The document introduces the i7 Framework, an open source PHP application framework for developing web applications on IBM i (formerly AS/400) systems. The i7 Framework was created by Ibuildings to provide a full-featured MVC framework that simplifies application development and allows developers to focus on business logic with only small amounts of code. Key features of i7 include database abstraction, internationalization support, AJAX capabilities, and reuse of existing IBM i resources and APIs. Ibuildings offers support and services for the i7 Framework.

1. An application in 10 lines of code The i7 Framework for System i Ivo Jansch <ivo@ibuildings.nl>

2. Contents About Ibuildings About PHP The i7 Framework Demo Requirements Support options

3. About Ibuildings Company Founded in 1999 Based in the Netherlands Today: 50+ employees in 4 offices (Amsterdam, Vlissingen, Sittard and London) Technology (open source) background Main activities Technology & Development Business Solutions PHP support & consultancy

4. What is PHP? PHP is an easy to use, open source scripting language Designed for web application development 4.5+ Million PHP Developers PHP is the leading scripting language on the Internet 22+ Million Internet domains Outpacing Microsoft’s ASP Thousands of PHP applications are available Web applications tied to databases Content management Wikis and Blogs Business software

5. Why is PHP popular? The Migration to Web Applications When did you last install a desktop application? Emerging generation of software services (Web2.0) Web becoming the new UI to existing backend applications PHP is the perfect Web Integration Platform Perfect front-end glue language Best support for browser based rich client applications (Ajax) Strong support for Web Services, XML & legacy systems Powerful SOA capabilities enable new IT approaches (“mashable assets”) PHP is backed by a very strong community Very easy to learn and adopt ~ 1000 committers, ~ 4.5M developers (corporate/community) Thousands of opensource projects and applications Hundreds of thousands of commercial deployments

6. Why use PHP on System-i? Easy to learn with a large support community Easy way to 'webify' existing System-i apps (compared to Java) Most popular server side language on the Web Fairly lightweight runtime environment Easy to administer (Zend provides tools) Provides many extensions for particular programming tasks Database APIs (DB2, MySQL, Oracle, SQLServer, etc.) i5 PHP Toolkit (only available with Zend Core or Zend Platform) XML PDF Cryptography Web services

7. Application areas Zend's June 2003 market snapshot of the PHP community. The survey had over 10,000 respondents. http://www.zend.com/zend/php_survey_results.php

8. PHP on System-i Zend Core is a distribution of PHP Maintained through a partnership between IBM and Zend Native DB2/400 UDB/Cloudscape support WebEnabler Technology Zend Studio Server for remote debugging Everything you need to get started You can download Zend Core for free Contains everything you need to start building applications (Apache web server, PHP 5.x.x and most common extensions)

9. PHP on System-i i5 Toolkit API Native access System i objects : Programs, Service programs(*SRVPGM) and CL commands Spooled file, Data Queue, User Space, Job logs Shipped with Zend products Zend core for i5/OS Geared towards accessing i5 data and resources from PHP Similar in purpose to the IBM Toolbox for Java

10. The i7 Framework i5 + PHP + ATK = i7

11. i7 Framework Business application development i7 is an object oriented Web Application Framework, written in PHP Targeted at developers who wish to focus on business logic, instead of coding HTML

12. i7 Framework Provides a complete framework that requires only small amounts of code to get usable applications, while maintaining full flexibility. Open technology Based on the Open Source Achievo ATK framework Ported to System-i Supported version

13. Software stack i5/OS Zend Core (PHP) i7 Framework Your application

14. i7 philosophy Very Rapid Application Development Code minimization (10 lines of code…) “ Don’t reinvent the wheel” “ Don’t Repeat Yourself” principle 80/20 rule Versatile Supports many databases Runs out of the box Dependencies are bundled PHP4 / PHP5 Customizable Modular system Customize i7 Customize your own software

15. i7 Demo Demo…

16. i7 features For the user Uniform interface CRUD functionality Data search functionality Themes Internationalization (15+ languages) AJAX features For the developer Database abstraction layer (MySQL, DB2, Oracle Model Driven Architecture (MDA) Relationship modeling (e.g. 1:N, N:1, N:M db relations) Flexible authentication & authorization Reuse of System-i resources Application session management Out of the box, but 100% customizable

17. i7 is NOT… A component framework Zend Framework ezComponents PEAR These provide components to build applications i7 builds the application A code generator Code needs to be maintained An IDE But it plays nice with Zend Studio

18. Requirements i5/OS V5R3 or V5R4 Zend Core 2.0 (when using PHP db2 driver) 2.5 (when using native i5 driver) The i7 Framework An editor (Zend Studio)

19. Subscription model Fees primarily based on support Support models:

20. Services Training PHP Object Oriented Programming i7 Consultancy Architecture Audits Development services Projects Outplacement

21. Development Model Evolutionary development Grow as needed Community contributions Sponsorship Generalization Careful selection of development layer Need something twice -> generalize Quality control Unit Testing Documentation Wiki

22. Questions?

23. More info Visit these websites for more information about Ibuildings and the i7 Framework: http://www.ibuildings.nl http://www.i7.nl http://www.achievo.org/blog http://www.zend.com ivo@ibuildings.nl Thank you!