Drupal on Windows with ASP.NET and Phalanger

jadams — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 20:59:55 -0600

Drupal can be compiled down to CIL (Common Interface Language) using Phalanger. Phalanger is an opensource project and has been around for a few years. Developers use Phalanger to turn Drupal into an ASP.NET application just like Quercus turns Drupal into a Java application. Many opensource PHP applications have been compiled with Phalanger and run on public websites.

Turning a PHP application into ASP.NET is not a smooth road. There are exceptions to every rule and in many cases developers have to tweak their PHP application or web.config in order to work. Phalanger does allow developers to use many of the PHP extensions built and packaged with PHP. Phalanger also allows developers to use ASP.NET code intermixed with your PHP code, however you must judge this decision against maintainability and other factors. IT departments should ensure that Phalanger/PHP/ASP.NET websites go through intense quality assurance checks, just like every other website.

PHP along with Drupal have struggled to get into the Windows market. PHP applications typically require customized setups on Windows with compromises to speed, threads, and security. Phalanger helps solve these issues by compiling the PHP application, running the application under I I S (multiple threads), and running the application in a completely managed state (security).

As Drupal changes over time and harnesses object oriented code, mapping PHP to ASP.NET will become easier and much faster. Drupal is eying multi-database compliance which will enable users to run Drupal on ASP.NET with MS SQL, Oracle, and many other databases. Phalanger is a project worth looking into and may solve business problems and increase turn around time by harnessing Drupal the vast amount of PHP application on the web.

Run Drupal with Java, Quercus, and Coldfusion

jadams — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 22:48:44 -0600

Yes, thats right. Use Coldfusion to run Drupal. Sean Corfield, has created a custom tag for Coldfusion 8 (in beta) which will allow you to execute PHP code using Quercus. Quercus is a PHP 5 interpreter for Java, which means it compiles PHP to Java classes. There are many benefits for using a Java/PHP interpreter which are listed on the Quercus homepage.

Coldfusion is a well known rapid development language by Adobe and is not a stranger to being compiled down to Java classes since version 7. The XML tag based language has tight integration with Adobe's Flex Builder 2.0 through its flex builder extension and Java.

Drupal is an extremely powerful and highly configurable CMS framework written in PHP which enables developers to rapidly build web applications. Mashing Coldfusion and Drupal together could produce powerful results quickly and harness two great rapid application development tools.

Enabling developers to mash languages together can have dramatic effects good and bad. Applications written in different languages could be mashed together and capitalize on each others requirements, development, testing, and support communities. However I am skeptical the possibility of maintenance nightmares, performance, and other unknown outcomes.

Quercus and the Coldfusion PHP code execution custom tag is in beta format right now with a bright future as another tool for rapidly developing applications. I would not install it on production today, but certainly investigate it and as it matures it might make a project in the future go very quickly.

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Drupal on Windows with ASP.NET and Phalanger

Run Drupal with Java, Quercus, and Coldfusion