Programming With PHP:

An Introduction for RPG Programmers

Jon Paris
Jon.Paris @ Partner400.com
www.Partner400.com
SystemiDeveloper.com Your Partner in IBM i Education
1

Notes
This presentation may contain small code examples that are furnished as simple examples to provide an
illustration. These examples have not been thoroughly tested under all conditions. We therefore, cannot
guarantee or imply reliability, serviceability, or function of these programs.
All code examples contained herein are provided to you "as is". THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY
DISCLAIMED.

The authors, Jon Paris and Susan Gantner, are co-founders of Partner400, a firm specializing in
customized education and mentoring services for AS/400 and iSeries developers. After individual careers
with IBM, including working at both the Rochester and Toronto laboratories, Jon and Susan are now
devoted to educating developers on techniques and technologies to extend and modernize their
applications and development environments.

Jon and Susan author regular technical articles for the IBM publication, IBM Systems Magazine, i5 edition,
and the companion electronic newsletter, iSeries Extra. You may view articles in current and past issues
and/or subscribe to the free newsletter at: http://IBMsystemsMag/iseries/.

Feel free to contact the authors at: contact @ partner400.com

or visit the Partner400 web site at http://www.partner400.com

2
 Agenda

What is PHP
And how it operates on IBM i
The Basics of the PHP language
PHP variables
Control Structures
Array Processing
Other Examples

Notes

While we can't even begin to cover the entire PHP language in a single session, we hope to give you a
taste of what the language brings to the table. Just enough to allow you to see just why PHP has quickly
become the language of choice for implementing web based solutions on IBM i. Hopefully it will encourage
you to study it further.

Far easier to learn than Java - and with a huge array of free education and software available - PHP is a
great fit for the RPG shop that needs to deploy applications to the web quickly.

Hopefully by the end of this session you will understand why!

To facilitate your further studies we highly recommend "The IBM i Programmer's Guide to PHP" by Jeff
Olen and Kevin Schroeder - published by MC Press. A lot of good basic PHP information and excellent
examples of the IBM i specific functions. Some of the IBM i examples in this handout are based on
examples from the book. And yes - they are used with permission from the authors.

4
What is PHP ?
A scripting language for developing Web applications
But can also be used stand-alone in command line mode
Originally PHP stood for "Personal Home Page"
Just like RPG, it has come a long way from its roots
PHP is now a recursive (or self-referential) acronym
i.e. the first "P" in PHP stands for PHP
The formal definition is - PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor.
At heart a procedural language
But V4 added OO capabilities
! Easier for an RPGer to learn than a pure OO language like Java
! Use as much or as little OO as you need

Features a huge array of built-in functions

Additional functions provided by PHP extensions

The Zend - IBM agreement

Multi-year contract to deliver PHP products for IBM i
In Feb '09 the agreement was extended for three more years
! See www.ibm.com/systems/i/software/php for details
PHP now comes preloaded on all V5R4, V6.1, and V7.1 systems
MySQL now included in Zend Server packaging
! It supports the IBM supplied MySQL DB2 Storage Engine
- It is a great way to share data with your native applications
The new Zend Server has now replaced Zend Core
Show significant performance boosts
And does away with the second Apache server - Hooray!!!
! See www.zend.com/en/products/server/zend-server-5-new-ibmi
Also supports batch processing for PHP scripts
Zend Studio
Eclipse based so familiar to WDSC/RDi users
Integrated IDE for building and debugging PHP applications
! Available free of charge to all i5/OS customers

6
PHP Operation on IBM i
PHP itself runs in the PASE environment
Communicates with the world via a native Apache server
! Set up for you during the install
! By default on port 10088
! That way it does not interfere with your regular HTTP server

IBM i Native Environment

Apache
HTTP
Server Zend Server
DB2
Access

Native
Functions PASE

Notes
When you install Zend Server a number of components are installed for you.
1) An Apache web server which is configured by default to accept requests on port 89 i.e. http://www.MyWebSite.com:89. This
default is chosen in order to avoid any conflict with any existing web server operating on the conventional port 80.
2) The Zend Server PHP engine which handles all PHP requests and interfaces with the IBM i operating system.
3) (Optional) MySQL - since this is the database of choice for most Open-Source PHP applications you are probably going to need it.
Not only that, but with the advent of the DB2 Storage engine, you will be able to process your MySQL data with your regular RPG
programs and vice versa.

