phing: building with php

Phing: Building in PHP

Hans LellelidInternational PHP Conference

2007-11-06

Hans Lellelid: Phing: Building in PHP 2

Introduction• My name is Hans Lellelid• Developer & Manager at Applied Security,

Inc. (near Washington DC).• PHP developer and OO evangelist.• I ported Phing to PHP5 in 2004.• I now manage the Phing project with

Michiel Rook.


This Talk• Brief Overview & “Justification”• Basic Usage• Packaginig & Deployment• Development Cycle• Extending Phing• Slides available at

http://phing.info/presentations/

http://phing.info/presentations/


What is it?• PHing Is Not Gnumake• It is a project build tool.• Original PHP4 version by Andreas Aderhold• Written for PHP5• Based on Apache Ant• Cross-platform (i.e. Windows too)• It seems to have caught on.

– Propel, Prado, Symfony, Agavi, Xinc (to name a few)


Why do I need a build tool for PHP?


Building != Compiling• In this context, “building” is really any non-

development task that supports your application.

• This could include– Configuring– Packaging– Uploading– Testing– Etc.


PHP apps > web pages• PHP is no longer a simple web scripting

language.• We are using PHP to do all sorts of things

on the CLI:– Run unit tests (PHPUnit, SimpleTest)– Build API docs (PhpDocumentor)– Install and Package (PEAR)


Web apps get deployed• PHP web applications do eventually get

deployed.• Deployment has a whole lot of implications:

– Permissions– Environment setup– App Configuration


Phing can help.• Anything you can do with a shell script you

can do with Phing.• And a whole lot more ...

– Transform directories and files.– Configure your application– Prepare files for deployment– Run unit tests– Do other useful stuff – like SVN commits or

db initialization.


But why Phing specifically?• Other choices do exist: Ant, Rake, NAnt• With Phing you only need PHP.• A PHP tool for PHP apps just makes a lot of

sense:– Familiar territory, common environment– You can embed PHP directly in your build

scripts.– You can integrate your own application code

into Phing extensions.– Cross-pltform and small footprint.


How do I start using it?


The Basics• Phing provides a simple shell script

(“phing”) that launches the Phing PHP app.• You create build files in XML• Build file organization:

– Tasks: a “build-in” piece of code that performs a specific function. E.g. <mkdir>

– Targets: grouping of Tasks that perform a more general function. E.g. Copy files to a new directory.

– A Project: the root node for the build file.


A simple build file<project name="sample" default="main">

<property name="ver" value="1.0.1"/><property file="build.properties"/><target name="main">

<mkdir dir="./build/${ver}"><copy todir="./build/${ver}">

<fileset dir="." includes="*.txt" />

</copy></target>

</project>


Javaisms• Properties

– Properties are variables for build scripts.– Like php.ini, but more flexible:

• tgz = ${pkg}-${ver}.tgz

– Can be set in build script or imported from files.

• Dot-path notation for class names:– path.to.Class = path/to/Class.php– Anwers question “How to represent both

directory and class name in a single string?”


Packaging and Deployment


Match a bunch of files• The <fileset> type represents an

extremely powerful way to select a group of files for processing

• Many built-in tasks support <fileset>


Fileset Examples<fileset dir="./webapp"includes="**/*.html"excludes="**/test-*"/>

<fileset dir="./webapp"><include name="img/${theme}/*.jpg"/><include name="tpl/${lang}/*.phtml"/><exclude name="**/*.bak"/><exclude name="**/test/**"/>

</fileset>


Fine-tuned Selection• Selectors provide entirely new dimensions

for <fileset> file matching criteria.• Some examples of selectors:

– Created before/after certain date– Greater/less than specified size– Type ('file' or 'dir')– At specific depth in dir structure– Having corresponding file in another dir.


Selector examples<fileset dir="${htdocs.dir}">

<includes name=”**/*.html”/><containsregexp

expression="/prod\d+\.php"/></fileset><fileset dir="${dist}" includes="**"> <or> <present targetdir="${htdocs}"/> <date datetime="01/01/2007"

when="before"/> </or></fileset>


Filesystem Transformations• The <mapper> element adds filesystem

transformation capabilities to supporting tasks (e.g. <copy>, <move>).

• For example:– Change all “.php” files to “.html”– Remove dirs from filename– Change all files to the same filename

• Custom mappers can be defined.


