How to distribute PHP-GTK applications ?

rajuvk · Joined: 02 May 2006 Posts: 10 Location: Kerala, India

I have some experiance in PHP programming for the web. As a PHP-GTK programme can run on all platforms (this attracts me as my office has a mixed windows / linux environment), I get interested in PHP-GTK, and downloaded and installed the GNOPE installer on my Windows XP laptop. I created a simple programme for accounting my personnel expenses. It is a simple programme connecting to a MYSQL database. It has two treeviews, a combobox and a couple of entry boxes. It is working fairly good, and so far it is good.
How ever I could not find a way to create an EXE file to distribute my work. I assume that I have to distribute it as the source code file itself. I have no problem in distributing my work , but my concern is about PHP-GTK's utility for serious application development. if I decide to develope an application for use in my office, how can I prevent some curious users from editing the source code and change the behaviour of the application ?
Is PHP-GTK is suitable for developing large applications ?. How the interpreted style of execution of PHP will affect large applications ?

Raju

cweiske · Joined: 08 Dec 2005 Posts: 455 Location: Leipzig/Germany

Hello Rajuvk,

PHP was meant to be run on a server, delivering web pages to the users that didn't have any access to the sources. That far, nobody was concerned about the security of the code.

With PHP-CLI or PHP-Gtk apps, things have changed as the apps need to be delivered to end users and their computers. The first question is code obfuscation. You need a way to hide the source from the users to prevent changing them.
Normal applications do that by compiling the sources into a binary and distributing this. For PHP, there are several compilers:

bcompiler: http://pecl.php.net/package/bcompiler
Roadsend PHP Compiler: http://www.roadsend.com/home/index.php?SMC=1&pageID=compiler
A php compiler for the .net framework which is said to support php-gtk2 soon. www.php-compiler.net

The next thing is installing your application. Just distributing the source doesn't help as there need to be a php setup on the user's desktop. The next thing would be to create start menu entries or similar that make it easy to launch the program after installation.
Gnope partly solves this problems:

First, it allows you to install PHP-Gtk2 with just a few clicks, and you have a working environment.
Second: With the included PEAR package installer, it's easy to install PHP-Gtk2 applications that reside on any PEAR channel server in the web. The downside is that you need to setup the channel server, or publish your app on a public one (e.g. Gnope's own channel server)
Third: Gnope includes an application called "AppRunner", that has an own entry in the start menu and shows a list of available PHP-Gtk2 applications installed on the local computer. Click on it, and it starts.

If you want to make a one-click setup for your application, you could either develop your own installer, that sets up php, php-gtk2 and your application.
Or simply take the Gnope installer's sources and add your application to the list of installed pear packages. Compile it, and you're ready to distribute it. That way the Gnope installer will not only setup php, php-gtk2 and the gnope apps, but also your own application.
Remember that Gnope is GPL, meaning you can have and modify the sources, but need to contribute any changes back to the community.

rajuvk · Joined: 02 May 2006 Posts: 10 Location: Kerala, India

Thanks cweiske for the prompt reply. It is very interesting. I was not aware of existance of compilers for PHP. Do these compilers support PHP-GTK2 ?. What about LINUX environment ?. Is complilers available for LINUX also ? I was earlier read that same code runs on both windows and LINUX platform. Is that true for compiled codes ?.

What about my other question, Whether PHP-GTK is suitable for large application development (mainly office automation) ? Is it worth to learn PHP-GTK for this ?

Raju

scott · Joined: 16 Feb 2006 Posts: 35

beidlerj · Joined: 10 Feb 2006 Posts: 55 Location: Oregon, USA

I just got the email that Roadsend released version 2.0 of their PHP Compiler today... unfortunately, it still does not support PHP5/Gtk2... Crying or Very sad

rajuvk · Joined: 02 May 2006 Posts: 10 Location: Kerala, India

Hello everybody,
So can I conclude that there is no way to convert a PHP-GTK2 programme in to an exe, and distribute it ?. (The question is theoratical only as I have no programme ready for distribution, but plans to do some small test applications) And PHP-GTK2 is still in the nascent stage, and yet to be taken seriously ?.
Why a PHP compiler is not released along with the official PHP or PHP-GTK2, releases, since compiling is required for practically all PHP-GTK2 applications ?

