Richard Schoen

Call/Parm Your Open Source Apps from RPG and CL with QSHCALL

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QSHONI integration for IBM i RPG, CL and open sourceA few years back I created the QShell on IBM i (QshOni) project to allow QShell/PASE (open source) apps to be more easily integrated and used with traditional IBM i job streams written in RPG and CL. Since then, many developers have adopted QshOni to utilize their open source apps in conjunction with their classic traditional apps.

Recently I added several new commands to QshOni to make living the PASE life even easier for RPG developers. Today’s focus will be on the QSHCALL command.

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Alan Seiden

Which PHP Versions Get Critical Security Updates?

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PHPAlthough there are many reasons—including performance—to update to newer PHP releases, the number one reason is to avoid losing security updates.

Each version of PHP (7.4, 8.0, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, etc.) has three years of support before it is considered end of life. For two years, it gets bug fixes and all security fixes. In the third year, it gets only critical security fixes. After that, nothing!

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Alan Seiden

APCu Extension Added to Seiden PHP+

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Upgrade your PHP to PHP+PHP sites and APIs on IBM i have a new way to run even faster. As noted in our Seiden PHP+ Changelog, we have added the APCu extension to our PHP distribution.

The APC User Cache (APCu) extension is an “in-memory key-value store for PHP” that evolved from the old APC extension (minus the opcode caching). We added APCu at the request of a Linux PHP user who migrated their PHP application to the IBM i to simplify their architecture.

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Alan Seiden

Our Favorite ibm_db2 Settings for PHP

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PHP on IBM iWhen supporting our Seiden CP+ PHP, we found that documentation for the “classic” ibm_db2 extension for IBM i wasn’t easy to find.

To help ourselves as well as others, we updated the PHP.net manual to describe each ibm_db2.i5_* setting. This blog post links to that manual page and highlights a few of our favorite ibm_db2 settings.

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Amy Lantz

PHP 8.3 for IBM i Released in Seiden PHP

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PHP on IBM iLast week the IBM i community got PHP 8.3, the newest version, via Seiden PHP+.

While PHP 8.3 has valuable updates, PHP 8.0 and lower are no longer receiving even security fixes, increasing your risk of issues with security and certainly with your next security audit. Contact Alan for a free upgrade assessment.

PHP 8.3’s new features include json_validate. You’ll find the full list of changes and supporting details at PHP.Watch.

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Alan Seiden

PHP 8.3: How the Community Helps PHP Evolve

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The inclusion in PHP 8.3 of two enhancements by Seiden Group’s own Calvin Buckley* inspired me to write this post.

PHP is moved forward by its community. Each year there is a new major release with enhancements, each month a maintenance release. PHP 8.3 is another achievement in the steady cycle of improvements.

Here are some key resources for understanding how the PHP language is built and enhanced.

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Alan Seiden

PHP_FCGI_MAX_REQUESTS Solves Job Cleanup Issues

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One of PHP’s strengths is that each PHP job or process cleans itself up after every request. This makes PHP very reliable and stable.

On occasion, though, an extension may have a bug that leaks memory or causes other problems over time. If that happens, PHP’s FastCGI settings provide a solution.

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Alan Seiden

PHP 8.3 Coming to IBM i This Year

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PHP on IBM iI had to chuckle when someone at a recent conference seemed surprised that PHP was still a vital force in web and API development. He hadn’t heard much about PHP lately at conferences.

My explanation: “It’s reliable and the major problems have been solved.”

I continued: “There’s a significant PHP update each year, plus monthly fixes. It’s evolving steadily, with attention to backward compatibility, all changes discussed in the open, easy to manage, no surprises.”

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Richard Schoen

Integrate Python, Node, PHP, etc. with CL & RPG on IBM i – 2023 Update

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QSHONIA few years ago I introduced you to my QShell on i utility – QSHONI. QSHONI makes it easy for traditional CL, RPG, and COBOL programs to call Python utilities and other QShell/PASE utility programs (PHP, Node, Java, etc.) and directly use their output. QSHONI opened up a whole new world of integrations to open source apps from RPG, CL, and COBOL.

In this post I will update you on new features that have been added to the QSHONI utilities over the past 12 months.

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Alan Seiden

Connecting to IBM i Db2 with the Laravel PHP Framework

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Laravel FrameworkLaravel has been inspiring loyalty among PHP developers for its documentation, community, and many built-in features.

Like most PHP frameworks, Laravel is cross-platform and can work with IBM i and Db2 data. This article shows how to take full advantage of Laravel’s built-in database components by installing an IBM i-specific extension to Laravel’s database connection class.

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