Not only are the components installed, but the necessary configuration files are set up so that the resulting environment should "just
work". You can test the install by seeing if you can connect to the port 89 server (http://YourServerName:89), which should give you
access to the demo programs and the Zend configuration console.

8
A Simple PHP Script
<?php
$myName = "Jon Paris";
$location = "Mississauga, Ontario, Canada";
$experience = 40;
$languages = array("RPG IV", "PHP", "Java", "COBOL", "CL", "Basic");
echo "This script was written by $myName.<br>";
echo "He lives in $location and has been playing with computers for
over $experience years.<br>";
echo "Here are a few of the languages he has used so far in his
career:<br>";
foreach ($languages as $language) {
print "$language<br>";
}
echo "<br><br>Print_r output<br>";
print_r($languages);
echo "<br><br>Var_dump output<br>";
var_dump($languages);
?>

Browser Output From Script

10
Understanding the Script - Part 1
<?php
$myName = "Jon Paris";
$location = "Mississauga, Ontario, Canada";
$experience = 40;
...
?>

PHP scripts are embedded in "code islands" within an HTML page

There can be multiple code islands on the page
Code islands begin with <?PHP and end with ?>
Other combinations can be used but this is the norm
Variables are defined simply by being used
There is no equivalent to the RPG D-spec
Error or warning may occur if a variable is used prior to assigning a value to it
Variable names in PHP must start with a $ sign
Just when we'd finally begun to persuade RPGers not to do that!

11

Notes
A PHP script begins with the characters <?PHP - this identifies the beginning of what is called a PHP
"code island". As you will see later, code islands can be imbedded into HTML pages and it is this marker
that allows the system to differentiate between the PHP and HTML components of the file.

At the start of the script proper we simply assign a value to the variable $myName. As you can see, PHP
has no equivalent to RPG's D-specs - variables are simply defined by being used.

Of course it is good practice to group your variables' definitions, but the language does not enforce it. In
fact PHP will happily allow you to reference a variable before it has been defined, but a good editor such
as Zend Studio will warn you about this. In fact it is possible to have PHP treat such events as an error or
warning depending on your PHP error handling settings. Look up the function error_reporting() in the PHP
manual if you want to know more. The default setting for most web servers is to ignore such errors as
PHP has a well defined default behavior for such instances.

12
Understanding the Script - Part 2
...
echo "<p>This script was written by $myName.</p>";
echo "<p>He lives in $location and has been playing with computers for
over $experience years.</p>";
echo "<p>Here are a few of the languages he has used so far in his
career:</p>";
...

Scripts add content to the page through the use of print and echo
The two are interchangeable for all practical purposes
Variables within literal strings are replaced by their content
As long as the string is delimited by double quotes like this
If single quotes are used no substitution takes place

13

Notes
The echo function is being used here to add content to the web page. Strictly speaking echo is a language
construct in PHP and so does not require the use of parentheses around its parameters, although you will often
see them used. We could also have used the print function as the two are used interchangeably (see below)

Note that the literal string being output is enclosed within double-quotes. Because of this any variables found
within it will be replaced by their content when output. So what will appear on the web page is "This script was
written by Jon Paris.". Had we used single-quotes the output would have been "This script was written by
$myName.".

To achieve similar blending of literals and variables in RPG takes a lot more work. In this case we would have
had to code something like this:

'<p>This script was written by ' + $myName + '.</p>';

While this may not seem a big difference in a simple case like this, it makes it much harder to keep track of
spacing, punctuation etc. and I'm sure you can see how much simpler the PHP approach makes things,
particularly when building more complex strings.

print and echo - what's the difference? The only significant difference between the two is that echo can take
multiple parameters whereas print only takes one. For all practical purposes the two are used pretty much
interchangeably, the choice as to which to use being mostly a matter of style and personal preference. For
those of you who just "have to know" the full scope of the differences, you can find most of the gory details
here: ((http://www.faqts.com/knowledge_base/view.phtml/aid/1/fid/40)).

