Delphi for PHP targets the most common configuration, with the exception of this error

Here’s hoping it stays that way. And thanks!

The code runs just as well on a linux system as a windows system. There is a layer of indirection there, yes, but even your basic cheap hosting can run the Delphi for PHP apps just fine.

That said you get what you pay for. If you buy a $4.99 a month service with a MySQL server, you’re going to have a hard time talking them into loading a Firebird extension into PHP. That would be true, I suspect on Windows IIS or Apache just as it is under Linux Apache.

But Delphi for PHP targets the most common configuration, with the exception of this error, for which Nathan has suggested a fix.

Obviously if an extension isn’t installed at all then you are hosed. I was thinking more whether an individual account on a hosting service could point to its own PHP.INI file so as to be able to turn on the extensions that it wanted. Or perhaps you can do something in the .htaccess file that will change how Apache runs PHP. I guess I need to ask Pair’s support guys. I’ve just been too busy doing other things this week.

I just worry about the whole concept, because a $250 PHP product targeted at people who are Windows developers is going to leave a lot of CodeGear customers needing to understand how PHP and Apache interact in a *n*x environment. And I’m afraid that when I try to get help from *n*x people I tend to get “we don’t want no pea-brained minions of the Evil Empire round here” answers.

Basically I want CodeGear to make it a priority to try to handle these issues for its customers, because if it doesn’t there will be a lot of frustrated users out there.

BTW this explaination bothers me a bit. It might not be correct. The inconsistency is that to a linux system a .so file is the same thing as a .DLL. At least that is my understanding. SOOOooo, why is a recompile required? My guess is that “There is no such thing as a paradox” and therefore something I “know” is wrong.

How’s that for a helpfull answer?

Do I take it from this that there is no easy way to add PHP extensions to a hosted system? I’d be kind of worried if I thought that the D4PHP folks were assuming that everyone who used the product had full control over their own hosting.

It’s in System.inc.php. Here:
class InputFilter
{
function process($input)
{
//TODO: Our own input filtering class in native PHP code
//NOTE: Comment this line to don’t raise the exception an get the unfiltered input
throw new Exception(”The Input Filter PHP extension is not setup on this PHP installation, so the contents
returned by Input is *not* filtered”);
return($input);
}
}

That takes care of the issue.
Maybe Mr. Anderson will wander by here and provide a link to his alternative fix…

“That means you don’t have setup the Input Filter PHP Extension in your system, if you don’t need to get input filter, you can edit your system.inc.php, and search for “throw new Exception”, around line 226 and remove safely that line”

And yes, there are examples… And they do work!

Well, they work in the IDE. And I can now get them to work on my test server. As for live, I still haven’t managed to find out how to activate the input filter on my host site. Lack of FTP tool, crappy help, these things I can deal with. Example code that I can’t get to run is irritating.

Then “we” will be light years ahead of our competition who somehow can make sense of VB and ASP’s crappy, crappy langage! (I lose money every time I take one of those jobs!!)

There IS a reason Code Gear picked PHP for this endeavor!

And yes, there are examples… And they do work!

After this weekend, I’ll have completed one after hours project and I should have time to devote to some web apps and I plan on growing some of my sites again like D4php.com. Delphi for PHP should enable me to do some fun stuff. I’m sure I could do it without, but using Delphi for PHP, I’ll get my self further into that mindset.

I will point out for those that don’t have the product that there are 52 example projects of various degrees of difficulty available in the VCL Projects directory, but Eric was looking for code examples in the documentation. So, that doesn’t dispute his point either.

But….. Delphi for PHP is a long way away from MY PHP editor…. Look telling me that “every web master will have an FTP program” is like telling Kettering that every Mechanic who drives a car should be able to crank start it by hand. Thus who cares if the some cars have an electric starter.

I’m not going backwards to an IDE for PHP where there is a bunch of extra steps?!?! FTP is built in to the Free-be IDE’s. Click, load from remote site, edit, save… done. Not click deploy, click-yes I am ready, click-next, click-Finish… Open FTP, Click open, site, find deploy folder, click to save…

Yuck! All I hear is my customer saying, “what is taking you so long?”

Then, and this is BIG…. Have you seen the help file??!?!?? Here is a sample:
“Description
DBGrid class

A component to show a dataset in a tabular way”

Really? A component to show a dataset in a tabular way… well, NOW I get it!!

Where’s the samples?! I learn by reading others’ code. Boland was the best at it!!! Now, they ran it through Doc-O-Matic and said “Ship it!”….

I’m warming up to Delphi for PHP but, only as entertainment. I’ve clicked and dragged a DB and created a grid… Slick, Slick stuff! (I’m STILL tring to figure out how to put a grid in “insert mode”, I’m figuring it doesn’t do that, but damn it SOME help in the help file would go along way)…

Again, it’s a premature release. No amount of: “well, it has code completion” will change that fact. I’m a die hard fan of Delphi… I’m just facing facts.

Lack of FTP functionality should not be an issue. Anyone who builds web sites should already have FTP software. As for documentation, isn’t it almost always useless? But something that CodeGear and/or Qadram seem to have forgotten is that their customers won’t necessarily be familiar with either PHP or *n*x systems. As we’ve seen with the input filter issue, it is all very well to supply a working version of PHP with the IDE, but if you are developing code for deployment you may already have a local test server and you certainly have a host server. Both of those need to have PHP configured so that the VCL can run. That’s something that users may not know how to do. In my case the fixes to the VCL mean that I’ve been able to get the VCL running on my own (Windows-based) test server, but I still have no idea what to do about my host because they are still on PHP 5.1.1, which needs the input filter extension installed, and is on a *n*x system.

Hopefully there are people at CodeGear/Qadram running around trying to fix such issues, but in the meantime us guinea pig users are reliant on folk like you who know what you are talking about for advice.

By the way, I’m an enthusiastic WordPress user and when I can finally get the VCL running I’m eager to see what I can do for WordPress with it.

Yep, D1 didn’t have the code completion etc.. But, fast forward to 2007. there are tons of ASP and PHP ide’s out there. The PHP editor I use today does have code (well, function) completion. And it has a built in FTP for deploying.

Dreamweaver is another program that does all the MySQL/PHP building. They don’t call it a Data Unit but, can just drag and drop the field and it builds all the code. Just hit save, and it’s out on the net. Delphi4PHP does not have VB to complete with but, there is competition…

For the record, I’ve emailed CodeGear to ask for my money back… I’ll WILL buy it when it’s click and deploy. I’m not debugging it for them. I don’t have time/money to do that…

Overall, excited and disappointed. Although I did expect problems in the 1.0 release, and fully expect CG to rapidly address the issues, I find myself having to mine thru code libraries to locate errors — code which I have not written, and some of which is a bit complex. Nontheless, lets face it — this tool will fundamentally change the way us non-microsoft developers create web apps, and I am looking forward to the future of this product.

Is it better than Delphi 1. Hard to say — I think YES, because there is nothing to directly compete with it (whereas with delphi 1, there was VB).

It’s sad to see CodeGear so much focused on revenue issues and not keeping up with their motto of “where developers matter”. Unfortunately, CG is a company like any other so they need to make money. They could, however, have chosen a more true motto. Not that, the people at CodeGear won’t do everything in their power to help you with your issues, but it would be much better not to have so many issues to begin with, especially when they are caused by rushing out incomplete products which still come out with quite a few number of easily identifiable major issues that result from rushing them through the door to make money in the first quarter…