My web sites are hosted on Total Choice Hosting using some kind of Linux (I don't know what precise variety) and Apache. I don't have command line access - I can run command line programs only via exec() in PHP, or via CRON jobs.
Can I install and use PDFTK on a system like this?
If so, what exactly do I have to do? Which files do I have to copy where? Do I have to rebuild PDFTK from source, or is there an executable version somewhere?
Since (as I understand it) PDFTK is based on iText, which is written in Java. Maybe I'd be better off using the original iText package?
Or is there a better way of doing what I want to do (which is basically to merge and flatten a PDF file (blank form) with a FDF file (field values) into a new PDF file (the completed form) and download it to the user)? Is there some native PHP or Python or Perl code to do this?
Thanks - Rowan
A quick glance reveals that the PDFTK source is C++ and it looks like they use GCJ to compile some 3rd party Java code to native code. If you find a pre-built version of PDFTK that matches your OS and architecture you should be able to just upload the binary to your system and run it from PHP using exec. There are some builds available on the install page.
There are some native PHP libraries available for creating and manipulating PDFs. Check out TCPDF, Zend_Pdf, and FPDF to see if any of those are usable. Each one should support what you want to do, its just a matter of choosing the right solution.
Using PDFTK may be the fastest option since it is compiled code, but it is the least portable option since it would require the server have that software installed on it, where the PHP solutions could be distributed with your code.
If you are on a shared host you cant install PDFtk because you don't have access to root to install anything. You need to have a host that has it preinstalled. I use bluehost.com but there up-time is not the best. It works for now but I am going to move to another host once my site is complete. I have had several outages that have lasted for over a day.
Related
My Setup: Ubuntu 20 with PHP and Composer
My Editor: VSCode with SSH FS extension to access remote workspace.
My Task: do some PHP stuff, mainly Wordpress Themes
My Problem: no PHP Formatter extension works on the remote Workspace
I tried to use: PHP-CS-fixer, Prettier with PHP plugin, phpfmt, phpcs, PHP Formatter...
Some of them will even not work on my local Workspace.
I can't install new Code on the remote Server (Composer), so i need a way to format PHP files just out of the Box like HTML or JS.
But meanwhile i think, this is not possible.
Solution: use Ubuntu to connect to the server and mount that folder in workspace, let VSC think it is a real local folder :-)
The problem with most formatting extensions is that they expect the files to be on a local drive, as in being mounted outside VS Code, including network shares by any NodeJS program (and therefore VS Code extensions). The extension uses the extension API's FileSystemProvider to provide FS access to VS Code. It is only recently that they added a way for one extension to use file systems provided by other extensions, and it's even more recent that they started pushing extensions to make use of this.
Sadly enough, not every extension developer might start using it, and it's especially tricky for extension that use native/external programs. That includes most language-servers and formatters.
For your use case, there are two solutions though:
Mount the folder on the OS level (e.g. sshfs) and just open it as a regular directory in VS Code, as another answer suggested
Use VS Code's Remote SSH, which actually runs the extensions on the server, therefore skipping the whole "files aren't on a local drive" problem
I recently started PHP (I am a beginner) and I wanted to create a form with HTML to add numbers together. However, when I send queries to PHP it shows my source code (because it is not a server - file is run locally). I was wondering would it be possible to preview my PHP's code result on a website of some sort or even better on my computer? Do you know any services or ways to accomplish this, preferably free of charge?
To run php files online, go to Write Code Online.
As long as you can install programs on your computer, you should install a web server to run php files locally. To run any basic app, especially if it uses forms, you will use multiple php files and the testing will be too complex to run online. If you are using windows, install wamp. For mac, try mamp.
you seriously require some help :-)
First, PHP is a server side scripting language, so it requires server (like Apache, which you can install using the wamp or xampp installers) Try to search google on how to install them on local computer.
Second, their are some online PHP editors, like http://www.compileonline.com/execute_php_online.php or writecodeonline .com and many others. It may not replace the server but helps to write the PHP code and execute it for the sake of practising.
Also, it is better if you read some tutorials about PHP. One tutorial I can point you to is the http://www.w3schools.com/php/php_form_complete.asp which is related to question.
Is it possible to create a shortcut that points to in-existing file in php and make it run normally in windows?
Example
makeshortcut("C:\Windows\calc.exe","short.lnk");
Then when I download the shortcut, it would open calc on my computer.
I don't have COM enabled, I do have exec() enabled, so I can run some kind of perl or python, however, lots of extensions are disabled, particlarly (pywin32 and win32::shortcut), so it would be highly appreciated if I can do this only in php or using calling another script with exec() which doesn't require me to install additional extensions.
The linux ln command has nothing to do with Windows .lnk files, and they are not compatible.
Here is some info on the .lnk file format.
As you can see it is not trivial to create from scratch.
liblnk library allows you to read .lnk files in Linux, but I haven't seen one that allows for their creation.
Edit:
Here is a SO question similar to yours:
Generate Windows .lnk file with PHP and Creating a Desktop Shortcut Using a Web Page
You can use http://www.mamachine.org/mslink/index.en.html - a bash and c program to create a shortcut.
Compile the C program for your platform and call it with the shell_exec function.
Even if the question is old, I hope it helps others.
I am building a mac application using Xojo framework,
the app i am building have to run php as a command line, i could use the php that ships with mac osx
however i need a php with mcrypt extension, and the one built into the osx does not have the mcrypt and i don't want to force my customers to update their php,
so the optimal solution that i could think of, is to pack a php self contained executable with my application
is this possible? and how to go for it?
Yes, sounds possible.
In the Xojo IDE you could insert a Copy Files build step after the OS X build that copies your php executable into the resources folder of your built app.
Then in your App.Open you could copy that executable to wherever you want to from that SpecialFolder, or just reference it as is in your command lines depending on whether there are any restrictions imposed on how your are distributing the app (i.e. App Store).
Check out http://docs.xojo.com/index.php/SpecialFolder for some guidance on where to copy any files you need to bundle or how to reference them.
I create php application for small businesses. Some of the clients may prefer running the app on a local server, therefore my requirement is to create/bundle an app with apache/mysql/php with all the necessary confirguration and one click executable (be it a batch file) such that when the user opens it, it runs the apache server on some port say localhost:1234 and mysql as well.
and opens up the application in the default web browser.
To be more exact, Im looking for something like http://www.simpleinvoices.org/go, check their Simple Invoices for Windows which come budled with apache/php/mysql.
P.S - Im not sure if this question should be at SO or Superuser.
If you actually want to install a web server and a SQL server then Lars' solution would be a way to go. On windows you can generate a .msi installer containing the dependencies you need (like WAMP). An installer executable would be a cleaner solution than a batch file in my opinion, as it will also provide the user with an option to uninstall your software if they wish.
If you want to distribute your application in a standalone version, then you might also want to check a solution like NuSphere's PHPDock - http://www.nusphere.com/products/phpdock.htm
I had the same challenge and came across Uniform Server:
http://www.uniformserver.com/
You download it, add your application to it, start it and everything runs. Lovely.
Superuser would have been better. But depending on your requirements, you should just create a package to install. On windows, package it with WAMP, on linux, package it with either one-click-install or creating packages for the two biggest systems, namely APT and RPM. With the dependency-system on all of them you can make sure, that your application runs right off the bat.
PHP Desktop is the best option I found when researching this.
https://github.com/cztomczak/phpdesktop
PHP Nightrain is also an option:
https://download.cnet.com/PHP-Nightrain/3000-10248_4-76169308.html
Bitnami WAMP stack looks good as well:
https://docs.bitnami.com/installer/infrastructure/wamp/