PHP

Third-party products

Zend Optimizer

A freely available code optimizer that improves the performance of the intermediate code generated by the Zend scripting engine. The Zend web site is http://www.zend.com.

DBG: PHP Debugger

A free interactive debugger for PHP that includes a code profiler that finds code bottlenecks. Available for Microsoft Windows and Linux, and licensed under the same license as PHP. Available from: http://dd.cron.ru/dbg/.

afterBurner

BWare have recently released this free caching tool that caches PHP precompiled scripts in the web server for fast execution when a script is run a second or subsequent time. The afterBurner source code is available from http://afterburner.bware.it.

Alternative PHP Cache (APC)

An alternative free PHP script caching tool that is covered by the same license agreement as PHP itself. The APC source is available from http://apc.communityconnect.com.

Zend is a company held by long-term developers of the PHP script engine. Their web site, http://www.zend.com, sells several commercial PHP-specific products:

Zend Cache

Tool that integrates with the Zend engine to better cache scripts, prevent some scripts being cached, and reduce latency. If high-throughput of a web database application is required, Zend Cache is a useful tool.

Zend Encoder

Tool that converts text scripts to an intermediate format that can be distributed, offering reasonable protection of copyright and the intellectual property in scripts.

Zend IDE

New integrated development environment for PHP that includes a customizable editor, syntax highlighting, and a debugger.

Zend Launchpad

Tool that allows systems administrators to maintain their PHP installation through upgrades. It also guides administrators through the PHP installation process and assists in selecting tools

NuSphere market several products that include and support PHP through their web site http://www.nusphere.com. NuSphere products have optional additional email, web, and phone support. Here's a list:

  • NuSphere MySQL and NuSphere MySQL Advantage are commercial products that bundle together Apache, MySQL, and PHP with installation tools and other supplementary products. As discussed in Appendix A, a free package is available for download.

  • NuSphere PHPEd Advantage is a commercial package that includes PHP, MySQL, and Apache as well as PHPEd, a PHP integrated development environment (IDE) for Microsoft Windows, and other supplementary products.

ActiveState offer an IDE for Microsoft Windows and Linux called ASPN Komodo. Komodo can be used for free under the Linux operating system or for free under the Microsoft Windows environment by students, home users, and nonprofit organizations. A commercial license for Microsoft Windows is required for other uses. Komodo is available from http://www.activestate.com. There are several other IDEs for PHP available including the PHPub development environment, K PHP Develop, tsWebEditor, PHP Coder, and BBEdit.