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| QSA ToolWorks Public Feedback Forum > General Helix Talk > Helix and PHP? | You are not logged in. Login or Register. |
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| Author: | Topic: Helix and PHP? | |||
robfurrball Posts: 4 Registered: 2004-02-23    |
 Posted: Feb 23, 2004 3:25:09 pm    
Hi, I am looking into Helix, but I can't find any information about this issue. Is it possible to access information in a Helix collection and spit it out through a dynamic server scripting language like php or asp? Any help would be appreciated! -R |
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| Ryan Wilcox Posts: 32 Registered: 2003-04-17 |
Posted: Feb 23, 2004 5:31:21 pm
The Short answer: nothing is available. It is possible, but you'd have to write your own. The Long answer: Helix provides external access to records via a Mac technology called AppleEvents. (You can store and delete records via this interface as well). Unless you're really brave, you probably don't want to venture into the world of AppleEvents without knowledge of Mac programming - you're probably better off using a simpler solution like CallHelix (www.autographsystems.com/scripting/callhelix/index.html ) to take some of the pain out of it. However, something that complicates things is that AppleEvents requires an active window manager connection. So you need to run either apache, or PHP as the active (read: logged in) user. You may be able to run cgiwrap (cgiwrap.sourceforge.net/) with PHP, I just don't know that much about PHP. But, if you're not married to using PHP as your backend, Qilan (www.qilan.com/) is another good pre-processor-type solution. Sidenote: The release of CallHelix 2.0 may have a Python module included in the package, so you can use Python to talk to Helix, instead of just AppleScript. Hope this helps, _Ryan Wilcox CallHelix 2.0 Developer and general Helix AppleEvent Access guru - Edited by Ryan Wilcox on: Feb 23, 2004 5:32:02 pm
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| Fred Posts: 57 Registered: 2003-04-10 |
Posted: Feb 24, 2004 3:27:01 am
Ryan wrote quote:  Hmm, that's interesting. I wonder if the remains of my brain could handle learning Python. Fred CallHelix visionary javascript:SetSmiley('  ') (couldn't resist)
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| robfurrball Posts: 4 Registered: 2004-02-23 |
Posted: Mar 21, 2004 12:35:11 pm
Thanks for the help, I'll look into the qilan product. I appreciate your taking the time to break down the possible alternatives for me. |
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| morgan Posts: 1 Registered: 2004-03-26 |
Posted: Mar 26, 2004 12:19:31 pm
You could have Helix spit you out some XML. Your data would then be super portable. You could use any othe db app or really any other language to monkey with the data... |
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| robfurrball Posts: 4 Registered: 2004-02-23 |
Posted: Oct 08, 2004 9:38:22 am
Don't know if anyone will see this since it has been awhile, but has anyone messed with outputting Helix stuff into XML? How easy is that? |
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| Ryan Wilcox Posts: 32 Registered: 2003-04-17 |
Posted: Oct 08, 2004 8:25:12 pm
quote: You could construct the tags inside of Helix. Fun with the Followed By title. Or you could write a script in (whatever) to translate Helix's output into an XML file formatted the way you would like it. If it was me I would probably do the second one. It's easier for me to write a script than it is to spend long time with the Followed By tile... but, if you don't already know a scripting language, then Followed By becomes the way to do it  HTH, _Ryan Wilcox
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Sven Posts: 24 Registered: 2003-04-09 |
Posted: Oct 09, 2004 7:41:37 am
My experience with XML is actually in the field of inputting XML formatted data into Helix. Outputting from Helix I have not done. On the other hand I do extensively build HTML from Helix. Using surprisingly long lines of 'Followed/Or' tiles. It is doable. Not too bad. Maybe you should try it.
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| chuckbo Posts: 42 Registered: 2003-04-09 |
Posted: Oct 11, 2004 1:20:28 pm
I think HeliPort will also do what you want. You run HeliPort on the same machine as your Helix collection (running under Helix Server or Helix RADE or Helix Runtime). Then, from your frontend program, you use a socket to establish a TCP connection to your Helix machine and send it commands, and the results are returned to your socket. So will PHP give you that kind of control over data streams? I've assumed that it can. chuck |
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| robfurrball Posts: 4 Registered: 2004-02-23 |
Posted: Oct 12, 2004 4:24:02 pm
I'm pretty sure php supports streams, but I have no expertise in this area. I am leaning more toward the xml way, just because it seems like an easy way to push and pull data from the db. Plus it can be easily adaptable if the db were to change to another platform in the future. |
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