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IBM, Zend Putting PHP On System I Mini Platform The move exemplifies PHP's growing role as the Java or business language of Web applications. By Charles Babcock InformationWeek february 5, 2009 05:20 PM 
The move exemplifies PHP's growing role as the Java or business language of Web applications. Java itself plays a business logic role in many Web applications, as does Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT)'s C#. But PHP is outstripping both when it comes to user-oriented interactions with Web applications. IBM's Series i servers are the former AS/400s, computers with a database built into the operating system. With PHP, the System i is a strong candidate to store and serve business data on the Web. The process of delivering Zend technologies to the Series i servers has been under way for three years, with 12,000 Series i users already making use of PHP. "The enthusiasm for -- and utilization of -- Zend PHP has exceeded our expectations," said Scott Handy, VP of worldwide strategy for IBM Power systems, in the announcement. That demand prompted IBM to announce today that it's bundling Zend's Web software stack, Zend Core, with the System i's operating system so every buyer gets it, said Jim Dillard, Zend's IBM alliance manager, in an interview. Zend Core includes Zend's latest distribution of open source PHP, database connectors, and the PHP parsing engine. Zend charges an annual $2,000 subscription for the use of Zend Core on the System i, with gold-level support. These customers also may go to the Zend Web site and download Zend Studio, an open source, integrated development environment for PHP that runs under Linux and Windows. Applications developed with Zend Studio will run on iSeries servers with the addition of Zend Core. IBM iSeries customers also may download the i5 edition of Zend Studio for Eclipse, which lets developers target the System i platform and directly make use of some of its special features. Downloaders need an iServer serial number to obtain a key for the download. Developers working on the Series i program primarily in RPG, the language developed for the predecessor IBM System 36, System 38, and AS/400 minicomputers. In addition to the open source code available, Zend wants PHP on the Series i platform for the opportunity to sell Zend Platform, which is an application server in which to run PHP applications under development or in production, Dillard said. No pricing was available. The IBM commitment to bundle Zend Core with each Series i server gives IBM customers the opportunity to run a large library of open source PHP applications, develop their own applications in PHP, or convert existing RPG applications with PHP front ends. It also allows Series i users to draw on the large pool of PHP programmers, estimated by Zend at 5 million. Series i users, for example, gain the option of running SugarCRM, the open source customer-relationship management application written in PHP, or Drupal open source content management. Andi Gutmans, Zend's co-founder and CTO who was named CEO on Tuesday, said in today's announcement that Series i customers' ability to use PHP meant that they could "Web-enable green-screen applications and build new Web-based applications, extending the long life of this power platform." Dillard said IBM customers who run instances of Linux on their mainframes also have asked for PHP support but Zend has no immediate plans to move to that platform as well.
ZEND and IBM Enhance their Relationship!Press ReleaseCupertino, Calif. - (BUSINESS WIRE) - February 5, 2009 - Zend announced today that it is teaming with IBM to preload Zend's Web Stack with every shipment of IBM i. "Today's announcement is an expansion of the relationship between the two companies to further enhance PHP-based offerings for IBM i customers," said Scott Handy, Vice President, Worldwide Marketing & Strategy, IBM Power Systems. "Our customers asked for PHP and we brought Zend PHP to the platform. The enthusiasm for-and utilization of-Zend PHP has exceeded our expectations." Read more » Some Thoughts about the enhanced relationship"Today's announcement is an expansion of the relationship between the two companies to further enhance PHP-based offerings for IBM i customers. Our customers asked for PHP and we brought Zend PHP to the platform. The enthusiasm for-and utilization of-Zend PHP has exceeded our expectations." "If I had to sum up how I feel about PHP in a single word it would be "Achievable". Meaning -- PHP, with its origins as a procedural language, is far easier for an RPG and Cobolhack like me to get his head around. Why? Because I can code in a familiar style and yet can introduce OO concepts into my PHP code when they make sense." "I am excited to see Zend PHP preloaded with IBM i as PHP is one of the quickest means to make your iSeries more valuable to your organization. Why? One, there are literally 1000s of free prepackaged applications and bits of code available and, two, there is the opportunity for the RPG programmer to develop new skills."
