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PHP5 Hosting  by Edward Tanguay My goal for this page is to find the web hoster that providers the best PHP 5 hosting service so that I can host my future PHP 5 sites there.

Design: Morning Sun

JULY 2007: THIS WORKSHOP HAS BEEN UPDATED HERE: Setup a PHP Development Environment on Windows XP With Apache, PHP 5, MySQL 5, SQLite, Eclipse, Subversion, PHPMyAdmin, and Datapod

This tutorial is hosted at A2Hosting. They constantly install the newest PHP5, have SQLite and XSLT, Python, Ruby on Rails, and excellent support. Use them if you need a site.

PHP 5:

• PHP 5 was released on July 13, 2004.
• It has many improvements over PHP 4 such as object inheritance, interfaces, private/public method scope, improved constructors, some error handling features as well as many new helpful additions such as SimpleXML (a quick way to get at XML data) and SQLite (a fast file-based database).

PHP 5 web hosting:

• PHP 5 hosting has taken off slower than I thought it would. Although PHP 5 was realeased in July 2004, only a few providers were offering PHP 5 websites in September and October 2004.
• No provider offers all PHP 5 features (Oct 2004):
  • Only a few providers offer SQLite. If they don't state explicity whether or not they support SQLite with their PHP5 package, ask them to point you to their phpinfo.php5 file where you can take a detailed look at what they have installed. For instance, this is the phpinfo file for www.domainfactory.de. Search for the word "sqlite" and you will find either --without-sqlite or --with-sqlite.
  • The new mysqli functions require MySQL 4.1. Make sure you check with a potential provider beforehand to see whcih version of MySQL will be offered with your particular package.
  • The new PHP 5 XSLT functions require phpxsl.dll to be installed. These new XSLT functions which are much better than the Sablotron solution that you often get with PHP4 sites, especially with the support of other character sets such as if you have texts with German umlauts or Euro symbols in it.
• Of course if you are a savvy Linux administrator, you can get virtual hosting package and install all the PHP 5 features you want where you get root access to a (virtual) Linux box and there you can install PHP 5 yourself.
• Most PHP 5 web site hosting my maximum is $10 per month with a $10 installation fee. Hopefully this will come down as more providers offer PHP 5 officially. I would expect that many hosters will offer super cheap packages ($3/month) where you get a minimum of space, no MySQL but can use SQLite instead. PHP 5 with all of its object-orientatedness and great add-ons like SimpleXML, good XSLT support and SQLite has the potential to run complex, fast, database-backed, OOP applications on very inexpensive hosting deals.
• Although I haven't tried it yet, it is apparently possible to install PEAR via FTP which gives you a programming environment with many more tools, i.e. more functionality.

www.domainfactory.de (visit site) Although DomainFactory does not have SQLite, phpxsl.dll or MySQL4 installed, it is the best you'll find for the price so far.

• German company. You can only get an account if you live in Germany or Austria.
• I got the VirtualServer Basic for 9.90 Euro / month and 9.90 Euro setup fee. You pay for six months. Note that the name "VirtualServer" is a misnomer since this package is not a virtual server (e.g. where you would get root access to a Linux box) but a normal shared hosting package.
• Set up and payment was easy, online and quick (by the end of the day my domain www.tanguay.at was accessible on the Internet and I was FTPing my files up), payment in Germany with BLZ und Kontonummer (convenient, don't have to use credit card)
• you can take a look at what is installed for PHP 5
• PHP4 and PHP 5 run parallel. You use the .php ending for PHP 4 and the .php5 ending for PHP 5 files.

