There are two possible ways to bridge PHP and Java: you can either integrate PHP into a Java Servlet environment, which is the more stable and efficient solution, or integrate Java support into PHP. The former is provided by a SAPI module that interfaces with the Servlet server, the latter by this Java extension.

The Java extension provides a simple and effective means for creating and invoking methods on Java objects from PHP. The JVM is created using JNI, and everything runs in-process.

Example Code:

getProperty('java.version') . ''; echo 'Java vendor=' . $system->getProperty('java.vendor') . ''; echo 'OS=' . $system->getProperty('os.name') . ' ' . $system->getProperty('os.version') . ' on ' . $system->getProperty('os.arch') . ' '; // java.util.Date example $formatter = new Java('java.text.SimpleDateFormat', "EEEE, MMMM dd, yyyy 'at' h:mm:ss a zzzz"); echo $formatter->format(new Java('java.util.Date')); ?>

The behavior of these functions is affected by settings in php.ini.

Table 1. Java configuration options

Name

Default

Changeable

java.class.path

NULL

PHP_INI_ALL

Name Default Changeable

java.home

NULL

PHP_INI_ALL

java.library.path

NULL

PHP_INI_ALL

java.library

JAVALIB

PHP_INI_ALL