Development

Whilst the objective for PHP support in Project Zero is much wider than simply running existing applications, the ability to do so is an important proof point for compatibility. I blogged last year about our plans to use well known PHP applications to shape our priorities as we build out the PHP extension libraries and we have been busy executing that plan. I am delighted to be able to announce that it is now possible to install and run PhpBB 3.0 on Project Zero. The procedure is very simple:

• Follow the instructions to install Project Zero Eclipse with PHP. Make sure you point to latest repository http://www.projectzero.org/update/zero.eclipse.php.latest/ rather than a milestone repository.
• Create a new Zero PHP project. In Eclipse: File->New->Project Zero PHP Application.
• Get PhpBB version 3.0 and unzip it into the public directory of this new project so that in the public directory there are directories such as “adm” and “includes” (You may need to remove a level of directory heirarchy to achieve this.)
• Download and set up Mysql Community Edition 5.1 and create a database for use by phpBB.
• We need to add the mysql database connector to the project. This is available in Maven so simply add the following line to config/ivy.xml :

      <dependency name="mysql-connector-java" org="mysql" rev="5.1+"/>

• Ensure that the following extensions exist (uncommented) in php.ini:

extension=php_calendar
extension=php_ctype
extension=php_zlib
extension=php_pcre
extension=php_ldap
extension=php_hash
extension=php_xml
extension=php_gd
extension=php_iconv
extension=php_standard
extension=php_date
extension = zero.php.JSONExtension
extension = zero.php.NetworkExtension
extension = zero.php.URIUtilsExtension
extension = com.ibm.p8.library.db.MysqlLibrary

• If you are using an M5 or later build of Zero then the mbsrting extension is listed in your php.ini. This must be disabled by removing it from php.ini or commenting it out as shown:

 ; extension = com.ibm.p8.library.standard.MbStringLibrary

• Add public to the php include path in php.ini:

include_path = "<path to project>/public";

• Resolve and start the project.
• Browse to the project and work through the installation pages.
• You should be able to accept all of the defaults with the exception of email. We are still working on email support from PHP so you’ll have to disable that during the installation. Do this by setting “Enable board-wide e-mails:” to “disabled” in the email-settings options.

Once you are all set up, PhpBB runs pretty cleanly on Zero on both Windows and Linux. We have not tried this yet on the Mac and we are still working though all of the functions in PhpBB so there may well be things that are broken. If you find something that does not work then we would like to hear about it. Please either open a bugzilla, or post in the forums.…Thanks!

- Rob Nicholson