Raju

will.garcia · Joined: 28 Apr 2006 Posts: 8

Hi,

I don't know if it's always actual but I have hear about differents ways to compile, encrypt PHP scripts and distribute with an installer :
- Bcompiler
- PHP Compiler (RoadSend)
- PriadoBlender
- IonCube Encode : encrypt php script (not free..)
- Installer : NSIS (NullSoft Install System)
- SetupStream32
- uses the embed sapi : what's sapi ???

Take a look also to a discussion about how to distribute PHP-GTK appli. : it maybe can help : http://www.webhostinghosts.com/forums/archive/o_t__t_12578__installation-and-distribution-programs.html
A citation : "Linux side I just make a rpm or distribute as a
tarball w/ a makefile which installs it as that is so easy to do and
what most Linux people know well."

Regards,
W.GARCIA

beidlerj · Joined: 10 Feb 2006 Posts: 55 Location: Oregon, USA

I have used Inno Setup to create an .exe file that installs PHP5/Gtk2 on the users system, then makes a folder in the Program Files directory, copies the PHP file (main application) to the folder along with supporting files. The installer also writes to the $PATH variable, creates shortcuts to launch the program from the Start Menu (and Desktop, if desired) and forces the user to reboot his/her machine for all this to take effect.

Very slick program (Inno Setup), and the best part is, it's FREE! Smile

It will be nice, though, when Roadsend gets PHP5/Gtk2 support added to their PHP Compiler... then the users of your executable won't have to have PHP installed on their system at all!

rgljr · Joined: 10 Apr 2006 Posts: 15 Location: Minnesota, USA

Anybody Tried the Phalanger PHP Compiler for .net framework?

FAQ has a response to this question:
"How to make PHP GTK application working? "

The response indicates that it should work, but haven't tried it myself.

cweiske · Joined: 08 Dec 2005 Posts: 455 Location: Leipzig/Germany

Thei FAQ talk only about PHP-Gtk1, not version 2 that we are using here.

omis28ca · Joined: 26 Dec 2005 Posts: 11 Location: Fresno, CA

There is a program called Nova (an open source Gnutella client built with PHP-GTK1) the author has a small Visual C++ 6 executable that runs the nova PHP file directly. He has released the source code here: http://novap2p.sourceforge.net/downloads/nova.zip Using this method one would only have to ecrypt or use a PHP Code Obfuscator to protect the code.

I compiled the example and it works very well with my php-gtk1 programs but a haven't tried it with the latest php-gtk2.dll.

will.garcia · Joined: 28 Apr 2006 Posts: 8

I haven't test but you can take a look at http://wildphp.free.fr/wiki/doku.php?id=win32std:embeder : Embeder is a program which permit to convert php scripts into an executable (only win32).

Regards.

omis28ca · Joined: 26 Dec 2005 Posts: 11 Location: Fresno, CA

I found this compiler at http://www.fsw2.com/showthread.php?p=1277459#post1277459
I will test it out and let everyone know if it works for me.

rgljr · Joined: 10 Apr 2006 Posts: 15 Location: Minnesota, USA

While the Priado Blender does not yet fully support the PHP-GTK2 environment as GNOPE does, it does have a potential future. The author of Priado Blender is waiting for the official release of GTK2 for PHP.

You can now create EXEs which support the PHP-GTK2/GNOPE environment, but they have a DOS window associated with them. PHP-GTK1 apps do not have the DOS window as they are supported natively by Priado Blender. Instructions for doing PHP-GTK2 apps with a DOS window are on the Forum at the link below.

http://pb.impressivegames.com/

Priado Blender is not a PHP compiler. It just appends the php code to the php interpreter, but you get an EXE. Still uses all the standard php dlls and php.ini file for configuration. So adding functions like GTK2 and MYSQL support is as easy as it is in standard PHP.

m_khattar · Joined: 19 May 2008 Posts: 1

hello, i tried to use inno setup but i didn't know how to put all php-gtk2 files in one installer, can you provide me with the steps you followed? or with the setup file?

I would be very thankful