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I have a LAMP (PHP) web app which need to interface with programs on an IBM 3270 mainframe (via Microsoft SNA Server). One solution I'm looking at is screen-scraping via 3270. (I'm integrating the present with the past!)
Many years ago, I wrote C code which used HLLAPI as the basis for such a task.
Is HLLAPI still the best way to approach this task?
If so, would I be best off just writing a C app to undertake the work necessary and exec() this C app from php?
Are there any open source HLLAPI providers for Linux? (In the past I used commercial solutions such as Cleo.)
I haven't used it but maybe look at http://x3270.bgp.nu/ which says has a version:
s3270 is a displayless version for
writing screen-scraping scripts
I'm currently trying to do a similar thing but with a command line Python script.
I open a pipe to the s3270 (on Windows the exe name is ws3270) to connect to the server and send all commands.
Read carefully those part of the documentation for scripting:
http://x3270.bgp.nu/wc3270-man.html#Actions
http://x3270.bgp.nu/x3270-script.html#Script-Specific-Actions
While I have no experience with 3270, I would expect that finding and calling on an outside application or library is your best bet. PHP is not an all-purpose tool, hacking into a non-web communications protocols is best left to languages like C or Java that can handle that well.
Screen scraping 3270 applications is a perfectly valid way of getting at data. Many of these applications haven't changed for years, or decades in some cases. Sometimes there is simply no API or other programmatic way of getting at the necessary data.
Nighthawk: You could always learn CORBA, that monstrosity of a system was designed to let C programs talk to remote COBOL systems or random stuff written in PL/I or something.
But seriously, if the old app has no API, 3270 screen scraping is fine. There's a lot of similarities between 3270 screens and HTML forms (unlike character mode terminals).
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I just started a project in a company, they had it hosted on Google App Engine and the app was developed in Java. The thing is that this code was totally unreadable. So I've came to the conclusion that the best solution would be start it all over.
Because it is a Facebook App, one approach would be to stop using Java and start using their available PHP SDK. But, Google App Engine still doesn't work well with PHP, we can't install Frameworks like Yii without workarounds, etc.
So I think the best solution would be change the place that we are hosting the application. It needs to be a host for scalable PHP applications.
I've researched a little bit and found people talking about Pagoda and appfog.
Do you have any suggestions? What is the best solution considering: price, efficiency and also it needs to be easy to use. I don't have a lot of experiences managing servers, I usually have someone on the company that takes care of all of that for me.
My best advice would be to choose a standard Cloud provider like DigitalOcean, VPS.net or AWS. You get full access to the server to configure and install anything you like, and they often come with pre-built server images with PHP/MySQL/Apache already configured and ready to use.
Heroku has PHP support to https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/getting-started-with-php and it's ideal for FB apps https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/facebook
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I have a client that wishes to have a website written that involves a fairly simple cms driven website that sorts and displays daily reports. The website will require subscriptions and include membership, free trials, etc...
Originally I was going to write the site in PHP, as none of the requirements are too heavy and I am very experienced in it. However, after speaking with the client, he has worked closely with someone who has a C++ product that offers a workflow that includes the entire process of handling subscriptions, logins, and trials and (apparently) can be used on a web platform.
This throws a wrench into my original plan, because even though I know C++ I have never had to deploy it on a webserver or have it communicate with PHP. I've already written a good deal of the site in PHP, so would prefer not having to re-write.
Can I have the two communicate on the same server? What would be required to do so? Would it be worth my time or should I just decide to scrap PHP and use C++? Or should I tell my client he's nuts?
That's about all the info I have about the project right now. Not sure if I can provide much more info, but will try if it's needed.
Thanks for all answers.
Tel him he is nuts.
The reason is that none of those tasks requires the benefits C++ can offer over PHP. It is heavy maintenance pain. And in the big picture putting those two together is more work (in hours) than writing those things in php.
The only thing that would justify C++ is if there is some heavy math business logic involved in there. And i mean heavy.
For problems. Just think about debugging.
In addition to what Thomas says (which is all true), your hosting company will most likely prohibit running custom binaries. Hosting packages short of virtual private server normally don't allow user-written compiled code on the Web server, only scripts.
VPS hosting is, on average, 5 times as expensive.
You can re-write the C++ code in PHP. You can also convert C++ to Java using a converter and then use the Java virtual machine if your host allows that. You can use the C++ code if your host allows that. You can host the C++ code from a local machine if that is a good idea in your case.
I would tell the client that in case there is no explicit need for the C++ language I would go with implementing PHP. You know, the communication between C++ and PHP adds to server load even if the host allows you to use the C++ module. And in the future you will have a lot of pain maintain
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I was wondering if anyone had any good suggestions for the best backend for an android app with play similar to words with friends. Very turn based, sometimes over multiple days.
The first solution that pops into my head is simple PHP/SQL with responses in JSON as it would be quite easy to implement. Although i am just wondering if anyone has any experience with this and can tell me if it has any big down sides. e.g. Poor scaling, few concurrent users, etc.