14
A Simple PHP Script - Part 3
...
$languages = array("RPG IV", "PHP", "Java", "COBOL", "CL", "Basic");
...
foreach ($languages as $language) {
print "$language<br>";
}

$languages is being defined here as an array

The function array() is being used to supply the values
As close to an RPG compile-time array as you will find in
PHP
The foreach construct is one of my favorites
It provides automatic iteration though an array
It is used frequently when processing database result sets
15

Notes
Now we come to one of my favorite PHP constructs - foreach.

This provides a really simple way to iterate over an array and apply the same processing to each element
in turn. In our example we are telling PHP to take each of the elements in the $languages array and assign
each in turn to the variable $language.

The code block within the { ... } brackets is then executed using that variable. We will talk more about the
use of brackets in conditional expressions on later charts. All we are going to do in this case is to output
the content of the variable - this time using the print construct.

We will be spending a lot more time on arrays later in the session.

16
A Simple PHP Script - Part 4
...
echo "<br><br>Print_r output<br>";
print_r($languages);
The text in red below shows
echo "<br><br>Var_dump output<br>";
part of the actual output from
var_dump($languages);
the two functions
?>

Array ( [0] => RPG IV [1] => PHP [2] => Java [3] => COBOL ...

array(6) { [0]=> string(6) "RPG IV" [1]=> string(3) "PHP" ...

This part demonstrates two very useful debug functions

print_r() and var_dump()
They output the variable content and other relevant information
print_r provides basic information
var_dump is more detailed and includes the data type and size
17

Notes
Before ending the discussion on this first script lets take a look at two great PHP debugging tools. Because PHP is so different in many
ways from RPG, particularly in areas such as arrays, I found these two invaluable in my early explorations. Both fulfill the same basic
function (to dump the contents of a variable) but they differ in the amount of detail that they provide. In some ways they are similar to
RPG's DUMP operation code, but provide a degree of granularity not possible with DUMP. The resulting output is also a lot easier to
navigate.

The first is the print_r() function. As you can see we simply pass the name of the variable we want to know about ($languages) as a
parameter to the function. As a result, PHP will extract the contents of the array and format it for display. In our example the result will be:

Array ( [0] => RPG IV [1] => PHP [2] => Java [3] => COBOL [4] => CL [5] => Basic )

This tells us that the variable we passed was an array, and that the first element (i.e. The one with index [0]) contained the value "RPG
IV". The second contained "PHP" and so on. I find it convenient to think of the "=>" combination as meaning "points to" - in other words,
[0] "points to" the value "RPG IV".

The second of the debugging functions we are using here is var_dump(). It provides more detail than print_r() in that it identifies the data
type of each element in the array and the length of its content. This can be very useful in cases where the content contains spaces since
by default the browser treats consecutive spaces as a single space when displaying data. The output from our example looks like this:

array(6) { [0]=> string(6) "RPG IV" [1]=> string(3) "PHP" [2]=> string(4) "Java" [3]=> string(5) "COBOL" [4]=> string(2) "CL" [5]=> string(5)
"Basic" }

The (6) at the beginning tells us that there are 6 elements in the array. Similarly the length and data type of each element in the array is
identified.

When you first try using some functions (like web services, or database retrieval) it is really helpful to output the content of each variable
in turn as you develop your code. Of course a good debugger (like the one in Zend Studio) can also show you the same information -
but sometimes it is just easier to incorporate it into the script.