			They don't support SQLite This was a real disappointment for me since SQLite is one of the reasons I wanted to switch to PHP 5. They repeat in the forum and in the support mails that they cannot say when SQLite will be supported.
			Can't get XML/XSL parsing to work This PHP5 code: <? echo GetParsedResult("test.xml","test.xsl"); //method: returns the parsed result of an xml and xsl file function GetParsedResult($xmlPathAndFile,$xslPathAndFile) { //load the xml file in $inputdom = new DomDocument(); $inputdom->load($xmlPathAndFile); //load the xsl file in $xsl = new DomDocument(); $xsl->load($xslPathAndFile); //define the xslt processor $proc = new xsltprocessor; $xsl = $proc->importStylesheet($xsl); $proc->setParameter(null,null,null); //parse it $newdom = $proc->transformToDoc($inputdom); $result = $newdom->saveXML(); return $result; } ?> test.xml ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> <members> <member> <firstName>Jim</firstName> <lastName>Thompson</lastName> <score>34</score> </member> <member> <firstName>Sally</firstName> <lastName>Müller</lastName> <score>12</score> </member> <member> <firstName>Hank</firstName> <lastName>Wallace</lastName> <score>44</score> </member> </members> test.xsl ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ <xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"> <xsl:output method="html" indent="yes"/> <xsl:template match="/"> <xsl:apply-templates/> </xsl:template> <xsl:template match="members"> Test XML/XSLT parsing: <ul> <xsl:for-each select="member"> <li><xsl:value-of select="firstName"/><xsl:value-of select="lastName"/>, score = <xsl:value-of select="score"/></li> </xsl:for-each> </ul> </xsl:template> </xsl:stylesheet> which I copied from the PHP5 documentation site works on my local PHP5/Apache2/Windows site but at DomainFactory it gets this error: Class 'xsltprocessor' not found (try it out). So I tried some old code I had for the Sablotron parser and it worked but only as a .php file (PHP 4) but not as a PHP 5 file. Here is the code: <?php /* // set the filenames $xml_file = "test.xml"; $xslt_file = "test.xsl"; // convert the xml and xslt to a string $xml_string = join(' ', file($xml_file)); $xslt_string = join(' ', file($xslt_file)); $arguments = array("/_xml" => $xml_string, "/_xsl" => $xslt_string); // Allocate a new XSLT processor $xh = xslt_create(); // Process the document $result = xslt_process($xh, $arguments); print $result; xslt_free($xh); */ // Allocate a new XSLT processor $xh = xslt_create(); // Process the document, returning the result into the $result variable $result = xslt_process($xh, 'test.xml', 'test.xsl'); echo $result; xslt_free($xh); ?> test.xml ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> <members> <member> <firstName>Jim</firstName> <lastName>Thompson</lastName> <score>34</score> </member> <member> <firstName>Sally</firstName> <lastName>Müller</lastName> <score>12</score> </member> <member> <firstName>Hank</firstName> <lastName>Wallace</lastName> <score>44</score> </member> </members> test.xsl ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ <xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"> <xsl:output method="html" indent="yes"/> <xsl:template match="/"> <xsl:apply-templates/> </xsl:template> <xsl:template match="members"> Test XML/XSLT parsing: <ul> <xsl:for-each select="member"> <li><xsl:value-of select="firstName"/><xsl:value-of select="lastName"/>, score = <xsl:value-of select="score"/></li> </xsl:for-each> </ul> </xsl:template> </xsl:stylesheet> The only problem with this is that the encoding doesn't work, e.g. umlauted characters render like this (should be "Müller" below): Test XML/XSLT parsing: * JimThompson, score = 34 * SallyMüller, score = 12 * HankWallace, score = 44 view the above in your browser here The PHP 5 code above correctly parses the same files that the Sablotron parser improperly encodes. (I use <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>). The PHP 5 code can render correctly all umlauts, &#160; characters, and euro signs). Anyway, I don't want to hassle with the Sablotron parser anymore, so I am going to wait for Domain)Factory to fix this, so that I can just use the PHP5 parser which obviously is better. If they can't fix it, I'm going to be parsing my files locally to HTML files and uploading them to the server as a pure .htm site, at least it will be fast! See the discussion about this topic here.
			Cannot use the new PHP5 functions for MySQL I tried to use this code to access my MySQL database: <? $mysqli = new mysqli('localhost','db81140','**********'); $mysqli->select_db('db81140'); $result = $mysqli->query("SELECT * FROM testMembers"); while($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) { print $row['lastName'] . '<br/>'; } $result->close(); ?> and it got the error Class 'mysqli' not found, you can see for yourself here. Support told me that the reason is that Domain)Factory only has MySQL 3 and these new functions are for MySQL 4.1 and higher.
			Online Forum is useful Domain)Factory has one of the best online forums that I have seen at a web hoster. You automatically get an e-mail whenever someone replies to your posts which makes it worth posting: I think I received an answer (helpful or not) to all 5 or 6 posts so far, usually within 30 minutes or so. You can also find other posts with a very simple search, e.g. I searched for SQLite and found lots of people asking when it would be supported and the answers. In all, the interface is a bit clunky but you get answers to your questions and it's alive with people, which is what counts. It is also easy to post code snippets in your messages.
			SimpleXML works SimpleXML is one of the reasons that you would want to switch to PHP5. This code: <? //get the places $places = simplexml_load_file("testPlaces.xml"); //loop through foreach($places as $place) { //variables $fileName = $place->fileName; $title = $place->title; $description = $place->description; //display line print '<a href="' . $fileName . '">' . $title . '</a> - ' . $description . '<br/>'; } ?> testPlaces.xml --------------------------------------------- <places> <place> <fileName>datapodForCsharp.php5</fileName> <title>Datapod-for-C# Home</title> <description>This is the portal page for the C# version of Datapod.</description> <displayOrder>10</displayOrder> <accessGroups>anonymousUsers,members</accessGroups> <menu>main</menu> <includeInHardenedVersion>yes</includeInHardenedVersion> <includeInGenericVersion>no</includeInGenericVersion> <whenCreated></whenCreated> <rank>4</rank> </place> <place> <fileName>datapodForPhp5.php5</fileName> <title>Datapod-for-PHP5 Home</title> <description>This is the portal page for the PHP5 version of Datapod.</description> <displayOrder>20</displayOrder> <accessGroups>anonymousUsers,members</accessGroups> <menu>main</menu> <includeInHardenedVersion>yes</includeInHardenedVersion> <includeInGenericVersion>no</includeInGenericVersion> <whenCreated></whenCreated> <rank>5</rank> </place> <place> <fileName>index.php5</fileName> <title>Entry File</title> <description>This is the entry file which simply redirects the user to the first page of the site.</description> <displayOrder></displayOrder> <accessGroups>anonymousUsers,members</accessGroups> <menu>hide</menu> <includeInHardenedVersion>yes</includeInHardenedVersion> <includeInGenericVersion>yes</includeInGenericVersion> <whenCreated></whenCreated> <rank>999</rank> </place> </places> produces this result. You cannot save BACK to the file with SimpleXML (which is too bad) but at least reading from XML is like reading from arrays now, and this works well at Domain)Factory.
			DomDocument() works If you keep clicking here you will see that each time you click, you add a node to this xml file (FireFox won't display this XML correctly, use Internet Explorer). Notice also that the id is being automatically incremented based on the highest id.That is proof that the DomDocument works and here is the code: <? //variables $xmlDataFile = "testXmlDom.xml"; $fileName = "newFileName.txt"; $title = "New Title"; //get all places as xml document $dom = new DomDocument(); $dom->load($xmlDataFile); //get the root element "<places>" $places = $dom->getElementById("root"); //create a new element under the root element $place = $places->appendChild($dom->createElement("place")); //create the id field $nextHighestId = calculateNextIdNumber(); $place->setAttribute("id",$nextHighestId); //create the data fields $place->appendChild($dom->createElement("fileName",$fileName)); $place->appendChild($dom->createElement("title",$title)); //save all places as xml document $dom->formatOutput = true; $dom->save($xmlDataFile); function calculateNextIdNumber() { <place id="2"> <fileName>newFileName.txt</fileName> <title>New Title</title> </place> //get the DOM representation of the xml file $xmlPlaces = simplexml_load_file($GLOBALS['xmlDataFile']); //get collection of Place elements $places = $xmlPlaces->xpath('//place'); //go through the places and get the highest id $highestId = 0; foreach($places as $place) { //get the id $id = $place['id']; //if this is the highest one, then update the highest count if($id > $highestId) { $highestId = $id; } } //calculate the next highest one $nextHighestId = $highestId + 1; //return this amount return $nextHighestId; } ?> testXmlDom.xml ------------------------------------------------------------ <?xml version="1.0"?> <!DOCTYPE foo [ <!ATTLIST places id ID #IMPLIED> ]> <places id="root"> <place id="1"> <fileName>datapodForCsharp.php5</fileName> <title>Datapod-for-C#</title> <description>This is the portal page for the C# version of Datapod.</description> <displayOrder>10</displayOrder> <accessGroups>anonymousUsers,members</accessGroups> <menu>main</menu> <includeInHardenedVersion>yes</includeInHardenedVersion> <includeInGenericVersion>no</includeInGenericVersion> <whenCreated/> <rank>4</rank> </place> </places> This means that I can now write some easy to use wrappers for SimpleXML and DomDocument so that XML can be used as a light, installationless way to store data on providers which don't support SQLite yet.
			Decent Web FTP If you just need to make a quick change to your website and you do not have FTP access (which is often the case at companies since they restrict port 21 in their firewall), then you can use the web ftp. The access to it is a bit clicky and you can only upload one file at a time (not like brinkster which allows five, useful sometimes). You can only download one file at a time (click and save). Here are the steps to use WebFTP: go to site log in to Kundenmenue click on WebFTP click on your site number click on "webseiten" upload file So, this feature is useful, and if you want more, you can easily make one yourself.

