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PHP coming to a Mainframe near you.

Submitted by pcs305 on Tue, 2006-08-29 16:06
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EDIT: I moved this story back to the top after Wayne Duquaine replied to the comments I made on PHP on CICS. Thank you for your input Wayne.
You can read Wayne's comments HERE

eWeek posted an article by Darryl K. Taft titled PHP Puts Mainframe Developers in Prime Time.
In the article Wayne Duquaine of Grandview Systems announced that IBM "is coming out with PHP on the mainframe in the next six to nine months..." and that Grandview systems will produce a CICS plug-in for PHP.

The article further states that IBM and Zend Technologies are aware of the demand for PHP on the mainframe but nothing has been announced yet.

Sridhar Iyengar, an IBM distinguished engineer is quoted as saying "Basically, what we want to do is make sure that the people who are using the mainframe can use the language of their choice, whether it's PHP or COBOL,"

An interesting read. If they actually do manage to port PHP to CICS, you can turn CICS into a web server and I don't think CICS was designed to be a web server. It will make more sense to create a PHP plug-in to make connecting to CICS easier from a web server and leave CICS out of the web page generating business.

But that is just my opinion. I like PHP and it is really fairly easy to learn, even for an old mainframe fogy like me.

Wed, 2006-09-27 16:54
#1
wayne
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Joined: 2006-09-27
PHP Coming to a Mainframe Near You
Well, pcs305 raises an interesting question about what CICS's role is and should it or should it not be in the Web Serving business. So what does a Web Server do: a. it sends out the contents of files (or snatches of files) on request b. it goes out to databases and reads from them or updates them. c. it multiplexes a bunch of users trying to get shared access to data running on a server machine. d. it schedules interactive tasks to be run (e.g. CGI scripts, Java programs, C programs, ...) in order to process database requests or file requests. Hmmmm. Substitute the word VSAM or TS/TD Queue for the word file in item (a.) above and it sounds suspiciously like the same things CICS has been doing for the last 30 years. And COBOL applications do serve up content, just like Web Server apps do, it is just in a clunky format using 3270 datastreams. And 90% of existing web apps that are written, are requests to either update something in a database, or request data from a database, and is displayed in a columnar (table) format on a screen (browser). Again, sounds suspiciously like something CICS has been doing for over over 20 years with DB2 (28 if you count IMS). Going forward, the "front end of choice" will be Web Browsers (program to human), or Web Services (program to program). 3270s are going the way of the dinosaur, and converting 3270 screens to HTML is little more than a short term hack. Even the browsers are starting to de-emphasize HTML and instead are moving to more sophisticated outboard functions (built-in XML support including Web Services support), AJAX, ... Web Servers are little more than dumbed down, wannabe transaction monitors (note 90% of Web Apps talk to databases and multiplex a bunch of users, the key things that CICS excels at). I agree that CICS serving up departmental and advertising content is a total and complete waste of CICS cycles, and certainly belongs running on other boxes. But for the heads down, run the business, update the key corporate data; adding another layer of software and hardware to front-end (and essentially duplicate CICS's function), is a waste of time and money. The wave of the future for business is going to be Web-centric not 3270-centric, and we and CICS must adapt to that new reality. Also, as a side note just to clarify things, IBM is not coming out with a CICS plug-in for PHP. Our company is. IBM will be just coming out with a command line version of PHP (similar to the Perl product they just shipped), and may or may not have a PHP plug-in for Apache on S/390. ... the infamous ... Wayne Duquaine (the same one quoted by E-Week.)
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Wed, 2006-09-27 22:47
#2
Anonymous (not verified)
PHP for CICS
Thanks for the update Wayne. I for one is very interested in what your company are doing with this plug-in. At this point PHP for CICS is just a very nice toy and I am trying to find a good business need for it. Do you envision your plugin will interact with current CICS systems or would it more be applied to new web type implementations. I am wondering if you will be able to link to LE or assembler programs and maybe start 3270 transactions. Could you tell us what the current status of this project is and do you have an estimated release data. Are you looking for people to test the beta code and do you have a website where we can track the status of this project?
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Mon, 2007-06-18 08:00
#3
ArnaudSiminski
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Joined: 2007-06-18
PHP and Mainframe connectivity - PHP and IMS

This article is very interesting; I think the connection between PHP and system Z is the next step into Information System integration.

Infotel has produced lately a PHP extension that can invoke IMS transaction and thus COBOL/MARK/ADF programs. (source at http://pecl.php.net/package/IMS and demo at http://demonstration.infotel.com/ )

I agree with your position on PHP - CICS connection. PHP is good at presentation purpose(screens) ; CICS is good at managing data and business models.

Regards,

Arnaud

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