Run PHP on Google App Engine

By adding Java to their App Engine, Google has opened the door for a whole slew of languages that have been implemented on the JVM, now including PHP via Quercus.

This weekend I decided to give it a try and deploy an old tutorial of mine - PHP Tutorials - on GAE.

I must admit that I was pleasantly surprised by how effortless it was. OK, it’s a very rudimentary PHP application, the only PHP code used was to run the examples described on the code blocks and do some includes; nevertheless I didn’t feel the need to change a single line of code.

Also, deploying a Java application to GAE is simpler than a Python one. Not only because you have a very handy Eclipse plugin, but you will also find configuring the file appengine-web.xml a lot easier when compared to app.yaml.

All you need to do in order to deploy a PHP application, at least as simple as the one I’ve tried, is to follow these steps:

1. Install Google Plugin for Eclipse.

2. Create a Web Application Project in eclipse. The complete project directory looks like this:

   Guestbook/
     src/
       ...Java source code...
       META-INF/
         ...other configuration...
     war/
       ...JSPs, images, data files...
       WEB-INF/
         ...app configuration...
         lib/
           ...JARs for libraries...
         classes/
           ...compiled classes...
   

3. Copy all your PHP and static files to your-project/war.

4. Download Quercus binary (WAR file).

5. Unzip it and copy all files inside quercus.war/WEB-INF/lib to your-project/war/WEB-INF/lib.

6. Edit your deployment descriptor file web.xml. Mine looks like this:

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
   <web-app xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
       xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee" xmlns:web="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd"
       xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd"
       version="2.5">
       <description>PHP Tutorial</description>
   
       <servlet>
           <servlet-name>Quercus Servlet</servlet-name>
           <servlet-class>com.caucho.quercus.servlet.GoogleQuercusServlet</servlet-class>
       </servlet>
   
       <servlet-mapping>
           <servlet-name>Quercus Servlet</servlet-name>
           <url-pattern>*.php</url-pattern>
       </servlet-mapping>
   
       <welcome-file-list>
           <welcome-file>index.php</welcome-file>
       </welcome-file-list>
   </web-app>
   

7. Edit your configuration file appengine-web.xml. Mine looks like this:

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
   <appengine-web-app xmlns="http://appengine.google.com/ns/1.0">
     <application>php-tutorials</application>
     <version>1</version>
   
       <!-- Configure java.util.logging -->
       <system-properties>
           <property name="java.util.logging.config.file" value="WEB-INF/logging.properties" />
       </system-properties>
   
       <static-files>
           <include path="/**" expiration="600s" />
           <include path="/**.png" expiration="30d" />
           <include path="/**.jpg" expiration="30d" />
           <include path="/**.gif" expiration="30d" />
           <include path="/**.ico" expiration="30d" />
           <include path="/**.swf" expiration="30d" />
           <include path="/**.css" expiration="7d" />
           <include path="/**.js" expiration="2d 12h" />
           <exclude path="/**.php" />
           <exclude path="/**.inc" />
       </static-files>
       <resource-files>
           <include path="/**.php" />
           <include path="/**.inc" />
       </resource-files>
   </appengine-web-app>
   

The application element must match the application identifier of your application on Google App Engine.

Et voilà, you are done!

Now, run your application using the Run As >> Web Application command.

And finally, press the “Deploy App Engine Project” button to deploy to GAE.

Update: This article has been ported to the Miscellaneous section of my PHP Tutorial. Check Run PHP on Google App Engine page for updates.