IBM Backs PHP for Web Development

Christopher Reimer writes "C|Net is reporting that IBM will be getting behind the open-source language PHP for its WebSphere server software and tools. From the article: 'Big Blue's public commitment to PHP is significant because the company has the technical and marketing resources to accelerate usage of the open-source product.'" Evidently PHP is indeed becoming more popular.

Comments

Net.Data

[Xunker]

For those who ever used it, it looks as though IBM is taking on PHP as a replacement for its old web language "Net.Data".

Ask and ye shall receive

[JimDabell]

Not until netcraft confirms it is it getting popular!

Very well then.

Re:Market share

[FullMetalAlchemist]

I've moving into WebSphere (WS) as a system architect later this week (new job, wo-ha!). The impression I got is that it's VERY popular, just that WS Application Server (WSAS) is middleware, and you can really run WSAS with Apache or IIS as front-end if you really want to.

WS is as straitforward as .NET, i.e. not at all; it's both a product, and a concept (i.e. marketspeek). The WSAS is the product, and WS the marketspeek is a load of crap.

Personally I would rather see a Boo solution, it would more elegant than anything on the market, it it will never make it though for the same reasons PHP is so successful; which as nothing to do with being a really good product (like most success stories).

Re:Market share

[Eric Giguere]

the closest analog in OSS would be Tomcat

The closest open source analog would be JBoss. Tomcat isn't really an application server, either, at least not the way the term is used conventionally in the industry. (It is kind of fuzzy, though.) Tomcat is a servlet container. A servlet container is a necessary (but not sufficient) part of a J2EE application server, but Tomcat by itself is not a J2EE application server. See my other posting for better things to compare WebSphere to.

Eric

Websphere == product line brand name

[meatball_mulligan]

The term "Websphere" could mean alot of different things. It is IBM's branding for all of their middleware and web related products:

• Websphere Application Server(WAS)
  This is their J2EE application server. It plays in the sam space as BEA's WebLogic App Server, JBoss, etc. It's the cornerstone of their Websphere line and comes in many sizes and flavors, running on anything from a single server, to clusters of servers, to minis, to the Mainframe.
• Websphere Studio Application Developer(WSAD)
  This is their primary J2EE development tool. It's built around the Eclipse framework IBM developed and released to open source, so their are also tons and tons of other tools that plugin to WSAD.
• Websphere Portal Server(WPS)
  A portal and colaboration server built on top of WAS. WPS also includes a lot of the technologies that grew out of their Domino platform.
• Websphere MQ
  IBM's Message Oriented Middleware foundation. (Formerly MQSeries)
• Websphere Business Integration
  EAI
• Websphere Commerce Server
  B2C
• Websphere Everyplace
  mobile connectivity

... and on and on for about a hundred products. One of the few products not branded "Websphere" is their web server, an Apache distro, called simply "IBM HTTPD" or "IBM HTTP Server".

What about Domino

[mnmn]

I've seen plenty of sites running on Lotus Domino, for example symantec. Domino can run java programs, not particularly applets and beans... but is a snappier version of websphere focused on mail and calendars. Since it has strong support for sessions, using PHP with it makes lots of sense.

Otherwise we'd have to resort to installing websphere over domino (connector) and then using php in websphere. To run the whole thing we'd probably need one of the Sun dual-Athlon64 servers...

Re:Power? Performance? Ease of Use?

[cyranoVR]

*SIGH* My point was that for some reason PHP is the only language I've learned that makes a big deal over "Magic Quotes." Either the PHP authors are onto something that it happens nobody else has caught onto after 5+ years (yeah, right) or they have introduced a feature that just confuses everybody and 99% of the time gets turned off anyway.

How about instead of making coders puzzle over Magic Quotes related issues, we instead make them read an informative article on preventing cross site scripting / SQL injection. "Teach a man to fish..." etc.

What is so hard to understand about that?

Re:What had "Websphere" been using? Java exclusive

[TopSpin]

What had "Websphere" been using? Java exclusively?

Websphere is a full application server stack. One part of that happens to be the "IBM HTTP Listener", which is Apache repackaged. It is also a straightforward way to run Apache with a working SSL implementation on Windows. I used it a few years ago to run a PHP site on W2K. It worked pretty well and problems were actively addressed on IBM's support forums.

It was a good experience overall. If I ever have to run a PHP site on Windows again (as opposed to feeding my forehead into a belt sander) I'd use it.