miroslavp2000 wrote:

>--- In Firebird-general@yahoogroups.com, "Johan van Zyl" <johan@j...>
>wrote:
>
>
>>If we can get the PHP world to embrace Firebird like they embraced
>>
>>
>MySQL,
>
>
>>and when we start seeing books like
>>"PHP and Firebird" like the many I see for "PHP and MySQL" then we
>>
>>
>are
>
>
>>cookin'.
>>
>>
>
>Do we really have need of "PHP and Firebird"? It is very hard to be on
>different type of markets (like web development and SME). Even MS does
>not try this ;)
>
>Cheers,
>----
>Miroslav Penchev
>
>
>

On occation one wants to make an application that's easy to distribute.
A Firebird server, with clients written in for example Delphi or C#....
and you got a reasonably easy system to install for your users. The
moment you have a client / server model, with data that might be of
interest to your clients customers... you should think about adding a
web interface to you data.
-Now, if you should keep your production data on Firebird, and your
"web" data on a MySQL (or PostgreSQL) server, you have to set up some
sort of export - import rutine, probably using txt files to transfer the
nesessary data.
-This export - import rutine is cumbersome.
-It will take a lot of system resources, both on export and imort.
(Usually solved by running it at night.)
-It will on occation break down (at a time proscribed by Murphys law).
-It will occationally induse errors .
-(Both breakage and errors can be indused by someone alters a
production wiev, or some (l)user misstypes, and enters your deliminator
in a text field. (1 is VERY easy to misstype as |, at least on a
Norwegian Keyboard. However, finding the error reported on line 214367
(witch really is on line 214366) is not quite as easy. Let's just say,
me and sed has become good friends...))
-And it will keep your web data outdated.
Now throw in web based customer feedback, and you have a maintainance
nightmare.
-On the other hand, let's say you connect the web site to you production
database.
-You need to take a good look at security. (But you probably need to
anyways.)
-You have a web server that will access the data, thus taking some
system resources at the database server. (I guestimate about as much as
another client or so.)
-Your clients customers get to good a view at your clients operations.
(They can literaly watch progress in real time.) Good sales point,
clients employees might hate it

As for why use PHP...
-It's a cross platform server side scripting languag. It has ready to
use binaries for about any platfor you find Firebird for (And NotWell
NetWare)
-I currently work with installations on both Windows and Linux. OK, I
use Apache as the web server on both, but I know I could just as easily
have used IIS on the Windows box. (With the exeption that IIS in itself
is a royal pain in the posterior.)
-And as a scripting language it has a reasonable balance between ease of
use, and power...

Regards, Karl