PHP-GTK

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

PHP-GTK is an extension for the PHP programming language that implements language bindings for GTK+. It provides an object-oriented interface to GTK+ classes and functions and greatly simplifies writing client-side cross-platform GUI applications.

History

PHP-GTK was originally conceived by Andrei Zmievski, who is also actively involved in the development of PHP and the Zend Engine. The idea was received well by the PHP community, and more people started to get involved with the project. James Moore and Steph Fox were among the first to join in, contributing a great deal to PHP-GTK through their documentation efforts, and Frank Kromann - also from the PHP development team - supplied Windows binaries for the project.

The first version of PHP-GTK was released in March 2001. More people began to get involved, and several extensions were contributed introducing new widgets, such as Scintilla and GtkHTML. PHP-GTK 1.0 was released in October 2003 alongside several extensions - including a wrapper for libglade, which allowed the cross-platform Glade UI builder to be used in creating PHP-GTK applications.

Present

PHP-GTK was quickly adopted by the PHP community. Several applications were developed, and a small job market even emerged. Andrei and Steph are still working hard on the project, with Steph now maintaining PHP-GTK for Windows.

Development is in full swing for the next major version of PHP-GTK. PHP-GTK 2 fully utilizes PHP 5's powerful object model support, and brings the improved portability of GTK 2.6 as well as its new set of widgets. The project also has some new extensions such as GtkSourceView, which provides a rich source editor widget, alongside some of the old favourites.

Documentation for PHP-GTK 2 is filling out rapidly. Several articles and tutorials have been written on the topic, and around half the classes have been fully documented. Scott Mattocks, an active member of the PHP-GTK documentation group, has also written a book on the subject of PHP-GTK programming. ^[1]

Example

<?phpfunction pressed(){    echo "Hello again - The button was pressed!";}$window = new GtkWindow();$button = new GtkButton('Click Me');$window->set_title('Hello World!');$window->connect_simple('destroy', array('Gtk', 'main_quit'));$button->connect_simple('clicked', 'pressed');$window->add($button);$window->show_all();Gtk::main();?>

The sample PHP-GTK 2 program instantiates a GtkWindow widget with the title "Hello World!", containing a GtkButton labelled "Click Me." When the button is pressed, the message "Hello again - The button was pressed!" is displayed on the console via the callback pressed.

Deployment

Several tools have sprung up that assist the simple deployment of PHP-GTK applications. PHP compilers such as PriadoBlender and Roadsend (Currently only compatible with PHP-GTK 1) enable the compilation of applications written in PHP-GTK to a standalone binary executable. Alan Knowles' PECL package, bcompiler, also allows compilation of PHP into bytecode to protect the source.

Gnope is a tool providing a straightforward means of deployment under Windows. It allows transparent installation of PHP-GTK 2, and applications written using it, through Gnope's own PEAR-compatible channel.

Significant uses

• NovaP2P, an open source Gnutella client.
• Agata Report - A Reporting tool.
• Tulip Editor - A PHP IDE based on PHP-GTK.
• LinuxStok - small Brazilian ERP.

Future

Although already usable to a large extent, PHP-GTK 2 is undergoing heavy development in anticipation of an alpha release. Current priorities include API completeness, methods to create new custom widgets and performance optimizations.

External links

• PHP-GTK Official Website
• PHP-GTK 2 Documentation
• PHP-GTK 2 Resources
• Glade - a UI builder for GTK+
• Gnope - a setup tool for PHP-GTK 2 under Windows
• PHP-GTK Community - Global PHP-GTK Community Portal, links to other regional community portals
• Brazilian PHP-GTK Community Portal
• PriadoBlender - an open source PHP compiler
• Bambalam PHP EXE Compiler/Embedder - free command line tool to convert PHP applications to standalone Windows apps.

References

1. ^ Mattocks, Scott. Pro PHP-GTK. ISBN 1-59059-613-7.