New on the Ibuildings blog there's a post from Ian Barber looking at the powerful combination of PHP and Java to make your applications even more robust.

There are many reasons to want to integrate these new developments with Java rather than just creating a separate silo - existing libraries or systems that would be difficult or expensive to replicate, well-tested systems providing key functionality, and an existing team of developers are just a few. So, the best way is often to mix and match the two - which is easier than it might first appear.

He looks at the four main ways to integrate the two technologies, some being a bit easier to implement than others:

• Indirect integration (shared data source)
• PHP on the JVM
• PHP to Java (bridge)
• PHP consuming Java services