What's the recommended way of running Java from PHP 5.2?

Question

I want to call Java from PHP 5.2, running either on a webserver or from a command line script.

From PHP 4, this seems to be simple, and just involves installing the PECL Java extension.

Example code from the PHP 4 extension:

<?php
  // get instance of Java class java.lang.System in PHP
  $system = new Java('java.lang.System');

  // demonstrate property access
  echo 'Java version=' . $system->getProperty('java.version') . '<br />';
?>

However, this extension doesn't exist on PHP 5.

What is the closest alternative for PHP 5?

edit:

Really I'm looking for an interface similar to either a C PHP extension or to that provided by the PHP 4 Java extension. The Java program is fairly small and only needs to retain a small amount of state between calls and doesn't need to run asynchronously. The PHP script would only be running a small number of instances simultaneously.

This would also need to be deployed to multiple machines (running Ubuntu 9.x and Debian Lenny), so it should be simple to install.

Answer 1

Now quite what you asked for, but you could have a look at Caucho's Resin, and in particular their Quercus which is a 100% Java implementation of PHP, it allows integration of Java and PHP.

Answer 2

This project seems to be a good bet: http://php-java-bridge.sourceforge.net/pjb/

Answer 3

I have a project that uses a Java program to fetch some data. It's quite simple, but I found that

 $java_command="cd /var/java_dir && java my_java_program $myparam1 $myparam2";
 $result=exec($java_command,$output,$return_code);

works just fine.

Answer 4

Since you want to keep state at the java site I'd either use a java process that listens on a plain socket or use a simple embedded webserver (winstone or jetty) if you are more fluent writing servlets. Some other possibilities are listed at this related question: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/165945/what-is-the-best-approach-for-ipc-between-java-and-c