PHP-CPP ======= The PHP-CPP library is a C++ library for developing PHP extensions. It offers a collection of well documented and easy-to-use classes that can be used and extended to build native extensions for PHP. Unlike regular PHP extensions - which are really hard to implement and require a deep knowledge of the Zend engine and pointer manipulation - extensions built with PHP-CPP are not difficult to develop at all. In fact, the only thing you need to do is write a function in C++, and the PHP-CPP library uses all the power offered by C++11 to convert the parameters and return values from your functions to/and from PHP:
std::string hello_word() { return std::string("hello world!"); }The function above is a native C++ function. With PHP-CPP you can export this function to PHP with only one single C++ method call:
extension.function("hello_world", hello_world);Working with parameters and return values is just as easy:
int my_plus(int a, int b) { return a+b; }The PHP-CPP library ensures that the variables from PHP (which internally are complicated C structures), are automatically converted into integers, passed to your function, and that the return value of your "my_plus" function is also converted back into a PHP variable. Type conversion between native C/C++ types and PHP variables is handled by PHP-CPP, using features from the C++11 language. It does not matter if your functions accept strings, integers, booleans or other native parameters: PHP-CPP takes care of the conversion. The return value of your function is also transformed by PHP-CPP into PHP. More complicated structured can be handled by PHP-CPP as well. If you would like to return a nested associative array from your function, you can do so too:
PhpCpp::Value get_complex_array() { PhpCpp::Value r; r["a"] = 123; r["b"] = 456; r["c"][0] = "nested value"; r["c"][1] = "example"; return r; }The C++ function above is equivalent to the following function in PHP:
function get_complex_array() { return array( "a" => 123, "b" => 456, "c" => array("nested_value","example") ); }However, this library is currently a work in progress, and it is an open source project. We are looking for people who'd like to contribute to it. PHP-CPP is an initiative from Copernica BV. For more information, contact me at emiel.bruijntjes@copernica.com. Emiel Bruijntjes (1 September 2013)