This recent post on the PHP::Impact blog spotlights a useful little tool for those developers needing to span the gap between PHP and Java in their applications - the PHP/Java Bridge.

The PHP/Java bridge allows you to quickly access Java classes from within your PHP classes without having to know Java and vice versa. Because of this two-way flexibility, you can access hundreds of pre-built Java classes from PHP, and hundreds of pre-built PHP classes from Java opening up your applications to greater flexibility and enhanced functionality.

The post includes an introduction to the bridge's functionality - its functions/methods, how to make a new instance of it, catching exceptions and the type conversion it automatically does (like lang.java.String directly to the PHP String type).

They also mention the Zend Platform bridge functionality for a more commercial solution.

Mike Naberezny has start up a new resource to try to bridge some of the gap between PHP and Ruby and to help developers of either to get a bit more insight into the others' side - Rails for PHP Developers (based on the book published by the Pragmatic Programmers).

Rails for PHP Developers is a new site for PHP developers who are also interested in Rails and Ruby. PHP and Ruby are great complementary tools that are sometimes seen as adversarial, which is really unfortunate. We use both and we'll be writing regular articles to help cross-pollinate ideas and promote collaboration between the communities.

There's already some good content there - useful perlisms in ruby, a look at PHP object attributes and some information about the release of the site itself.

On his blog, Vinu Thomas has posted a guide to installing the Java bridge for PHP on an Ubuntu system:

If you're looking for the easiest way to install the PHP Java Bridge in Ubuntu, follow these simple steps...

The basic steps are quick and easy - be sure you have Java installed on your system (commands to install are included), download the Java bridge from Sourceforge and issue the commands (again, included) to install it into your apache2 package.

Wez Furlong has posted an example showing a cool little tool that he's whipped up that looks to bridge the gap between PHP and the Objective-C runtime:

I've had some code hanging around on my laptop for the better part of a year (feels like two, but I don't think I've had my MBP that long), that implements a bridge between PHP and the Objective-C runtime.

Yesterday I debugged the last portion that I regarded as a total showstopper for anyone else that might want to use it, and added a script that pulls in your PHP installation and dependent libraries (such as Fink or Mac Ports libraries) and generates a "Bundle" and optionally a DMG containing the Bundle.

He had a fellow developer try it out on Leopard too (things broke, but most are fixed) who also created a simple ping example to show off this project in its (very early) alpha stages. He mentions in the post how to get to the code, but if you can't locate it, just wait a bit - he'll have it posted up soon enough.

Also check out Sean Coates' and Joseph Crawford's comments on the project too.

In a new post today, Fernando Bassani puts the PHP-Java bridge to the test in an effort to stretch the abilities of PHP to fit his needs.

Last week, in a meeting with my boss and another developer, we've decided to test the PHP/Java Bridge. As the project that we are currenlty working (a manager for PLC networks) has grown a lot, we have noticed that we need to do some things that PHP can't do by itself. We often use shell_exec() to execute some shell commands. But it wouldn't fit in this case, as we need some specific things.

He goes through the decision process on with implementation to use (they went with the Java bridge) and the process of getting it set up and working on a Ubuntu system. Sample code to test that everything's in working order is included.

On the Zend Developer Zone today, they've posted the latest PHP Abstract Podcast covering the PHP-Java Bridge:

Our special guest today is Kevin Schroder. Kevin is a technical consultant for Zend Technologies' Professional Services Group. He has wide range of experience from large scale system administration to software development in multiple languages. Based out of Dallas, TX, he travels throughout the country for Zend providing consulting, programming and architecture services centered on PHP.

Topics mentioned include the Java Bridge (obviously), the Zend Platform and Zend's Professional Services.

You can either grab the show directly from here or subscribe to their feed and get this and other great shows in the PHP Abstract series.

In a new post to his blog today, Danial Krook shines a spotlight on a the technology that bridges the gap between two different languages - Java and PHP.

In the time since I wrote that post [talking about PHP with WebSphere], and particularly in the past month, there have been several items published which demonstrate the value of this technology. I still need to delve deeper, but here's a quick summary of what's going on.

He looks quickly at this combination, breaking it out into four parts - what the technology is, how it allows PHP and Java to work together, where you can download the needed software from and some resources where you can find out more information on implementation and examples of it in action.

Ivo Jansch discovered something interesting by way of an applicant's resume - a hidden "trick" that PHP pulls on the user when they try to use a Java-like syntax with System.

So yesterday I was reviewing a code sample that a job applicant had written during a test and I encountered the following line of code: It's not hard to guess what his background was :), but I was initially stunned that this actually works in php.

After a little investigating (and ruling out the Java Bridge), Ivo found that the line was being interpreted literally and was just being handled as a string instead of a constant. He gives two other examples to help with clarification.

DevShed ends another of a series of articles looking at one of the many design patterns out there (specifically the Bridge pattern) with this last tutorial - "Creating a MySQL Abstraction Layer with Bridge Classes in PHP 5".

The question that comes up now is the following: is there anything else that can be said about the bridge pattern? Of course there is! In this final tutorial I'm going to show you how to create a highly expandable abstraction layer that will allow you to work with MySQL using different libraries. This sounds interesting, right?

They start with the abstraction layer itself, creating a simple group of methods to work with a MySQL database. On top of that they create the bridge class that the resulting application can use to seamlessly use either mysql or mysqli without much code change. Finally, they bring it together in a simple application that grabs user information from a database table.

DevShed has posted part two of their look at working with bridge classes in PHP5, looking in detail at the decoupling of the data validation from an input form.

In the course of this second tutorial, I'm going to show you how to create a bridge class which will come in handy for decoupling the validation of user-supplied data. There will be a class that defines generically how certain data must be verified, while others will implement different validation methods.

They start with building a simple bridge class, a validator class that defines methods to check strings, numbers, alphabetic, and email values. For each of these types, they create the corresponding bridge class that validates the input. Finally, they tie it all together, validating an example of each, handled inside of try/catch blocks to watch for the errors that might be thrown.