Is PHP/SQL a good solution? Should i be looking more at a Java server using TCP/IP? Even for these bursts of messages?
Thanks!
I've used both smartFox socket server (quite awhile ago) and PHP/MySQL to handle "multiplayer state synching" on the web (recently)
In my opinion, for a game that's going to have turns that may span days, a database system would be better. A socket server would have to maintain data in memory that may not be in use for hours or days. PHP/MySQL(or SQL) + JSON would probably be a really good fit. Large PHP sites serve pages to thousands of users and may execute multiple queries per page render so I think scaling should be fine.
The advantage of using a database system is that it can be platform agnostic. Your Android game could run on iOS et al via something like PhoneGap.
EDIT: The disadvantage of a database system is Push notification might be harder to rig up. That's out of my realm of expertise.
I would do exactly what you suggested. It doesn't need to be PHP, but basically you will have a web server (could be nginx, apache, etc), and it can be in any language you want.
One of my favorite methods is using a Django MVC setup, using Python on the backend (for awesomeness of Python) and communicate using an HttpClient (or Https even).
I used JSON as the go between (started with XML, but changed to Json as it's lower overhead usually).
You'll probably also want some kind of a PUSH system set up. Either using C2DM, or a third party API. There's an API I used mostly because it was free & pre-C2DM, called Xtify. It's designed to be used as a geolocation tool, but it has PUSH services (and you don't need to use the Geo stuff). Best part, it's free!
That way, you can have the app open, but not wasting battery life with a POLL loop, and just get when the other player's turns end instantaneously.
EDIT: I just looked and it appears that Xtify charges for anything over 300 messages per user per month... so that's probably not the best option for PUSH services anymore.
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I wrote a web service API which services REST requests in php. It didn't take much time to actually setup this on apache. But, I am more comfortable writing python code rather than php code. Can python be used as a server-side scripting language like php? What changes are necessary to make it work with apache?
Thanks
Bala Mudiam
For a REST full API I would suggest that you take a look at Tornado. It's what Facebook uses. It's fast, efficient and easy to work with (written i Python). You may use nginx as a proxy in front of it to server static content and allow more Tornado services for scaling.
Python is a very capable server-side language. Large sites (such as AG Interactive) use Python for server-side programming and have had great results. mod_python and mod_wsgi are 2 popular modules for Apache that allow you to serve Python.
Yes Python can be used as server-side language (as well as Perl, Ruby or even C/C++). Just use mod_python for Apache http://www.modpython.org/
I'll dare to say that mod_wsgi is probably closer to the de-facto choice (vs. mod_python) if you're stuck with Apache as your web server these days. One benefit is that you'll find a wide range of active frameworks and libraries that are WSGI compatible. Please don't read too deeply into "framework" - some things I'd lump in there are quite minimal, providing a few nice conveniences on top of raw WSGI to help you organize your code. Imagining that you're not looking to invest into a web framework itself just to get a REST interface up, you might check out restish as an option.
In my opinion python which is a popular language is better.
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I'm interested in this field,but I'm only familiar with PHP so far.
If not,can you recommend a tiny but not so bad project that's easy enough to learn?
Take a look at Program O: https://program-o.com/
This is the description of the project:
Program O is an AIML engine written in PHP with MySQL. Here you can
find support, help, bot add-ons, a brilliant and friendly community, and of course the Program O download files.
And this mini tutorial for creating Neural Networks in PHP:
http://www.developer.com/lang/php/creating-neural-networks-in-php.html
This site could be interesting for you as well:
http://ai-php.com/
I notice many people dislike the idea of working with AI with PHP, but since most of the websites are in PHP, it will be a very interesting start to bring AI to them.
PHP Artificial intelligence links.
This is a github project and the project is beautifully active. download and use. But documentation is not complete
php-ai/php-ml
PHP-ML - Machine Learning library for PHP
There are two projects based on the ALICE project. They are Program E which isn't really developed any longer, and Program O which is. You can find them both on SourceForge
Program O https://github.com/Program-O/Program-O
Program E https://sourceforge.net/projects/programe/
Update: Program O is now on GitHub and is still developed. Program E is still orphaned and still located at sourceforge.
PHP is mostly a web-based technology as far as I know.
AI work is typically done in other languages (e.g., Lisp). But that doesn't mean you can't port the ideas to something else like PHP.
But Google found this - first hit on "PHP artificial intelligence".
There are some other samples like spam detection (bayesian networks) or OCR (using newral networks). And i'm sorry guys, php is used also in a server side scripting language and also can be converted into desktop GUI applications with PHP-GTK.
Check this php samples: http://www.phpclasses.org/browse/class/103.html
I'm also searching in this topic, but I'm looking for some kind of simple implementation of rule=based programming in PHP and I just found this http://www.swindle.net/php-rules/ in Google.
Php probably won't be the best technology for AI but there's a library for neural networks which I used to implement on a website. http://ann.thwien.de/index.php/Main_Page It's quite simple but maybe it will help you.