18
More on PHP Variables
Variable names are cAsE_sEnSiTiVe!
So are function and object names etc.
But (most?) PHP reserved words are not
! So for example IF, if, If and iF are all accepted - at least by Zend
versions
The name can include underscore, letters, and numbers
e.g. $_a_PHP_name, $AnotherName, $And_yet_1_more
But cannot begin with a number
There are only seven types of variables
A variable's type is determined by the value placed in it
! And yes - that does mean that it can change type!
! Dont panic - this is a good thing - More on this in a few minutes

19

More on PHP Variables

PHP currently supports four basic data types
boolean
! An indicator by any other name ...
! A value of zero is false and a value of 1 is true - just like RPG!
- Actually any zero value or empty variable is also considered to be false
integer
! The same as RPG IV's 10I - A four byte integer
! Holds values in the range -2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647
float
! The same as RPG IV's 8F - A double floating-point number
! The _only_ way PHP has of expressing decimals
string
! Effectively the same as a varying length character field in RPG IV
$myString = "1"; // variable is a string
$myInteger = 1; // variable is an integer
$myFloat = 125.5; // and this is a floating point

20
Other PHP Data Types
Compound types
array
! Arrays are very very powerful in PHP
! Nothing like RPG arrays

! They can for example contain variables of different types

object
! Object references are very similar to array references
! Once you know how to handle arrays, Objects are easy to

understand
Resources
You will use these a lot
They are "handles" to things created outside of PHP itself
! For example a database connection, an image file
! Or more importantly a System i connection, program object, etc.

21

Notes
Note that although PHP (like most multi-platform languages) does not have an equivalent to packed decimal.
Indeed the only numeric type that can accommodate decimal places is floating point. However, it does support
decimal math when needed. We wont go into it in detail in this session but heres a brief example to point you
in the right direction should you need it in the future.

Support is in the form of the BC Math functions such as bcadd, bcsub, bcmul, etc. These operate on decimal
numbers represented as strings. This is similar to the way Java (for example) handles this situation. Here's a
simple example of addition:

<?php

$a = '1.234';
$b = '5';

echo bcadd($a, $b); // will output 6

echo bcadd($a, $b, 4); // will output 6.2340

?>

Notice that the optional third parameter is supplying the precision (decimal places) required in the final answer.
The example above outputs the results to the browser screen, but they could equally have been stored in
variables. While not as elegant as a simple "echo ($a + $b);" you will find that you need to use this functionality
far less often than you may think at first glance.

22
Changing a Variable's Type
Variables in PHP are dynamically typed
One minute they can be a character field
The next they are an integer!
Much of the power of the language derives from this ability
But is can cause "interesting" debugging challenges
Just like the MOVE op-code in RPG!!
Take a look at the example below
The type of $myVar changes based on the way in which it is used
<?php
echo "<h3>The ever changing variable</h3>";
$myVar = "1"; // variable is a string with the value 1
echo "<br>\$myVar is now <b>" .gettype($myVar) . "</b> value $myVar<br>";
$myVar = $myVar + 2; // now it is an integer with the value 3!
echo "<br>\$myVar is now <b>" .gettype($myVar) . "</b> value $myVar<br>";
$myVar = $myVar / 2; // and now floating point with the value 1.5
echo "<br>\$myVar is now <b>" .gettype($myVar) . "</b> value $myVar<br>";
?>

23

Output Result

The ever changing variable

$myVar is now string value 1

$myVar is now integer value 3

$myVar is now double value 1.5

24
Conditional Expressions in PHP
The equality test operator is ==
At first most RPGers will fall into the trap of using a simple "="
Sadly the resulting code is usually syntactically valid
It just doesnt do what you want as the example demonstrates
Another difference is that in PHP expressions must be in parens ( )
Although this practice is also highly recommended for RPG code
<?php
$age = 60;
$limit = 70;
$fare = 100;
echo "Right now your age is $age<br>";

// The following line will erroneously print the message!

if ($age = 70) echo "At $age You are at the limit of $limit!<br>";

// reset the value of $age and test again

$age = 60;
// But this one with the correct form of the test will not
if ($age == 70) echo "At $age You are at the limit of $limit!<br>";
?>

25

Control Structures in PHP - IF

The basic control structures match very closely to RPG
But multi-line actions require the use of the { } brackets

Some conditional operations have no direct equivalent in RPG

e.g. The Ternary Operator - Although it will look familiar to Excel users

Expression is in A single operation so

$age = 70; parentheses no need for { ... }
$fare = 100;
if ($age >= 60) $fare = $fare * .9;
echo "Age: $age means a fare of \$$fare";

// Simple test/action pairs can be done in one line

$StockLevel = $Stock > 100 ? "OK" : "Low";
// The PHP code above is equivalent to the following
If ($Stock > 100) {
Note the use of
$StockLevel = "OK"; }
Else { the { ... } pairs
$StockLevel = "Low"; }

26
Control Structures - SWITCH
Switch / Case / Default is similar to RPG's Select / When / Other
But can only test the content of a single variable
This will be familiar to you if you know COBOL or C or ...
Beware - you will probably need to insert break operations to make Switch/
Case work the way you expect it to!

