Running a C++ application through PHP

echoindia756

Hi all,

I'm having some trouble with a command line C++ based application.
Basically, I have a VPS. When I use SSH to type commands into the application, it works perfectly and stores the inserted data (which is in the command line), to the database.

What I want to do is gather information from the users account, assign it to a variable, for example:

$username = $CurrentUser['username'];

And then use the variable for use in the C++ application, possibly use the "shell_exec" function to input the command into the C++ application.

So it would be something like this:

shell_exec( --t a5-$username );

Would that method work?

Any help or advice much appreciated.

echoindia756

Anyone any ideas? 😕

nrg_alpha

I'm not experienced in C coding (hell, I'm not very experienced in any language to be honest), but this sounds to me like it would not be possible. I am thinking this because PHP is a server side language, and C++ is a client side language. So how would those two languages communicate? They are completely different systems designed for completely different purposes.

However, I have been known to be wrong before...

Cheers,

NRG

laserlight

nrg_alpha wrote:
I am thinking this because PHP is a server side language, and C++ is a client side language.

That is a misconception though. C++ is a general purpose programming language, and PHP can be used to code client applications (e.g., with PHP-GTK, but I have no experience in this area).

echoindia756 wrote:
And then use the variable for use in the C++ application, possibly use the "shell_exec" function to input the command into the C++ application.

That said, why involve a C++ program in the first place? Generally, you cannot directly access PHP variables from a C++ program, but you could pass values via the command line, or have the C++ program access the same database, etc.

nrg_alpha

laserlight;10888775 wrote:
That is a misconception though. C++ is a general purpose programming language, and PHP can be used to code client applications (e.g., with PHP-GTK, but I have no experience in this area).

All I can do is quote myself earlier:

nrg_alpha;10888774 wrote:
However, I have been known to be wrong before...

See how effective covering all your bases can be? 😃

bretticus

Hold the phone! Maybe I didn't read this right, but you basically want php to call an executable. I don't think you meant call a php function from your c++ source code.

c++ or not, you still have to compile that c++ code to a binary. This shouldn't be different than calling any other binary (ping, wget, lynx, cat, etc.)

Note: The script will run in the web server's user environment. So be sure to give the entire path:

shell_exec( '/bin/cat' );

Don't forget to make your binary executable:

$ sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/your_binary

I have been using *nix for several years now. Maybe I'm missing something again but:

shell_exec( --t a5-$username );

The "--t" part is confusing can you enlighten me on that?