node-express-php

php middleware for express operating as cgi script for fast php integration on development environments, for production please use nginx, iis or apache with php

Installation

git clone git://github.com/HansHammel/node-express-php.git
npm install

or

npm install "git+https://git@github.com/HansHammel/node-express-php.git" --save

supports:

• executes php-cgi.exe as cgi script (works on windows, should work on linux, too)
• correct handling of directories and special characters in path and query
• sets environment variables according to the cgi specifications (no clumsy php loader script)
• works for all headers and all http methods (not only get and post)
• full query parameter support
• works even for ajax (maybe WebSockets, but untested)
• uses php.ini (required)
• supports hierarchical folder structures and
• defaults to index.php if exists
• tested with wdCalendar (google calender clone) - get, post and ajax work!

tip: partial support for wordpress

• only site content does not work due to the lack of htaccess/ rewrite support
• needs some config in wp-config.php to work, e.g.
  • define('WP_HOME','http://localhost:3000/wordpress');
  • define('WP_SITEURL','http://localhost:3000/wordpress');
• install procedure may require some manual adjustment to the url, especially when using a port other than 80

Usage

create a php.ini file (you can use the sample provided) in the root of your project (where yo do node app.js)

php.ini - required settings - restrictions:

• output_buffering = 32768 (must NOT be truned off)
• zlib.output_compression = Off
• implicit_flush = Off
• display_errors = stderr
• html_errors = Off
• default_mimetype = "text/html"
• default_charset = "UTF-8"

tip: dont forget to adjust upload_max_filesize and post_max_size for large uploads and enable the desired extensions like extension=ext/php_mysql.dll

use as express middleware

var php = require('../node-express-php'),
    // give the path to php cgi version
	php_cgi = path.join('c:', 'php', 'php-cgi.exe')
	// use php on public directroy
	publicDir = path.join(__dirname, 'public');

// place before express.bodyParser() !!!
app.use(php(publicDir,php_cgi));

Known issues

• paths like /bla.php/somepath?q=search (seo friendly url, nice permalinks) do not work
• some php.ini settings are required, see above (not fully tested)
• larger uploads are precached in memory and not streamed to php-cgi -> high memory usage, long script runtime (increase max_execution_time)
• large posts lead to EOF maybe related to output buffering
• lack of rewrite rules may lead to problems like somepath/index.php != /somepath != /somepath/index != /somepath/
• wordpress edit.php not working

Contribution

if you would like to help improving this module, please:

• write tests
• help debugging/ solving the known issues
• send bug fixes/ pull request
• if you use this module, provide a link for reference

Changelog