<?php

$ageGroup = rand(1,5); // Generate random age group from 1 to 5

switch ($ageGroup) {
case (1):
echo "You are in group 1";
break;
case (5):
echo "A member of group 5 no less!";
break;
default:
echo "Some other group namely $ageGroup";
break; }
?>

27

Control Structures - FOR Loops

for ( startValue; loopLimit; loopIncrement )
The FOR statement is very similar to RPG's
Note the use of { ... } to group the multiple statements to be executed
We will study the ForEach "automatic looping" array function later

<HTML>
<BODY>
<H2>
Using the for loop
</H2>
<?php
for ($counter = 0; $counter < 5;
$counter++){
echo "<BR>I'm doing this five times.<BR>";
echo "That was #" . ($counter + 1);
}
if ($counter > 4)
echo "<BR>I guess that worked OK!";
?>
</BODY>
</HTML>

28
Arrays
Simple arrays can be defined in a number of ways
The array() function shown below is very easy to use
It certainly beats compile time tables
Alternatively elements can simply be added as in the C++ example
The value will be placed in the next empty location (i.e. the 6th element)
The array will dynamically expand if needed
Or loaded into a specific location as with CL below
Note: Indexes start at 0 (zero) - not 1 as in RPG!

<?php
$languages = array("RPG400", "RPG IV", "COBOL", "Java", "PHP");
print_r($languages); // print_r is a very useful debugging tool
echo "<br><br>";
$languages[] = "C++"; // This adds another element to the array
$languages[6] = "CL"; // And this loads "CL" into location 6
Var_dump($languages); // var_dump is also useful in debugging
?>

29

Output Result

Array ( [0] => RPG400 [1] => RPG IV [2] => COBOL
[3] => Java [4] => PHP )

array(7) { [0]=> string(6) "RPG400"

[1]=> string(6) "RPG IV"
[2]=> string(5) "COBOL"
[3]=> string(4) "Java"
[4]=> string(3) "PHP"
[5]=> string(3) "C++"
[6]=> string(2) "CL" }

Note: Neither print_r or var_dump produces output that

is quite this "pretty" - I cleaned it up for the chart.
30
More on Arrays - ForEach
ForEach() is a commonly used construct in PHP
It provides a simple means to iterate step though the elements of an array
Each active element in turn is assigned to the variable
ForEach ($arrayName as $currentElement) { actions };
You can then perform whatever processing you wish
Frequently used to iterate through results sets

<?php
$languages = array("RPG400", "RPG IV", "COBOL", "Java", "PHP");
foreach ($languages as $language) {
echo "<p>$language</p>"; }
?>

Output of this code is:

RPG400
RPG IV
COBOL
Java
PHP
C++

31

Notes
Arrays are one of my favorite features in PHP. The flexibility afforded by being able to store any kind of
data in an array element - including another array - makes for a very flexible and powerful programming
environment.

ForEach is the easiest way to loop through an array and process the contents. You don't need to concern
yourself with the number of elements etc. because PHP will skip "empty" elements and automatically stop
when the end of the array is reached.

32
More on Arrays - Other Functions
foreach is just one of over 60 array functions
You can sort arrays
! In strict code sequence or in natural sequence
You can search them
Create an array from a text file
! Or create a text file from an array
Compare two arrays for differences, or matches, or ...
Array can contain other arrays
Thats how 2 and 3 dimensional arrays are created
Arrays have a cursor and can be navigated like a file
Examples on the next page

33

Notes
There are some incredibly powerful array functions available in the standard PHP function library. Also as
you will learn, arrays are at the heart of almost everything we do in PHP from database access, to web
services, to calling RPG programs!

