This directory contains the Protocol Buffers runtime implementation via both a pure PHP package and a native c extension. The pure PHP package is intended to provide usability to wider range of PHP platforms, while the c extension is intended to provide higher performance. Both implementations provide the same runtime APIs and share the same generated code. Users don’t need to re-generate code for the same proto definition when they want to switch the implementation later. Both implementations make use of generated PHP code that defines message and enum types in PHP. We strongly recommend using protoc's PHP generation support with .proto files. The build process in this directory only installs the extension/package; you need to install protoc as well to have PHP code generation functionality. ## Requirements To use PHP runtime library requires: - C extension: PHP 5.5, 5.6, or 7. - [PHP package](http://php.net/downloads.php): PHP 5.5, 5.6 or 7. ## Installation ### C Extension #### Prerequirements To install the c extension, the following tools are needed: * autoconf * automake * libtool * make * gcc * pear * pecl On Ubuntu, you can install them with: ``` sudo apt-get install -y php-pear php5-dev autoconf automake libtool make gcc ``` On other platforms, please use the corresponding package managing tool to install them before proceeding. #### Installation from Source (Building extension) To build the c extension, run the following command: ``` cd ext/google/protobuf pear package sudo pecl install protobuf-{VERSION}.tgz ``` #### Installation from PECL When we release a version of Protocol Buffers, we will upload the extension to [PECL](https://pecl.php.net/). To use this pre-packaged extension, simply install it as you would any other extension: ``` sudo pecl install protobuf-{VERSION} ``` ### PHP Package #### Installation from composer Simply add "google/protobuf" to the 'require' section of composer.json in your project. ### Protoc Once the extension or package is installed, if you wish to generate PHP code from a `.proto` file, you will also want to install the Protocol Buffers compiler (protoc), as described in this repository's main `README` file. The version of `protoc` included in the latest release supports the `--php_out` option to generate PHP code: ``` protoc --php_out=out_dir test.proto ``` ## Usage For generated code: https://developers.google.com/protocol-buffers/docs/reference/php-generated Known Issues ------------ * Missing native support for well known types. * Missing support for proto2. * No API provided for clear/copy messages. * No API provided for encoding/decoding with stream. * Map fields may not be garbage-collected if there is cycle reference. * No debug information for messages in c extension. * HHVM not tested. * C extension not tested on windows, mac, php 7.0. * Message name cannot be Empty.