PHP Beyond the Web

Use your existing web-based PHP skills to write all types of software: CLI scripts, desktop software, network servers, and more. This book gives you the tools, techniques, and background necessary to write just about any type of software you can think of, using the PHP you know.

PHP Beyond the Web shows you how to take your knowledge of PHP development for the web and utilise it with a much wider range of software systems. Enjoy the benefits of PHP after reading this book: save money by redeploying existing skills, not learning new ones; save time and increase productivity by using a high-level language; and make money by providing your clients a full-stack service (not just websites).

PHP is no longer just a great scripting language for websites, it’s now a powerful general-purpose programming language. Expand your use of PHP into your back-end systems, server software, data processing services, desktop interfaces, and more.

What You’ll Learn

• Write interactive shell scripts
• Work with system daemons
• Write desktop software
• Build network servers
• Interface with electronics using PHP and the Raspberry Pi
• Manage performance, deployment, licensing, and system interaction
• Discover the software tools for development and get other great sources of technical information and help

Who This Book Is For

Experienced PHP programmers or experienced programmers interested in leveraging PHP outside the web development context.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Getting Away from the Web—the Basics
Chapter 3: Understanding the CLI SAPI, and Why You Need To
Chapter 4: Development Tools
Chapter 5: User-Facing Software
Chapter 6: System Software
Chapter 7: Interacting with Other Software
Chapter 8: Talking to the System
Chapter 9: Performance and Stability—Profiling and Improving
Chapter 10: Distribution and Deployment Issues
Appendix A: Compiling and Installing PHP, Extensions, and Libs
Appendix B: File and Data Format Libraries for PHP
Appendix C: Sources of Help
Appendix D: Interesting Libraries, Tools, Articles, and Projects
Appendix E: Integrated Development Environments for PHP