Can we use Apache tiles or Sitemesh templating framework while using PHP as a view? If yes, could you please help how to do that?

-Zia

I just recently got into developing Web Applications and have been researching all the various options out there. I have a feeling the project I’m working on will be in a position where we have a PHP front end and a Java Backend. I wrote up a few test apps using Spring/JavaEE on various application servers. I’d like to use Spring as our Framework, but due to my level of experience I’m all sorts of lost on how I might handle our integration points with PHP.

For example, let’s take a simple web form to handle user logins. The latest test I did had a PHP page on Apache POST to a Java Servlet on Tomcat. I know I’m missing something simple, but when running the form through JSP, Spring just pulls in the Form elements/attributes and assigns them to a POJO. I have no idea how to do that with strait HTML/PHP aside from manually parsing the POST request and assigning it to an object. Any insight?

Many Thanks,
-Jason

Actually, you’re still cheating with the JSP. Once you remove the pure Java inside of the scriptlet tags and replace it with proper JSTL and EL, the JSP gets considerably larger, making PHP even more compact, comparatively speaking.

Another nice thing about PHP over JSP is that writing helper classes in PHP is MUCH less time-consuming than writing your own JSP tag libraries. Just create a new PHP class (or even plain-old code fragment in another PHP file), call one of include/include_once/require_once, and you’re done. Another point to take home is that PHP was meant for the web; specifically, the presentation layer. PHP comes built-in with an EXTREMELY large array of functions that a template writer can use out of the box, making the JSTL look like its on a diet. Another bonus is that when iteratively testing out your page design (code, reload page, fix, code, reload page, …), you don’t have to wait for your template code to get compiled; with PHP is just shows up instantaneously (assuming you’re in Quercus “development mode”, which is speedy enough as it is). No need to wait for a recompile, no need to use something like JRebel, no more OOM errors after X number of page reloads, etc.

And lastly, since PHP is so well-known and has so much mindshare, even novice developers from the greater PHP world can be brought in to a team and begin work immediately without having to learn yet another technology.

Oh, and ONE MORE THING: with Quercus, you don’t have to make sure all of your PHP module versions line up perfectly. Using traditional PHP, you’re often stuck with one version for a long time unless you want to go through the painful and often fruitless process of recompiling PHP, all of its modules, and Apache. I use RHEL/CentOS almost exclusively, and you’re pretty much stuck with one version of PHP (not counting patch releases). With Quercus, it’s just a matter of downloading ONE single quercus.jar file and restarting the application server. Voila. Total time: less than 45 seconds. The alternative could take days and lots of Googling.

Anyway, great work. I love Quercus. Might Caucho consider open-sourcing the part of Quercus/Resin that compiles PHP into Java bytecode? Remember that with Quercus you’re selling a platform here, not an application. Therefore it behooves Caucho to get this technology into as many hands as possible without restrictions or constraints. For more info on what I’m referring to as “Platform”, see Joel Spolsky’s post here: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/Platforms.html

By keeping the full potential (PHP -> Java bytecode compilation) of Quercus locked up, you’re increasing the chances of it being a niche technology only. By getting it into as many hands as possible, however, you’re giving Caucho and its commercial offerings more free exposure to the people who really matter to your bottom line: developers and IT folk. Think about it.

Michael

It is in the repository right now and is built with “ant artifacts”. Then just use resin/artifacts/spring/dist/resin-spring.jar. I’m not sure yet how we’ll “ship” a prebuilt version of this. The easiest way to get updates would be to write to resin-interest. At this point, I don’t see any problems with the implementation so we’ll need people to test it to see if it breaks before I make any more updates.

Thanks,
Emil

Thanks.