What is PHP middleware? what's the effect?

PHP does not have middleware, which causes a lot of trouble. For example, to operate the database, you must connect to the database and then perform SQL operations. The method in which WEB programs directly operate the database will bring many human-related accident risks and management troubles, especially for large-scale website applications. The standard model should be that the WEB program passes parameters to a service program, and the service program makes judgments and finally operates the database or other data files. This achieves clear authority control and centralized management of business types. With the launch of ICE last year, PHP finally had usable middleware. In the history of PHP development, it should be a milestone.

1. What is middleware?
Middleware is a kind of reusable software. Middleware is on top of the operating system, network and database, and is the lower layer of application software. Its overall function is to provide an operating and development environment for the application software on its upper layer, helping users to develop and integrate complex application software flexibly and efficiently.

In the history of middleware development, there are three quite successful middleware. RPC (Remote process call) is first recommended by SUN. Currently, it is a software supported at the Kernel level under operating systems such as Solaris, Linux, and BSD. It supports multiple network protocols such as TCP, UDP, and UNIX-Socket. The famous NFS was developed based on RPC. WINRPC is a product of Microsoft. It should be said that it is an imitation of RPC. Network Neighborhood was developed on the basis of WINRPC. The other is Corba, a typical commercial software middleware with greater flexibility and ease of use. Unfortunately, almost all middleware lacks support for PHP. The so-called support means that there is no Lib support for this language, but it can be completed by writing PHP Extension in C.

The working modes of middleware are basically: User Clinet logical function block—>Middleware Clinet module—Network—–>Middleware Server module—–>User Server logical function block. It can be seen that middleware has completed the most complicated part. When using middleware, developers only need to focus on the implementation of business function logic, which greatly shortens development time.

2. ICE and PHP
ICE (Internet Communications Engine) is an open source middleware developed by the original core members of Corba. It is said that its various functions are completely Better than Corba. In addition, for the first time, we saw middleware that directly supports PHP.
To install ICE, go to http://www.zeroc.com/download.html to download an Ice installation package for PHP and install it according to the instructions.
Usage of ICE: Use Slice (a simple syntax script of ICE) to write an xx.ice file. You can use slice2cpp or slice2java to generate a cpp or java ICE framework program, and then write code in this framework program. The application of ICE in PHP inherits the consistent tradition of PHP - simple, you only need to load the xx.ice in php.ini, and it can be used in PHP.
The disadvantage of ICE in PHP applications is that it cannot use PHP to write the server side. In fact, this is also a flaw of PHP - there is no perfect multi-process and multi-thread management mechanism. Therefore, the server side can be written in other languages ​​supported by ICE, such as JAVA/C/VB/PYTHON, etc.

3. The breakthrough brought by ICE to PHP quickly realizes the communication function between Web programs such as .Net/Java and other service programs, so that PHP can cope with more complex application frameworks.

Thank you all for reading, I hope you will benefit a lot.

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