NYCPHP Meetup

[Jayesh Sheth]

Hello all,

I have done some research on the topic of using PHP to power a CD-based 
presentation/data retrieval program; I have not come up with any good 
answers yet (on how best to utilize PHP for this purpose). I thought 
that the smart people on this list might have insight into this issue.

The problem is as follows:
I would like to create a program that pop-ups when a user inserts a CD 
into their computer. This program will let the user enter the product 
code of Company A or Company B and it, in turn, will display the 
corresponding code for the same product manufactured by Company C. (This 
project would be for Company C.) When the code for the product by 
Company C is shown, corresponding details such as product image and 
specifications should also be available.

So, I would (most probably) need to store all this product data in a 
database, and then retrieve that information from another program.

Doing this thing with PHP, Apache and MySQL is no problem. The problem, 
however, occurs when I want to package this program onto a CD. Wouldn't 
a PHP, Apache, MySQL combination be too heavy for an offline, 
run-from-CD program? Would users cancel any installation program and not 
use the CD if it were that heavy? What would other solutions to this 
problem be?

Here are some answers I came up with:

* PHP-GTK - http://gtk.php.net/ + SQLite
I looked into PHP-GTK and played with it a bit. It looks nice, but I am 
still confused by the wide variety of tools available for it, especially 
on Windows. And I am not sure if PHP-GTK programs can talk to SQLite. If 
they can, I am not sure how to package my PHP-GTK programs along with 
the PHP binary and the SQLite database  on a CD. Can anyone recommend a 
good book on PHP-GTK ?

* XUL + PHP + MySQL / XUL + PHP + SQLite
The MozPHP plugin available at http://mozphp.mozdev.org/ lets you run 
PHP scripts directly through Mozilla, without needing the Apache server. 
  So, I could add Mozilla to the CD (along with the MozPHP plugin) and 
then make Mozilla display a PHP script which will generate a XUL based 
interface. The PHP script will still have to access some database: 
SQLite, perhaps? MySQL, maybe?

If it is MySQL, is there an embeddable / portable version of MySQL?

* JavaScript + XUL + MySQL -
There is are a couple of Mozilla add-ons that lets Mozilla directly 
access a MySQL database via JavaScript.
There is one by Jan Varga at mozilla.org (the one that looked better), 
but I cannot find the URL for it now.
The other one is at http://mysql.mozdev.org/ .
I do not like JavaScript's syntax that much, and as far as I remember 
both add-ons were not documented that much.

* Java + MySQL / Java + SQLite / Java + Berkeley DB
Well, in this option I am abandoning PHP totally. I will use Java to 
create a program that embeds another database engine.

Which option do you think is the best / most practical? Is PHP suited to 
making offline programs ? Can MySQL be embedded in PHP / Java programs ?

Thanks in advance.

Best Regards,

- Jay Sheth