PHP .NET (PhpDotNet) Project - Overview

PhpDotNet is a sub-project of the eDemonOnline project. The PhpDotNet project is a class library that is supposed to provide .NET framework developers with most of the features provided by the PHP web-development language. It is a port of the PHP function library to the .NET framework. The purpose of this project is to provide PHP developers with a familiar environment when they work on ASP .NET pages and at the same time, bring the powerful features of the PHP function/class library to the .NET framework so you can benifit (as a developer) from the best of both worlds when working with ASP .NET pages. The project is brought in context with the main idea behind the parent project, eDemonOnline, which looks forward to providing web developers with a robust, scalable and easy to use framework of development under the .NET framework providing features that targets the wide range of developers starting with new comers and ending with experienced developers.

The project is mainly implemented as a set of static classes (that might benifit from now to then from some instance classes), containing the methods that mimics the PHP ones. We are trying to keep each function library in PHP as a single static class in the PhpDotNet framework as much as we can so that naming doesn't become a problem. The PhpDotNet is the only project within the eDemonOnline space that follows a naming convention different from that followed by the rest of the project. We tried to stick to the naming convention of php as much as we could. Currently, the project is on it's initial phase, but we are looking forward to finishing a release of it within the next six months. That of course depends on the number of developers involved (currently, only one, me!). Any help is welcomed and most needed so please do not histitate to contact the project admin if you think you can be of help to the project.

We are using a library-by-library approach in developing the project. That means, we start working on one of the PHP function libraries until it is finished, and then start working on another one, and so on. The project is currently at its very beginning so we are working on the base function libraries first (array, string, BBCode, URL function libraries ... etc), then we will be working on more core function libraries (like the database functions' libraries) and so on. We decided to divide the binary output (assemblies/libraries) much the same way as they are divided in PHP (for example, there is a core assembly, PECL assembly, ...etc) We are currently working on porting the first php function library, the array functions library (which when ported to the .NET framework, becomes more like a "collections" library) which is mostly implemented within the static methods in the "array" class. The array class and others are part of the core PhpDotNet library (eDemons.Web.PhpDotNet.dll). You can view\browse\download the most up-to-date code from the CVS repository of the project at: http://e-demon-online.cvs.sourceforge.net/e-demon-online/PhpDotNet/

No packages are currently being released until the first PHP function library is ported. An alpha package will be released then indicating that it only includes the array functions library. Whenever a new PHP function library is ported, a new package will be released.