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PHP WinBinder 2: PHC-Win

 

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PHP WinBinder 2.

WinBinder Part 2 PHC-Win

After completing a project, you will want to package and distribute it. An excellent application for this task is PHC-Win, written by Andrew Fitzgerald (WinBinder Wiki name Frantik). It is essentially a click and go program. However a small amount of preliminary work is required before running this program.

The tutorial assumes you have extracted a copy of PHC-Win as explained on this page.

Preliminary work

PHC-Win packages files that are contained in a folder and its sub-folder. Any files outside this structure are not accessible and will not be packaged.

Our application folder, C:\us_wb\my_app, uses four files that are outside of this structure.

These are the four WinBinder files:

  • winbinder.php
  • wb_windows.inc.php
  • wb_resources.inc.php
  • wb_generic.inc.php

Copy these files from folder C:\us_wb\wb\php\include to your application folder.

For this tutorial, copy them to folder C:\us_wb\my_app

Our application needs to pick these up, so a single line requires changing:

Edit file C:\us_wb\my_app\z_basic.phpw (your application) Change this line: 

Include "../wb/php/include/winbinder.php";       // Location Of Winbinder Library

To 

Include "winbinder.php";       // Location Of Winbinder Library

That completes the provisional work. Test your application before proceeding by running the batch file C:\us_wb\my_app\z_basic.bat

Run PHC-Win

  • Navigate to folder C:\us_wb\phc
  • Double click on file phc-win.exe
  • This opens the main window
  • A) Select File > Compile Directory





  • B) Navigate to folder my_app highlight it
  • C) Click Ok







  • D) Click on file z_basic.phpw
  • E) Click Open






  • F) Wait for it to complete compiling
    at the pop-up click Yes
    selects windows application
  • The process is complete click Ok

 


All PHP files are compressed.
Resulting files have a phb extension.


These files and resources are
assembled into a final exe file.


You will see an output similar
to that shown on the right. 

Compiling C:\us_wb\my_app

Compiling: button_1_toggle.inc.php --> button_1_toggle.inc.phb... done
Compiling: button_2_toggle.inc.php --> button_2_toggle.inc.phb... done
Compiling: green_1_on.inc.php --> green_1_on.inc.phb... done
Compiling: green_2_on.inc.php --> green_2_on.inc.phb... done
Compiling: red_1_on.inc.php --> red_1_on.inc.phb... done
Compiling: red_2_on.inc.php --> red_2_on.inc.phb... done
Compiling: wb_generic.inc.php --> wb_generic.inc.phb... done
Compiling: wb_resources.inc.php --> wb_resources.inc.phb... done
Compiling: wb_windows.inc.php --> wb_windows.inc.phb... done
Compiling: winbinder.php --> winbinder.phb... done
Compiling: z_basic.phpw --> z_basic.phb... done
Done compiling.

Creating new exe: z_basic
Setting C:\us_wb\my_app/z_basic.phb as main file in z_basic
Adding C:\us_wb\my_app/button_1_toggle.inc.phb as ./button_1_toggle.inc.php
Adding C:\us_wb\my_app/button_2_toggle.inc.phb as ./button_2_toggle.inc.php
Adding C:\us_wb\my_app\green.bmp as ./green.bmp
Adding C:\us_wb\my_app/green_1_on.inc.phb as ./green_1_on.inc.php
Adding C:\us_wb\my_app/green_2_on.inc.phb as ./green_2_on.inc.php
Adding C:\us_wb\my_app\red.bmp as ./red.bmp
Adding C:\us_wb\my_app/red_1_on.inc.phb as ./red_1_on.inc.php
Adding C:\us_wb\my_app/red_2_on.inc.phb as ./red_2_on.inc.php
Adding C:\us_wb\my_app\uslogo.ico as ./uslogo.ico
Adding C:\us_wb\my_app/wb_generic.inc.phb as ./wb_generic.inc.php
Adding C:\us_wb\my_app/wb_resources.inc.phb as ./wb_resources.inc.php
Adding C:\us_wb\my_app/wb_windows.inc.phb as ./wb_windows.inc.php
Adding C:\us_wb\my_app/winbinder.phb as ./winbinder.php
Adding C:\us_wb\my_app\z_basic.bat as ./z_basic.bat

Done creating EXE.

Create the distribution package

The final part of the process is to create a distribution package. This requires copying all the required files into a folder.

Inside folder C:\us_wb, create a new folder named my_dis (any name you like). Inside this, create another folder named final (again any name you like). You can always use a folder outside of us_wb.

The reason for two folder levels is purely for testing. It will highlight attempts to access files outside of our flat structure.

Build the Distribution

  • First copy the executable C:\us_wb\my_app\z_basic.exe to folder C:\us_wb\my_dis\final

PHC-Win compiles only the PHP files so any images used need to be copied:

  • Copy uslogo.ico to folder C:\us_wb\my_dis\final
  • Copy green.bmp to folder C:\us_wb\my_dis\final
  • Copy red.bmp to folder C:\us_wb\my_dis\final

In order to run our application, the following core binaries are required.

From folder C:\us_wb\phc copy the following files to folder C:\us_wb\my_dis\final

  • php-embed.ini - Php configuration file list modules for php
  • php5ts.dll - PHP core
  • php_winbinder.dll - WinBinder module
  • php_win32std.dll - Windows standard api
  • php_bcompiler.dll - Bam compiler

Test

Perform a quick test by double clicking on file C:\us_wb\my_dis\final\z_basic.exe

That’s it! Confirm your application runs, then zip folder final and distribute.

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Summary

In my original write up I implied compiling was difficult. After making a few minor changes to your code using PHC-Win, all it takes is a few mouse clicks.

We added images to our final distribution package, however take a closer look at what is added to the .exe file! PHC-Win adds these and any other files contained in our application folder. This duplication is not required. The next page shows how to resolve this.

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