How-To Video: The Zen of Using PHP without Zend Server

Just one year away from end-of-life for no-charge Zend Server “Basic”—and six months after the release of Community PHP—many IBM i shops face an important decision:

“Do we upgrade to a paid Zend Server license,
or do we migrate to RPM-based PHP?”

At a recent MAGiC User Group webinar, Alan Seiden and Richard Schoen teamed up to present a tutorial and demo on how to get started with Community “RPM” PHP, sharing several tips picked up during client migrations.

You can view presentation video here and download the slides. A big thanks to MAGiC’s Laura Hamway for sharing the recording. Be sure to join their newsletter to find out about future (free) MAGiC meetings!

Video Highlights

Alan starts the tutorial with things you need to know about both RPM PHP and upgrading to PHP 7. He then launches into step-by-step instructions on how to set up and configure RPM. Each step contains links to related resources, tools, relevant paths, useful scripts, commands, and other details you need to get RPM PHP up and running.

Next he goes into similar detail on how to install, configure and optimize ODBC. He closes the first half of the presentation with suggestions for your IDE and debugging tools.

At the 55-minute mark, Richard demos how to use RPM-based PHP and ODBC with the Bootstrap framework to create an attractive web application. BONUS: You can download the code for his example application to experiment at your pace.

Enjoy, and let us know if you need a hand with evaluating or implementing your PHP choices.