COM, php and. linux

wildcard58

I have a script that works with outlook and exchange fine, but it runs with PHP on a windows server (COM module is only avaliabe in the windows version of php).

Is it possible to connect to a windows box from a linux machine and access a windows application through COM, securley e.g. ssh ?

cheers in advance

AstroTeg

How would the Linux box access the Windows machine? How would Linux trigger the COM object on the Windows box?

wildcard58

what im getting at is can you have a a windows machine running outlook or exchange on you network and then have a seperate machine, also on your network you have a linux machine, running say LAMP; can that linux machine connect to Outlook/Exchange on the windows machine?

if so how?

is there a way of triggering the COM object remotley.

i think you can connect the two servers using SSH, cant you?

laserlight

Use Wine?

Though I have my doubts if that will work here.

When you say "network", do you mean internal network, or over the Internet?

For a LAN, you may not need SSH.
Over the Internet, perhaps it would be better to look for an alternative method to achieving your objectives, this one looks rather convoluted.

AstroTeg

Originally posted by wildcard58
can that linux machine connect to Outlook/Exchange on the windows machine?

Not directly. Exchange server maybe (Novell just released a Linux connector for Exchange). Outlook is just a client. It connects to servers. Clients can not plug into other clients.

Originally posted by wildcard58

is there a way of triggering the COM object remotley.

You could get into PEAR or SOAP. But this would require a PEAR or SOAP listener service to be running on the target Windows computer. I'm not sure you'd find any "off the shelf" apps that will do this. In theory, you could write your own.

Originally posted by wildcard58

i think you can connect the two servers using SSH, cant you?

SSH is a protocol and tool used for a client to securely connect to a server. Notice that a client and server are involved. It means the server will not be able to access the client's resources. Unless of course the client is running an SSH listening service and the server initiates an SSH session. You can find more SSH info here:

http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=ssh&sektion=1