Load PHP Extensions/Modules

PHP Modules Tutorials - Herong's Tutorial Examples

∟Load PHP Extensions/Modules

This section describes how PHP modules are distributed and loaded into the PHP runtime environment.

What Is PHP Module? - A PHP Module is a software component developed to add extra functionalities to the PHP core component.

PHP Modules are also referred as PHP Extensions, because they are extending the PHP core component.

Here are some commonly used PHP extensions:

MySQLi - Allows you to interact with MySQL servers to retrieve or store data.
cURL - Allows you to interact with Web servers to to download or upload documents.
json - Allows you to encode or decode data in JSON format.
mbstring - Allows you to manipulate multibyte strings to support non-English languages.
GD - Allows you to manipulate image files in JPEG, PNG and GIF format.

PHP Modules can be loaded (and enabled) into the PHP runtime environment in different ways:

1. Built-in with the PHP core - Some modules are considered as core modules. They are developed and enabled together with PHP core. No separate library files are needed for core modules. For example, "hash" is a core module.

2. Bundled with the PHP core binary code - Some modules are compiled and enabled by the build tool (e.g. ./configure). No separate library files are generated for bundled modules. For example, "mbstring" is a bundled module in the distribution binary code on my macOS computer.

3. Included in the distribution package - Some modules are included in the distribution package as separate library (.so or .dll) files located in the extension directory. You need to check php.ini or additional .ini file to see if it is enabled. For example, "json" is an include module in the distribution package on my Ubuntu computer.

4. Distributed separately - Some modules are not included in the distribution package, but available in package repositories. You need to run the installation command to download and install them from package repositories. For example, "soap" is not included on my Ubuntu computer. So I need to run "sudo apt install php-soap" install it. The installation process will enable it through an additional .ini file: /etc/php/7.2/mods-available/soap.ini.

5. Available as source code - Some modules are available only as source code. You need to download them and follow their instructions to build and enable them.