibm_db2 Subversion source control http://subversion.tigris.org Subclipse – subversion Eclipse Team Provider plug-in (works with RDi/WDSc) http://subclipse.tigris.org

19. OPC – Other People’s Code Hotscripts.com – “The nets largest script collection portal” phpClasses.org – PHP classes repository SourceForge.net – Find and develop open-source software

20. Next steps • Training • Zend training classes • Olen Business Consulting, Inc. training (insert shameless sales pitch here) • Personalized training on-site • Source control/Version control • Subversion can be installed on IBM i • Subclipse plug-in works with WDSc/RDi • Database abstraction • DAO, VO and PDO • OO Classes • Object-oriented coding • Not necessary to begin using PHP • You will rapidly see the advantages once you get comfortable with PHP • Zend Framework and Zend Platform • Certification

21. Questions?