Mapper examples<copy todir="/tmp">

<mapper type="glob" from="*.php" to="*.php.bak" />

<fileset dir="./app" includes="**/*.php" />

</copy><copy todir="${deploy.dir}">

<mapper type="regexp"from="^(.*)-(.*)\.conf\.xml" to="\1.\2.php"/>

<fileset dir="${config.src.dir}" includes="**/*.conf.xml" />

</copy>


Data Transformation• The <filterchain> type adds data

filtering/transforming capabilities to supporting tasks.

• Tasks that support <filterchain> include <copy>, <move>, <append> + more

• For example:– Strip comments from files– Replace values in files (+ regexp)– Perform XSLT transformation

• Easily add your own.


Filtering examples<copy todir="${build}/htdocs">

<fileset includes="*.html"/><filterchain>

<replaceregexp><regexp pattern="\r\n"

replace="\n"/></replaceregexp><tidyfilter encoding="utf8">

<config name="indent" value="true"/>

</tidyfilter></filterchain>

</copy>


Packaging Tools• The <tar> and <zip> tasks allow you to

bundle up your moved directories. (Of course, they support <fileset> too.)

• <pearpkg> (and <pearpkg2>) tasks allow you to create PEAR packages using Phing.


Deployment Tools• Deployment means different things for

different people.• Phing includes some tasks to “put” stuff

places:–<svn*> suite of tasks–<scp>

• Database statement execution provided by <pdo> and <creole> tasks.


Development Cycle


Building for Developers• Not all build tasks are for deployment.• Some build activities are specifically for

developer consumption:– Checking validity or cleaning documents– Building API documentation– Running unit tests

• A more “traditional” build will likely also play a part in developer build functionality.


Validating• Phing includes several contributed lint tasks

for checking the validity of source code:–<jslint> uses external jsl utility.–<xmllint> uses built-in DOM support and

validates with a schema file.–<phplint> users “php -l”

• The <tidy> task also provides ability to perform validation and cleanup on HTML documents.


PHP API Docs

<phpdoc title="API Documentation" destdir="apidocs" sourcecode="no"output="HTML:Smarty:PHP">

<fileset dir="./classes"><include name="**/*.php" />

</fileset></phpdoc>

• Phing includes support for PhpDocumentor using the <phpdoc> task.


Unit Testing• Phing has extensive support for PHPUnit

and SimpleTest unit testing frameworks• PHPUnit tasks provide support for

– Batch testing using <fileset> to select all the tests you wish to run.

– Output in XML (Junit-compatible) and Plain text.

– Report generator creates XHTML reports using XSLT

– Code coverage reports (requires Xdebug)


PHPUnit Example<phpunit2 haltonerror="true"

haltonfailure="false" printsummary="true">

<batchtest><fileset dir="${tests.dir}">

<include name="**/*Test.php"/></fileset>

</batchtest></phpunit2>


Continuous Integration• Code -> Commit -> Build -> Test ->

Report• CI tools watch the repository and provide

automated building, testing, reporting.• CruiseControl has a Phing builder.• Xinc provides CI tool functionality written in

PHP.• Xinc is built to use Phing


Xinc Config Example<projects> <project name="Project Name" interval="10"> <modificationsets> <svn directory="/var/projects/test"/> </modificationsets> <builder type="phing"

buildfile="/var/projects/test/build.xml" target="build"/>

<publishers> <email to="[email protected]" publishonfailure="true"/> </publishers> </project></projects>


Extending Phing


Paths for Extension• Embedding PHP in build file.• Write your own class to provide any of the

functionality we have seen:– Task– Type– Selector– Filter– Mapper– Listener (logger)– ... and more.


Embedding PHP• The <php> task allows you to evaluate a

PHP expression, function call, etc. and store result in a property.

• The <adhoc> task allows you to embed PHP directly. Useful for including setup files.

<adhoc><![CDATA[require_once 'propel/Propel.php';Propel::init('bookstore-conf.php');

]]></adhoc>


Sample Taskclass SampleTask extends Task {

private $var;public function setVar($v) {

$this->var = $v;}public function main() {

$this->log("value: ".$this->var);}

}


Phing IRL• Phing is being used by many organizations

and open-source projects.• In the real world, Phing is used ...

– as an interactive CLI application configuration or installation script,

– to upgrade production webservers,– to manage product release builds,– as a quick way to reorganize a directory

tree,– & much, much more.


Where next?• Visit http://phing.info for downloads,

documentation, and issue tracking.• Ask questions on the mailing lists.

– [email protected]– [email protected]

http://phing.info/

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

phing: building with php

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