Installing PHP-GTK

Anon

I have the latest versions of Apache and PHP running on Windows 98 SE, and I'm going to be using this setup for testing and development. I unzipped the PHP-GTK files, followed the Readme instructions, and restarted Apache.

When I access any file created for GTK it says "Can't use dl() on multithreaded servers"

I looked into this, and it appears its trying to dynamically load the GTK extension, but Apache is blocking it...

mithril

Jason,

PHP-GTK is a binding of PHP to the GTK+ GUI Toolkit. It's designed to allow you to write stand-alone, GUI client applications using PHP (email clients, IRC clients, database managers, etc.). It is not designed to work with a webserver, and probably never will be. To run the distro samples (which I'm guessing is what you're trying to do), use the following command from a DOS console:

  <path_to_binary>php.exe -q <path_to_source_file>

You must copy the 6 GTK dll's to c:\windows\system in order for the proggie to work. If you choose to use php_win.exe instead of php.exe (it forces the console window to close once the app is started) you must add the full path (including file) of php_win.exe to your autoexec then restart WinDoze:

  PHP_BIN="c:\php-gtk\php_win.exe"

For more info check out gtk.php.net, gtk.php-coder.net, and www.deafcat.f2s.com (for starters). HTH.

geoff

Anon

Received this when accessing the file in that way. Note that I am able to access non-GTK scripts from the DOS prompt with the same command.

Warning: Unable to load dynamic library './php_gtk.dll' - One of the library files needed to run this application cannot be found.

mithril

Yup, loading the php_gtk.dll extension is pretty important if you're trying to run PHP-GTK apps🙂

First some theory. When executed, php.exe has a specific order in which it looks for php.ini and dll's. The first place it looks for php.ini is it's native directory, then your system folders, and finally your PATH. The same order is followed for dll's if php.ini is not found. If php.ini is found, it reads to extension_dir directive and looks exclusively in the path(s) specified there.

Now what you can do to solve the php_gtk.dll load problem? First, we'll assume that you extracted the PHP-GTK distro to c:\php-gtk and c:\windows\system (BTW, version 0.1.1 was released yesterday). If you're running your webserver's php.ini in c:\windows\system, place a copy of php.ini in c:\php-gtk and comment out any extension load lines. This will prevent your gtk apps from trying to load extensions which are not compiled for the php-gtk build. You can however add a line to statically load the php_gtk.dll extension if you wish (though this is redundant since it's usually called from within the script).

Now, verify that the following files from the php-gtk distribution are in c:\php-gtk:

    php.exe
    php_win.exe
    php4ts.dll
    php_gtk.dll

As long as those files are all in the same directory, PHP-GTK should work properly. You may also want to add c:\php-gtk to your %PATH% so you don't need to type the full path everytime.

Let me know if you still can't get it working. HTH.

geoff

Anon

PHP and GTK are installed in C:\Server\PHP
My directory with the sample files is C:\Server\PHP\samples

In my frustration, I have copied all files included in the distro to:
C:\Server\PHP
C:\Server\PHP\samples
C:\Windows
C:\Windows\System
C:\Windows\System32

And I still receieve the same error. Where could it possibly be looking for that file?

Anon

Try this:

extract the zip files to a new folder called "php-gtk"

copy all dll's you find in the new subdirectories (php-gtk\php4 and php-gtk\WINNT\system32)to c:\WINNT\system32 folder (or Win98 equiv.)

Set environment variable:
(on 98 Type: "PHP_BIN=c:\php-gtk\php4\php_win.exe" in your autoexec.bat file after everything).

Test it:
Open dos prompt.
Type: "C:\php-gtk\php4\php_win.exe -q c:\php-gtk\test\scribble.php"

that's it!

-j