1. Phing: Building in PHP
Hans Lellelid
International PHP Conference
2007-11-06
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.
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3. This Talk
• Brief Overview & “Justification”
• Basic Usage
• Packaginig & Deployment
• Development Cycle
• Extending Phing
• Slides available at
http://phing.info/presentations/
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4. 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)
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5. Why do I need a build tool
for PHP?
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6. Building != Compiling
• In this context, “building” is really any non-
development task that supports your
application.
• This could include
– Configuring
– Packaging
– Uploading
– Testing
– Etc.
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7. 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)
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8. Web apps get deployed
• PHP web applications do eventually get
deployed.
• Deployment has a whole lot of implications:
– Permissions
– Environment setup
– App Configuration
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9. 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.
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10. 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.
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11. How do I start using it?
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12. 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.
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13. A simple build file
<project name=quot;samplequot; default=quot;mainquot;>
<property name=quot;verquot; value=quot;1.0.1quot;/>
<property file=quot;build.propertiesquot;/>
<target name=quot;mainquot;>
<mkdir dir=quot;./build/${ver}quot;>
<copy todir=quot;./build/${ver}quot;>
<fileset dir=quot;.quot;
includes=quot;*.txtquot; />
</copy>
</target>
</project>
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14. 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?”
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16. 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>
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17. Fileset Examples
<fileset dir=quot;./webappquot;
includes=quot;**/*.htmlquot;
excludes=quot;**/test-*quot;/>
<fileset dir=quot;./webappquot;>
<include name=quot;img/${theme}/*.jpgquot;/>
<include name=quot;tpl/${lang}/*.phtmlquot;/>
<exclude name=quot;**/*.bakquot;/>
<exclude name=quot;**/test/**quot;/>
</fileset>
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18. 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.
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19. Selector examples
<fileset dir=quot;${htdocs.dir}quot;>
<includes name=”**/*.html”/>
<containsregexp
expression=quot;/prodd+.phpquot;/>
</fileset>
<fileset dir=quot;${dist}quot; includes=quot;**quot;>
<or>
<present targetdir=quot;${htdocs}quot;/>
<date datetime=quot;01/01/2007quot;
when=quot;beforequot;/>
</or>
</fileset>
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20. Filesystem Transformations
• The <mapper> element adds filesystem
transformation capabilities to supporting
tasks (e.g. <copy>, <move>).
• For example:
– Change all “.php” files to “.html”
– Remove dirs from filename
– Change all files to the same filename
• Custom mappers can be defined.
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22. Data Transformation
• The <filterchain> type adds data
filtering/transforming capabilities to
supporting tasks.
• Tasks that support <filterchain> include
<copy>, <move>, <append> + more
• For example:
– Strip comments from files
– Replace values in files (+ regexp)
– Perform XSLT transformation
• Easily add your own.
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23. Filtering examples
<copy todir=quot;${build}/htdocsquot;>
<fileset includes=quot;*.htmlquot;/>
<filterchain>
<replaceregexp>
<regexp pattern=quot;rnquot;
replace=quot;nquot;/>
</replaceregexp>
<tidyfilter encoding=quot;utf8quot;>
<config name=quot;indentquot;
value=quot;truequot;/>
</tidyfilter>
</filterchain>
</copy>
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24. 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.
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25. 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.
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27. 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.
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28. 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.
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29. PHP API Docs
• Phing includes support for
PhpDocumentor using the <phpdoc>
task.
<phpdoc title=quot;API Documentationquot;
destdir=quot;apidocsquot; sourcecode=quot;noquot;
output=quot;HTML:Smarty:PHPquot;>
<fileset dir=quot;./classesquot;>
<include name=quot;**/*.phpquot; />
</fileset>
</phpdoc>
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30. 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)
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31. PHPUnit Example
<phpunit2 haltonerror=quot;truequot;
haltonfailure=quot;falsequot;
printsummary=quot;truequot;>
<batchtest>
<fileset dir=quot;${tests.dir}quot;>
<include name=quot;**/*Test.phpquot;/>
</fileset>
</batchtest>
</phpunit2>
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32. 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
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33. Xinc Config Example
<projects>
<project name=quot;Project Namequot; interval=quot;10quot;>
<modificationsets>
<svn directory=quot;/var/projects/testquot;/>
</modificationsets>
<builder type=quot;phingquot;
buildfile=quot;/var/projects/test/build.xmlquot;
target=quot;buildquot;/>
<publishers>
<email to=quot;myemail@example.comquot;
publishonfailure=quot;truequot;/>
</publishers>
</project>
</projects>
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35. 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.
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36. 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>
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37. Sample Task
class SampleTask extends Task {
private $var;
public function setVar($v) {
$this->var = $v;
}
public function main() {
$this->log(quot;value: quot;.$this->var);
}
}
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38. 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.
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39. Where next?
• Visit http://phing.info for downloads,
documentation, and issue tracking.
• Ask questions on the mailing lists.
– users@phing.tigris.org
– dev@phing.tigris.org
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