Take the time to thoroughly explore PHP's arrays - it may also give you some ideas on how to further
exploit arrays in your RPG code!

34
Navigating Arrays

<?php
$myArray = array("Car", "Truck","Motorcycle","Plane","Bicycle");
echo "<p>Here's the complete array </p>";
print_r($myArray);
echo "<br><br>";
echo "Current: ", current($myArray), "<br>";
echo "Next: ", next($myArray), "<br>";
echo "One after that: ", next($myArray), "<br>";
echo "Prev: ", prev($myArray), "<br>";
echo "End: ", end($myArray), "<br>";
echo "Resetting the array.<br>";
reset($myArray);
echo "Current: ", current($myArray), "<br>";
?>

PHP provides many array navigation functions

They greatly simplify array handling compared with RPG
Examples include:
current( ), next( ), prev( ), and end( )
Allows you to operate on an array as if it were a database
35

Output Result

Here's the complete array

Array ( [0] => Car [1] => Truck [2] => Motorcycle [3] => Plane [4] => Bicycle )

Current: Car

Next: Truck

One after that: Motorcycle

Prev: Truck

End: Bicycle

Resetting the array.

Current: Car

36
Associative Arrays
A really powerful feature
Allows you to associate a key with an array element
Elements can then be accessed via their key or sequentially
See the highlighted line for an example of keyed access
To do this in RPG requires matched arrays and a lot more coding
And we don't have the same range of functions available in PHP
Associative Arrays are commonly used in PHP interfaces
For example database, web services, and most IBM i functions

<?php
$programmers = array("RPG IV" => 600, "COBOL" => 99,
"Java" => 195, "PHP" => "lots of");
print_r($programmers);
echo "<br><br>";
foreach ($programmers as $programmer => $count) {
echo "<p> There are $count $programmer programmers</p>"; }
echo "<p>I repeat there are " . $programmers["RPG IV"]
. " RPG IV Programmers</p>"
?>

37

Output Result

Array ( [RPG IV] => 600 [COBOL] => 99 [Java] => 195 [PHP] => lots of )

There are 600 RPG IV programmers

There are 99 COBOL programmers

There are 195 Java programmers

There are lots of PHP programmers

I repeat there are 600 RPG IV Programmers

38
Agenda

Basic Web Input Handling

Using $_GET and $_POST

Brief overview of i5 Features

A few examples
XML, Web services, email

39

Basic PHP Web Input Handling

Submitting data using a simple HTML Form
PLEASE don't use my "style" - everything here is squashed to fit!
ACTION identifies the script that will process the input
GET specifies the method by which the data is transmitted
! In this case it is appended to the URL and you can see it in the browser
! With POST it would be sent in the background and would not be visible

<HTML><BODY><CENTER>
<H1>Reading All Form Data</H1>
<FORM GET ACTION="Pick-A-Food.php">
What's your name? <INPUT NAME="Name" TYPE="TEXT"><BR><BR>
Select your favorite fruit(s):
<SELECT NAME="Food[]" MULTIPLE>
<OPTION>Apple</OPTION>
<OPTION>Hamburger</OPTION>
<OPTION>Pear</OPTION>
<OPTION>Plum</OPTION>
<OPTION>Pomegranate</OPTION>
</SELECT>
<BR><BR><INPUT TYPE="SUBMIT" NAME="SUBMIT" VALUE="Enter">
</FORM>
</CENTER></BODY></HTML>

40
Retrieving Form Input Data
Input method to be used (GET or POST) is specified on the Form
It determines which superglobal array will contain the data
! $_GET[ ] or $_POST[ ]
! There is also $_REQUEST[ ] which contains the input from all sources
- But it represents a security risk and should only be used during testing
Our form used the GET method so all data is in $_GET[ ]
The count() function identifies the number of foods selected
And $_GET['Name'] retrieves the name entered

<HTML><BODY><CENTER>
<H3>Retrieving Data From Forms</H3>
<?php

$foodCount = count($_GET['Food']);

echo "<p>Your name is ", $_GET['Name'], "

and you selected $foodCount different foods</p>";
...

