php -q myscript.php

which means that you could run it from a Perl program:

my $ouput = `php -q myscript.php`;

The '-q' argument is for suppressing the HTTP headers. If you need them for some reason, just don't use -q.

itub, I see what you have done, but not sure how this differs from the CGI redirect I do to run my PHP script from my Perl. Also, it doesn't solve the problem I have passing data (It would be cool if there was an PHP version of HTML::Template).

I thought I might we able to print the PHP as a here doc, but that bombed as well. Thanks.


—Brad
"The important work of moving the world forward does not wait to be done by perfect men." George Eliot

I can think of three ways of passing data to PHP:
1. Call it as a real CGI, using LWP to connect to your web server
2. Emulate the CGI environment by setting variables such as $ENV{REQUEST_METHOD} and $ENV{QUERY_STRING}. The problem is that PHP is usually compiled in a way that disallows this for security reasons.
3. Create the PHP script on the fly, including the data there. A simple example would be this:

   # multiply $x by $y using php
   use IPC::Open2;
   
   my $x = 5;
   my $y = 7;
   my $php = "<? echo $x * $y ?>";
   
   my ($r, $w);
   my $pid = open2($r, $w, 'php -q');                                  
   
   print $w $php;
   close $w;
   my $result = <$r>;
   print "$x * $y = $result\n";
   [download]

Excellent!!
Well done that man (or woman ... covering ones ass).

Cheers
MonkPaul.

MonkPaul, I don't think you can. That's a wimpy answer, but I have struggled with this for a while. Here's the deal: I wrote a content manager based in Perl. However, I wanted to use this great wysiwyg text editor written in PHP. It would have been so easy to be able to call the editor from my Perl for the purposes of passing data, but I couldn't figure out a way to do it. I eventually had to learn enough PHP to tap the database for a session id that I write to MySQL on the Perl side so the PHP can then grab all the associated data.

Going the other way, from the text editor to the Perl was easy, as I could just call the Perl from the form action.

I thought I had asked about all this here at PMs, but I can't find it. However, at the time I was asking, here or in other forums, the answers came back negative. I wrote the author of the PHP editor and he said there was no way to bridge the gap--amazingly. I thought the fact the Perl and PHP are related would mean a simple connection between two programs written in both.

I've solved the problem for myself, but will watch this thread to see what others might have to say.

Cheers mate,
I thought it might be simple enough...as you said... they are supposed to be related.

Damn this infernal project
If you could let me know what you find out then i would be very grateful.

MonkPaul.

Where does this notion that Perl and PHP are somehow related come from? (Okay I know that the first versions of PHP were actually written in Perl.)

/J\

I understand what your saying about downloading the modules for the BioPerl system, but as this was only a short term project i was after a quick fix solution.

Im glad you brought it to my attention that the DBI modules are suggested but not included, which may enable me to swing an over-riding vote in favour of my system.

If anybody else has any ideas please let me know.