BCD's WebSmart PHP Enters Beta

Published: June 26, 2007

by Alex Woodie

WebSmart PHP, BCD Software's new software for creating Web-based PHP applications that run on i5/OS and other platforms, is now available for download as a beta release, the company announced last week.

BCD announced WebSmart PHP about two months ago during the 2007 COMMON conference held in Anaheim, California. At the time, BCD and its development partner, ExcelSystems, committed to delivering the product during June--a deadline that the company hit (a rarity in this industry).

"This is great news as this much awaited multiman-year PHP Web application development tool project is now being put into the hands of the System i programming community," said Eric Figura, BCD's director of sales and marketing. "To have hit our beta target release date is very satisfying to our entire development group who is involved in this important project."

Since BCD first announced WebSmart PHP, the company has received more than 200 beta requests, and hundreds of other requests for more information about the upcoming product, Figura says. Apparently, there is quite the groundswell of interest in PHP development in the iSeries community.

While WebSmart PHP-developed applications will run on multiple platforms, the development environment's real forte will be developing PHP applications for the System i. It will bring System i-specific features to support deployment on the platform, including libraries and library lists, and integration with RPG and other ILE applications. It will also include templates for using either DB2 SQL or record-level access to the DB2/400 database.

In developing WebSmart PHP, ExcelSystems invested much time and effort describing and documenting more than 5,000 PHP functions, which are grouped into tabs on the WebSmart PHP IDE. Further streamlining development are a series of more than 50 templates that will guide developers through the steps to perform a specific function, such as working with data or entering transactions.

The company also announced that, when WebSmart PHP becomes generally available, it will charge $4,250 for a two-seat license, with additional licenses priced at $1,950, or a site license for $13,500. The company will also have promotional deals involving WebSmart PHP and other products, such as Nexus, Clover, SmartCharts, and Catapult.

Interested parties can request a beta copy of WebSmart PHP by visiting www.bcdsoftware.com/wsphp.

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