41

i5/OS Extensions and Toolkit

Connection Management
Connect, change user, close.
DB2 UDB access via SQL and/or Record level I/O
Fetch as array, get field lengths, field type, ...
Create records, update, set ranges, ...

Command, Program and Procedure calls

Supports return values

Data Areas, Data Queues, Message Queues

Create, read, write, delete...
System values
Including date, time,
A list of i5 functions is
Spool Queues and files supplied at the end of
List, Read, ... the handout

42
IBM i Record I/O Functions - Part 1
Note: This part is just
<html> HTML - no PHP yet
<body>
<h2>Simple Full Table Test - i5 Native APIs</h2>
<table border="1" width="670">
<tr>
<th width="110">Customer</th>
<th width="260">Name</th>
<th width="240">City</th>
<th width="60">State</th>
</tr> Report errors using
IBM i specific
<?php
information
function iErrMsg($msgText) {
errInfo = i5_error();
echo '<tr><td colspan ="4">', $msgText, '<br>Message code: ',
$errInfo[0], ' IBM i Message No: ', $errInfo[2],
'<br>Text:', $errInfo[3], '</td></tr>';
die();
}

43

IBM i Record I/O Functions - Part 2

$i5conn = i5_connect( 'localhost','USERNAME','PASSWORD');

if (!$i5conn) iErrMsg('Connection attempt failed');

$customerFile = i5_open("PARTNER400/PCUSTOMERS", I5_OPEN_READ);

if (!$customerFile) iErrMsg('Unable to open Customer file');

while ($row = i5_fetch_assoc($customerFile)) {

echo "<tr><td>{$row['CUSTOMER']}</td>
<td>{$row['NAME']}</td> Loop through all
<td>{$row['CITY']}</td> records and add
<td>{$row['STATE']}</td></tr>"; to HTML table
}

i5_close($i5conn);

?>
Close out the
</table>
</body> Table etc.
</html>

44
Simple Database Example
This uses SQLite which is built into V5+ releases of PHP
<?php
$db = sqlite_open("db.sqlite");
$query = sqlite_query($db, 'SELECT * FROM names WHERE salary > 45000
ORDER BY lastname, firstname');
// Output table headers
echo "<table border=1 width=40%>
<th>Id<th>Name<th>Location<th>Salary";
// Get results as an array with the column name as the index
$result = sqlite_fetch_all($query, SQLITE_ASSOC);
// Iterate through the retrieved rows and output row data
foreach ($result as $entry)
{
echo "<tr><td>{$entry['id']}</td>
<td>{$entry['lastname']}, {$entry['firstname']}</td>
<td>{$entry['location']}</td>
<td align=right>{$entry['salary']}</td></tr>";
}
// Wrap up the table
echo "</table>";
sqlite_close($db);
?>

45

XML Processing in RPG and PHP

I will only provide a brief explanation of the RPG version
At first glance both programs look very similar
But all is not quite as it seems

/Free
XML-INTO company %XML( XML_Input1: 'doc=file case=any' );

for i = 1 to xmlElements;
dsply company(i);
endfor;

<?php

$Customers = simplexml_load_file("\\Partner400\\Customers.xml");

foreach ($Customers->Customer as $customer) {

print "$customer->Company<br>";
}
?>

46
RPG IV XML Processing Example
The previous chart left out this part of the RPG version
RPG requires the data to be predefined - PHP does it dynamically
D progStatus SDS
D xmlElements 20i 0 Overlay(progStatus: 372)
D i s 10i 0
D customers DS Qualified
D recordCount 3p 0
D customer LikeDS(customer) Dim(99)

D customer DS Qualified
D type 10a
D company 32a
D address LikeDS(address)

D address DS
D street 32a
D city 24a
D state 2a
D zip 5s 0

D XML_Input1 256a Inz('/Partner400/Customers.xml')

