The Zend Developer Zone has a new tutorial posted today from Andi Gutmans, Sam Pinkhasov, and Cal Evans all set to step you through the integration of PHP with a System i setup via some web service calls.

Zend provides a complete set of products that support System i integration from development to production. Zend's solutions include native System i database support and System i objects access. (e.g., RPG/COBOL/CL programs, CL commands, spooled file entries, data area and many more).

In this article we will show how quick and simple it is to create a Web Service wrapper for an existing RPG program.

They start from the beginning (a very good place to start) with what web services are and how they can benefit an application. With that under your belt, you're ready to set off into the creation of your own web service. They do this in Zend Studio to make things easier, using its built-in support for the System i to their advantage.

They walk you through each step - setting of the web service object, updating the username/password for the connection, and defining the RPG program parameters. Finally, they use the WSDL Generator Wizard to create a WSDL file to help with the public consumption of your web service application.