"From my vantage point the interest around PHP continues to grow. For example, at TEC in 2007 we had no PHP sessions. Compare that to this year where we have four sessions. I am delighted to hear Zend and IBM continue to support PHP as PHP is a fast, light technology that is leverages the Power i platform.” "We believe that the state of the economy and the job market make it absolutely critical that System i Developers do everything they can to add value to their skills. Because of its portability and ease-of-use, PHP is an exceptional technology that will extend the life of RPG applications and the careers of the Developers who wrote them. For those reasons and more, PHP will be a key technology showcased at the OCEAN Annual Technical Conference and Vendor Expo on July 20, 2009." "After modernizing your rich heritage of IBM i applications, PHP can extend those applications and add new applications to a business without the need for additional hardware. One stop shopping is a modern reality for IBM i. Thanks to Zend and IBM for your ongoing commitment to the future of our platform!" "The ongoing relationship of IBM and Zend adds life to the platform. The ubiquity of PHP means you can leverage IBM i programs and applications natively or from other platforms. Both PHP and IBM i developer communities work together to improve native applications scalability." "It's great to hear that IBM and Zend/PHP have announced they are taking the relationship to the next level. This relationship is critical for so many important IBM i customers, and I'm sure they will be delighted." The future of web apps "The future of web apps relies on security and reliability but also on fluidity. Merging a highly rich web client interface technology (Ext JS) with a highly reliable machine (IBM i) through PHP put together "the best with the best". The web2.0 apps generator db2web2 is a strong representative of this direction." Pascal Polverini, IBM i ISV Advisory Council
Ext JS 3.0 RC1.1 ReleasedMay 4, 2009 by Aaron Conran
The Ext Team is proud to announce the release of Ext JS 3.0 RC1.1 available for immediate download. This new version of the Ext framework is the culmination of many long hours of dedication by the Ext Team. We appreciate our community of testers and supporters whom have made the stability of this release possible. Ext 3.0 is another leap forward providing increased performance, consistency, flexibility and UI enhancements to make you more productive - all without a significant size increase. There are many enhancements in Ext JS 3.0, too many to include in a single post. Some of the major features in Ext JS 3.0 are the splitting of Ext Core and Ext JS, Charting for visualizations, additional User Interface improvements, CRUD-like support with Ext.data.DataWriter, Remoting using Ext.Direct, CSS enhancements to make theming easier, and Accessibility improvements - Section 508 and ARIA support. We also fixed several browser issues for the latest Chrome and Safari releases and added IE8 support.
ExtPlayer - An MP3 Player developed with Adobe AIR and Ext JS November 24, 2008 by Aaron Conran | 49 Comments » In collaboration with Adobe, Ext is releasing several new enhancements to the Ext.air package today. These include improvements to existing classes responsible for Sounds, Windowing and Database as well as new classes responsible for Notification, Clipboard and File System Interaction. We have also added new samples demonstrating how to use these new features. One of these examples is ExtPlayer, a simple MP3 player, that leverages the new Ext.air.MusicPlayer and Ext.air.Notify classes. You can install ExtPlayer or download the source. Ext Charting and Mapping with Google Visualizations October 13, 2008 by Aaron Conran | 39 Comments » Creating cross-browser consistent visualizations of data without Adobe’s Flash plugin has always been a difficult issue to address. Google introduced a Visualization API earlier this year which enables you to present tabular data in the form of charts, maps, and other graphical representations without the need for Flash. (Some visualizations actually do use flash, but most are implemented with SVG and/or VML.) Working with different API’s can present hurdles as we attempt to massage the same data in two different data structures - one for a grid and another for a pie chart. To address this specific challenge, I developed … Ext GWT Grid Performance Improvements September 29, 2008 by Darrell Meyer | 33 Comments » The Ext GWT Grid component, which was introduced in 1.1, plays an important role in most applications. Because of this, it is important for Grid to perform as fast as possible, especially when rendering large amounts of data. For the upcoming 1.1.1 release we took a fine grained look at the code and were able to lower rendering times significantly. Improving Application Usability with Ext JS Keyboard Handling September 23, 2008 by Rich Waters | 24 Comments » As Enterprise applications begin moving to the web instead of the desktop many developers may forget about providing key bindings for their applications. Most web applications use the keyboard only for text entry and do not associate particular key combinations with user actions. By providing this type of key handling, particularly for applications which require a lot of data entry, we can improve the end-user experience.
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