azc.com (visit site) AZC offers SQLite but it's way to expensive.

• Offers PHP 5 and SQLite, but for $29.95 per month and a stiff $50 setup fee, ouch.

			offer SQLite 'unlimited' This provider is the only one where it states in their offer that they offer SQLite, but for quite a price. I wonder if SQLite is expensive to host for some reason (resource intensive? can't be).
			WAY too expensive These guys are about 4x more expensive than the others I have found for PHP 5.

Strato.de (visit site) Not sure I would want to have a website at Strato. My experience is that they have hidden costs and they are difficult to contact (try to find an e-mail address on their web site -- you CAN however call them for $2 per minute).

• PHP 5 is offered for the Premium packages, i.e. 9.99 Euro per month and 19.99 for a setup fee

Iniquinet.com (visit site) Need to ask about their details...

• $5 per month, free setup, cheap!
• oh, nothing about a MySQL database either

www.magicalworks.de (visit site)

• Virtual Server is interesting, perhaps I could install PHP 5 on there myself.

www.monsterhosting.ca (visit site)

• In Canada.

Todo on this page:

• create an automatic way to add a hoster/email and send an automatic email asking them if/when they support php5 and to look at this site
• fix title, keywords, so that it is poised to be the #1 site for "php5 web hosting" and "php5 hosting" at google
• check nexus.fr or whatever it is called, that place that you got a free PHP4 account at once