PHP Foundation Classes

PFC is a subset of PEAR packages, and these classes have a strict set of entrance criteria:

• Quality—Packages must be in a stable state.
• Generality—Packages should not be excessively specific to any particular type of environment.
• Interoperability—Packages should work well with other packages and in different environments, and they should have a standardized API.
• Compatibility—Packages must be designed to be backward compatible when new features are added.

At the present time, only the PEAR installer is shipped with PHP. However, at a later date, certain classes may be included as standard. The PFC would be those classes.

Online Support for PEAR

The PEAR website, at http://pear.php.net, includes comprehensive online documentation for the PEAR project. The package database can be searched via the website, and package maintainers can log in to update their project details.

There are a number of mailing lists for PEAR users, maintainers, core developers, and webmasters. You can join any or all of these lists by using the form at http://pear .php.net/support/lists.php.

Using PEAR

In the following sections you will learn how to use PEAR to find and install packages on a system, and you’ll learn how to submit your own projects for consideration as PEAR packages.

Finding a PEAR Package

On every page of the PEAR website is a search box that you can use to search the package database. You simply enter a name, or part of a name, and all matching packages are displayed.

Searching Packages - To perform a detailed search on a package name, maintainer, or release date, you can use the form at http://pear.php.net/package-search.php.

You can click the name of the package you are interested in from the search results. The page that is then displayed should give some key information about that package, including a summary of its features, the current release version, and status and information about its dependencies—that is, any other PEAR packages that are required for this package to work.

The tabs at the top of the package details page allow you to view the documentation. If you are unsure from the summary information about exactly what you can achieve by using a particular package, you can browse through the documentation pages.

If you simply want to browse all the available PEAR packages, you can go to the categorized list at http://pear.php.net/ packages.php.

Using the PEAR Installer

When you have decided that a package will be useful, you can download it from the web by using the tab at the top of its package information page. However, using the PEAR installer program is a quick and easy way to manage packages within a PHP installation. The installer is able to find and download the latest version of a package and can also install it for you automatically.

The PEAR installer is named pear. To run the installer, you run the pear command followed by a command option. To see all the packages currently installed on a system, you can use the list command option:

  $ pear list 

Command Option - Running pear with no arguments brings up a list of all the available command options.

The output produced should be similar to the following:

  Installed packages:
  =================== 
  Package 	Version State 
  DB 	    1.6.2 	stable 
  HTTP 	    1.2.2 	stable 
  Net_DNS 	1.00b2 	beta 
  Net_SMTP 	1.2.6 	stable 
  Net_Socket 1.0.1 	stable 
  PEAR 	    1.3.2 	stable 
  SQLite 	1.0.2 	stable 

Each package name, the version installed, and its release status are shown. The actual packages installed on your system may differ from the ones shown here.

Sams Teach Yourself PHP and MySQL: PHP Extension and Application Repository (PEAR)
Sams Teach Yourself PHP and MySQL: PHP Extension and Application Repository (PEAR)
PHP Foundation Classes - Cont.