PHP Beyond the Web: shell scripts, desktop software, system daemons and more

Leverage your existing web based PHP skills to write all types of software. CLI scripts, desktop software, network servers and more – this book will give you the tools, techniques and background necessary to write just about any type of software you can think of, using the PHP you know.

PHP is no longer just a great scripting language for websites, it’s now a powerful general-purpose programming language. Expand your use of PHP into your back-end systems, server software, data processing services, desktop interfaces and more.

This book will show you how to take your knowledge of PHP development for the web and utilise it with a much wider range of software systems.

Learn how to create :

• Interactive shell scripts
• System daemons
• Desktop software
• Network servers
• and more.

We also cover related topics including :

• Performance
• Deployment
• Licensing
• System interaction
• Hardware interaction including electronics with the Raspberry Pi and PHP

as well as covering software tools for development and outlining other great sources of technical information and help.

This book will introduce you to the tools, techniques and background necessary to program just about anything you can think of, using the PHP you already know. It will also take you through some of the tools used by serious software developers and engineers, and introduce further sources of information and online resources that will help you get serious about developing real software in PHP.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. Introduction
Chapter 2. Getting away from the Web – the basics
Chapter 3. Understanding the CLI SAPI, and why you need to
Chapter 4. Development tools
Chapter 5. User facing software
Chapter 6. System software
Chapter 7. Interacting with other software
Chapter 8. Talking to the system
Chapter 9. Performance & stability – profiling and improving
Chapter 10. Distribution and deployment issues
Chapter 11. Where now? or, Thanks & feedback
Appendix A : Compiling and installing PHP and its extensions
Appendix B : File & data format libraries for PHP
Appendix C : Sources of help
Appendix D : Interesting libraries, tools, articles and projects
Appendix E : Integrated Development Environments for PHP