Jaslabs: High performance Software

by Justin Silverton

Many PHP examples out there are designed for a linux/unix operating system. I am going to give some examples of some interesting functionality that only works with php running in a windows environment (IIS or apache).

1) Eject the CD-ROM

//create an instance of Windows Media Player
$mp = new COM("WMPlayer.OCX");
//ejects the first cd-rom on the drive list
$mp->cdromcollection->item(0)->eject();

2) Read and write from/to the registry

function registry_read($folder, $key)
{
$WshShell = new COM("WScript.Shell");

$key = registry_read("RegisteredApplications","Firefox");


parameters:

• Folder name - (key path past HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\\)
• key - the key name to read from

function registry_write($folder, $key, $value,$type="REG_SZ")
{
$WshShell = new COM("WScript.Shell");

return($result);
}

parameters:

• Folder name - (key path past HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\\)
• key - the key name to write to
• value - value that will be written to the key
• type - key type (default: REG_SZ)

3) register and un-register phpscripts as a windows service

# registering a service

win32_create_service(array(
’service’ => ‘myservice’, # the name of your service
‘display’ => ’sample dummy PHP service’, # description
‘params’ => ‘c:\path\to\script.php run’, # path to the script and parameters
));

# un-registering a service

win32_delete_service(’myservice’);

# code run as a service

if ($argv[1] == 'run') {
win32_start_service_ctrl_dispatcher('myservice');

while (WIN32_SERVICE_CONTROL_STOP != win32_get_last_control_message()) {
# write script here
# as a general rule, keep it below 30 seconds through each loop iteration
}
}

This uses the windows API Service DLL, which is not enabled by default. Here is how to install it:

• Download the main library (it’s included in the main PECL extension download from php.net) here
• extract php_win32service.dll to your ext directory (where your php extension .dlls are located)
• add the following line to your php.ini: extension=php_win32service.dll

4) print pages/data

#this is an example function that will format a host/printer name, for printing to shared printers over the network

function getPrinter($host,$SharedPrinterName) {
return “\\\\”.$host.”\\”.$SharedPrinterName;
}

#this opens the printer
$handle = printer_open(getPrinter(”my computer 2″,”my printer”));

An extensive list of functions for printing can be found here

#this is possible in *nix as well. Here is some example code

function lpr($string,$printer) {
$prn=(isset($printer) && strlen($printer))?”$printer”:C_DEFAULTPRN ;
$CMDLINE=”lpr -P $printer “;
$pipe=popen(”$CMDLINE” , ‘w’ );
if (!$pipe) {print “pipe failed.”; return “”; }
fputs($pipe,$string);
pclose($pipe);
}

This uses the windows API Service DLL, which is not enabled by default. Here is how to install it:

• Download the main library (it’s included in the main PECL extension download from php.net) here
• extract php_printer.dll to your ext directory (where your php extension .dlls are located)
• add the following line to your php.ini: extension=php_printer.dll

5) List the current system processes

# list all the current processes running on the system

print_r(win32_ps_list_procs());

other related commands:

# Retrieves statistics about the global memory utilization
print_r(win32_ps_stat_mem());

# Retrieves statistics about the process with the process id pid (if no process id is given, the current process will be used)
print_r(win32_ps_stat_proc(int processid));

This uses the windows API Service DLL, which is not enabled by default. Here is how to install it:

• Download the main library (it’s included in the main PECL extension download from php.net) here
• extract php_win32ps.dll to your ext directory (where your php extension .dlls are located)
• add the following line to your php.ini: extension=php_win32ps.dll