47

Adding e-Mail to Your Web Site

PHPs simple means for adding e-mail to your web pages

Or for that matter from a batch script

Below is the simple form used

The script is on the next page

<HTML>
<BODY>
<CENTER>
<H1>Send me some email</H1>
<FORM METHOD=POST ACTION="phpemail.php">
Please enter your message and click Submit:<BR>
<TEXTAREA NAME="message" COLS="50" ROWS="5">
</TEXTAREA><BR>
<INPUT TYPE="SUBMIT" VALUE="Submit">
</FORM>
</CENTER>
<BODY>
</HTML>

48
Simple Script to Send e-Mail
The mail() function is used to send the mail
The first parameter is the recipient's address
The second is the subject line
And the third is the message body
Note that it is retrieved from the FORM text area "message"

The SMTP server configuration detail is supplied in php.ini

Or can be supplied dynamically by the script

<HTML>
<BODY>
<CENTER>
<H1>Sending email</H1>
Your email was sent.<BR>
<?php
$result = mail("contact@partner400.com",
"Test PHP Mail", $_REQUEST["message"]);
?>
</CENTER>
<BODY>
</HTML>

49

Using Web Services - SOAP APIs

<?php

$input = 100;

$currencies = array('FromCurrency' => 'USD', 'ToCurrency' => 'CAD');

$wsdl = 'http://www.webservicex.net/CurrencyConvertor.asmx?wsdl';

$client = new SoapClient ($wsdl);

$result = $client->ConversionRate($currencies);
$rate = $result->ConversionRateResult;
$answer = $input * $rate;

echo "\$$input US is worth \$$answer Canadian

at the current exchange rate of $rate";
?>

PHP provides quick and easy access to Web Services such as this
It is a currency conversion service
PHP's SOAP APIs make it simple to add such functionality to your scripts

50
 Useful (hopefully) References
Web Sites:
www.zend.com
For tutorials, documentation, samples, forums, and all of the i5 specifics
www.php.net
The on-line PHP manual is amazing!

Books:
PHP in a Nutshell - Paul Hudson - O'Reilly Press
Spring Into - PHP 5 - Steven Holzner - Addison Wesley
The IBM i Programmer's Guide to PHP - Jeff Olen and Kevin Schroeder -
MC Press
Other:
Countless tutorials and samples on the web. Just "Google it"
Load Zend Server Community Edition on your PC
http://www.zend.com/en/community/zend-server-ce
And don't forget to download Zend Studio while you are there

51

Agenda

?
Please e-mail Jon at:
Jon.Paris @ Partner400.com
for any questions
The IBM i specific APIs described
earlier and shown on the following
pages will shortly be replaced. They
are shown here just to give you an
idea of the range of functionality.

The new version will offer all of the

same facilities but in most cases will
be simpler to use and exhibit
improved performance.

52
i5_ APIs
Connection Management Data retrieval
i5_connect i5_fetch_array
I5_pconnect i5_fetch_assoc
i5_close i5_fetch_object
I5_pclose i5_fetch_row
i5_adopt_authority i5_info
i5_error i5_field_len
i5_errormsg i5_field_name
CL calls i5_field_scale

i5_command i5_field_type

i5_cmdget i5_list_fields
i5_num_fields
Program Calls i5_result
i5_program_prepare
i5_program_call
i5_program_close
53

i5_ APIs
Native file access Native file access (contd.)
i5_open i5_free_file
i5_addnew i5_new_record
I5_edit i5_delete_record
I5_delete i5_update_record
i5_cancel_edit i5_get_keys
i5_setvalue
System Values
i5_update
i5_get_system_value
i5_range_from
i5_range_to Data Areas
i5_range_clear i5_data_area_create
i5_data_seek i5_data_area_read
i5_seek i5_data_area_write
i5_bookmark i5_data_area_delete

54
i5_ APIs
Data Queues Output Queues
i5_dtaq_open i5_outq_open
i5_dtaq_put i5_outq_read
i5_dtaq_read i5_outq_close
i5_dtaq_close
Spool File
Jobs i5_spool_open
i5_jobs_joblog i5_spool_get_data
i5_jobs_joblog_close i5_spool_from_data
i5_jobs_list_start i5_spool_from_file
i5_jobs_list_close i5_spool_close

Message Queues User Space

i5_messageq_open i5_userspace_create
i5_messageq_close i5_userspace_get
i5_userspace_delete

55