Php & RPG ? do they talk (& what do they talk about?)

[itp]

Is it possible to call a RPG or CL program from a php web program and return variables? I am assuming php is running on iseries. If so, does RPG/CL program have to be written to accommodate CGI/HTML type variables with SQL wrappers or some java-goo, or does something magically interpret the variables for me. I know I get use SQL drivers to get a record or a set or records from as/400 database, however sometimes I would need a RPG program to access data and perform calculations (eg complicated tax calculations) before returning a value or set of values.

Can the same program (assuming no interactive green screen) run both native and from php web script?

I have seen examples like the following...

$dbh = odbc_connect("Driver={Client Access ODBC Driver (32-bit)};System=ipaddress",'user','pwd'); 
$sql = 'CALL /QSYS.LIB/MYLIB.LIB/EXAMPLECL.PGM(?,?)'; 
$stmt = odbc_prepare($dbh, $sql); 

[bryce4president]

Re: Php & RPG ? do they talk (& what do they talk about?)

Let me just say that I know this is possible. There is a guy here that is currently writing a web application in PHP and he has some back end business logic in RPG. I'm not exactly sure how he's connecting the two, but its definitely working I'll see if I can't find out a little bit more for you.

[bryce4president]

Re: Php & RPG ? do they talk (& what do they talk about?)

I think you are gonna like this one

first the code....

// Setup parameters in associative array...
$desc = array (

	array ("name" => "corder", "io" => I5_INOUT, "type" => I5_TYPE_CHAR, "length" => "6"),
	array ("name" => "line", "io" => I5_INOUT, "type" => I5_TYPE_CHAR, "length" => "3"),
); 

// Prepare the program, similar to prototype in ILE...
$prog = i5_program_prepare("PAC100R", $desc);
if ($prog === FALSE)
{
	$errorTab = i5_error();
	echo "Program prepare failed <br>";
	var_dump($errorTab);
	die();
}

You basically set up your parameters into an array and then call the i5_program_prepare(program, parmlist); function.

This is specific to the i5 and is included with Zend Core for i5, which if your PHP server is on the i5 I think you should have it

Then you can just have a program that accepts parameters on the iSeries. I would start here, if you have any more questions just ask and I'll try to find out more.

[itp]

Re: Php & RPG ? do they talk (& what do they talk about?)

I found a very nice summary of these new "i5" php functions here, including the one for program calls. However I have to wonder who's bright idea it was to prefix each function with the version of th OS.

Zend i5

PHP Toolkit Functions Categories:

• Connection Management
• System Values
• CL Calls
• User Spaces
• Program Calls
• Job Log List
• Data Retrieval
• Active Job List
• Native File Access
• Data Areas
• SQL File Access
• Spooled File
• Transactions
• Object Listing
• Data Queues

[bryce4president]

Re: Php & RPG ? do they talk (& what do they talk about?)

I'm guessing it wasn't Zend's idea. They are usually cleaner than that.