Sun, iPlanet and Netscape servers on Microsoft Windows

This section contains notes and hints specific to Sun Java System Web Server, Sun ONE Web Server, iPlanet and Netscape server installs of PHP on Windows.

From PHP 4.3.3 on you can use PHP scripts with the NSAPI module to generate custom directory listings and error pages. Additional functions for Apache compatibility are also available. For support in current web servers read the note about subrequests.

CGI setup on Sun, iPlanet and Netscape servers

To install PHP as a CGI handler, do the following:

  • Copy php4ts.dll to your systemroot (the directory where you installed Windows)

  • Make a file association from the command line. Type the following two lines: 

    assoc .php=PHPScript
ftype PHPScript=c:\php\php.exe %1 %*

  • In the Netscape Enterprise Administration Server create a dummy shellcgi directory and remove it just after (this step creates 5 important lines in obj.conf and allow the web server to handle shellcgi scripts).
  • In the Netscape Enterprise Administration Server create a new mime type (Category: type, Content-Type: magnus-internal/shellcgi, File Suffix:php).
  • Do it for each web server instance you want PHP to run

More details about setting up PHP as a CGI executable can be found here: » http://benoit.noss.free.fr/php/install-php.html

NSAPI setup on Sun, iPlanet and Netscape servers

To install PHP with NSAPI, do the following:

  • Copy php4ts.dll to your systemroot (the directory where you installed Windows)

  • Make a file association from the command line. Type the following two lines: 

    assoc .php=PHPScript
ftype PHPScript=c:\php\php.exe %1 %*

  • In the Netscape Enterprise Administration Server create a new mime type (Category: type, Content-Type: magnus-internal/x-httpd-php, File Suffix: php).

  • Edit magnus.conf (for servers >= 6) or obj.conf (for servers < 6) and add the following: You should place the lines after mime types init. 

    Init fn="load-modules" funcs="php4_init,php4_execute,php4_auth_trans" shlib="c:/php/sapi/php4nsapi.dll"
Init fn="php4_init" LateInit="yes" errorString="Failed to initialise PHP!" [php_ini="c:/path/to/php.ini"]
    (PHP >= 4.3.3) The php_ini parameter is optional but with it you can place your php.ini in your web server configuration directory.

  • Configure the default object in obj.conf (for virtual server classes [Sun Web Server 6.0+] in their vserver.obj.conf): In the <Object name="default"> section, place this line necessarily after all 'ObjectType' and before all 'AddLog' lines: 

    Service fn="php4_execute" type="magnus-internal/x-httpd-php" [inikey=value inikey=value ...]
    (PHP >= 4.3.3) As additional parameters you can add some special php.ini-values, for example you can set a docroot="/path/to/docroot" specific to the context php4_execute is called. For boolean ini-keys please use 0/1 as value, not "On","Off",... (this will not work correctly), e.g. zlib.output_compression=1 instead of zlib.output_compression="On"

  • This is only needed if you want to configure a directory that only consists of PHP scripts (same like a cgi-bin directory): 

    <Object name="x-httpd-php">
ObjectType fn="force-type" type="magnus-internal/x-httpd-php"
Service fn=php4_execute [inikey=value inikey=value ...]
</Object>
    After that you can configure a directory in the Administration server and assign it the style x-httpd-php. All files in it will get executed as PHP. This is nice to hide PHP usage by renaming files to .html.

  • Restart your web service and apply changes
  • Do it for each web server instance you want PHP to run

Note:

More details about setting up PHP as an NSAPI filter can be found here: » http://benoit.noss.free.fr/php/install-php4.html

Note:

The stacksize that PHP uses depends on the configuration of the web server. If you get crashes with very large PHP scripts, it is recommended to raise it with the Admin Server (in the section "MAGNUS EDITOR").

CGI environment and recommended modifications in php.ini

Important when writing PHP scripts is the fact that Sun JSWS/Sun ONE WS/iPlanet/Netscape is a multithreaded web server. Because of that all requests are running in the same process space (the space of the web server itself) and this space has only one environment. If you want to get CGI variables like PATH_INFO, HTTP_HOST etc. it is not the correct way to try this in the old PHP way with getenv() or a similar way (register globals to environment, $_ENV). You would only get the environment of the running web server without any valid CGI variables!

Note:

Why are there (invalid) CGI variables in the environment?

Answer: This is because you started the web server process from the admin server which runs the startup script of the web server, you wanted to start, as a CGI script (a CGI script inside of the admin server!). This is why the environment of the started web server has some CGI environment variables in it. You can test this by starting the web server not from the administration server. Use the command line as root user and start it manually - you will see there are no CGI-like environment variables.

Simply change your scripts to get CGI variables in the correct way for PHP 4.x by using the superglobal $_SERVER. If you have older scripts which use $HTTP_HOST, etc., you should turn on register_globals in php.ini and change the variable order too (important: remove "E" from it, because you do not need the environment here): 

variables_order = "GPCS"
register_globals = On

Special use for error pages or self-made directory listings (PHP >= 4.3.3)

You can use PHP to generate the error pages for "404 Not Found" or similar. Add the following line to the object in obj.conf for every error page you want to overwrite: 

Error fn="php4_execute" code=XXX script="/path/to/script.php" [inikey=value inikey=value...]
where XXX is the HTTP error code. Please delete any other Error directives which could interfere with yours. If you want to place a page for all errors that could exist, leave the code parameter out. Your script can get the HTTP status code with $_SERVER['ERROR_TYPE'].

Another possibility is to generate self-made directory listings. Just create a PHP script which displays a directory listing and replace the corresponding default Service line for type="magnus-internal/directory" in obj.conf with the following: 

Service fn="php4_execute" type="magnus-internal/directory" script="/path/to/script.php" [inikey=value inikey=value...]
For both error and directory listing pages the original URI and translated URI are in the variables $_SERVER['PATH_INFO'] and $_SERVER['PATH_TRANSLATED'].

Note about nsapi_virtual() and subrequests (PHP >= 4.3.3)

The NSAPI module now supports the nsapi_virtual() function (alias: virtual()) to make subrequests on the web server and insert the result in the web page. The problem is, that this function uses some undocumented features from the NSAPI library.

Under Unix this is not a problem, because the module automatically looks for the needed functions and uses them if available. If not, nsapi_virtual() is disabled.

Under Windows limitations in the DLL handling need the use of a automatic detection of the most recent ns-httpdXX.dll file. This is tested for servers till version 6.1. If a newer version of the Sun server is used, the detection fails and nsapi_virtual() is disabled.

If this is the case, try the following: Add the following parameter to php4_init in magnus.conf/obj.conf: 

Init fn=php4_init ... server_lib="ns-httpdXX.dll"
where XX is the correct DLL version number. To get it, look in the server-root for the correct DLL name. The DLL with the biggest filesize is the right one.

You can check the status by using the phpinfo() function.

Note:

But be warned: Support for nsapi_virtual() is EXPERIMENTAL!!!