Dutch PHP Conference 2007

1. <Insert Picture Here>
PHP and Oracle - Best Practices and Roadmap
Kuassi Mensah
Group Product Manager, Java Platform Group
http://db360.blogspot.com

2. PHP and Oracle
Best Practices and Roadmap
• Oracle and PHP
• PHP Oracle Extensions
• Best Practices for Performance and Scalability
• What’s New for PHP in Oracle Database 11g

3. Oracle Commitments to PHP
• Long time commitment to PHP
• Thousands of developers use Oracle and PHP
• Oracle in various PHP communities and expert groups
• Participate to PHP Events and Conferences
• Submit Bug Fixes back to the Community

4. PHP Extensions – Take your Pick
NET Functions, Apache-specific Functions, Alternative PHP Cache, Advanced PHP debugger, Array Functions, Aspell functions [deprecated],
BCMath Arbitrary Precision Mathematics Functions, PHP bytecode Compiler, Bzip2 Compression Functions, Calendar Functions, CCVS API
Functions [deprecated], Class/Object Functions, Classkit Functions, ClibPDF Functions, COM and .Net (Windows), Crack Functions, Character
Type Functions, CURL, Client URL Library Functions, Cybercash Payment Functions, Credit Mutuel CyberMUT functions, Cyrus IMAP
administration Functions, Date and Time Functions, DB++ Functions, Database (dbm-style) Abstraction Layer Functions, dBase Functions, DBM
Functions [deprecated], dbx Functions, Direct IO Functions, Directory Functions, DOM Functions, DOM XML Functions, enchant Functions,
Error Handling and Logging Functions, Exif Functions, Expect Functions, File Alteration Monitor Functions, Forms Data Format Functions,
Fileinfo Functions, filePro Functions, Filesystem Functions, Filter Functions, Firebird/InterBase Functions, Firebird/Interbase Functions
(PDO_FIREBIRD), FriBiDi Functions, FrontBase Functions, FTP Functions, Function Handling Functions, GeoIP Functions, Gettext, GMP
Functions, gnupg Functions, Net_Gopher, hash Functions, HTTP, Hyperwave Functions, Hyperwave API Functions, IBM DB2, Cloudscape and
Apache Derby Functions, ICAP Functions [removed], iconv Functions, ID3 Functions, IIS Administration Functions, Image Functions, IMAP,
POP3 and NNTP Functions, Informix Functions, Informix Functions (PDO_INFORMIX), Ingres II Functions, IRC Gateway Functions, PHP / Java
Integration, JSON Functions, KADM5, LDAP Functions, libxml Functions, Lotus Notes Functions, LZF Functions, Mail Functions, mailparse
Functions, Mathematical Functions, MaxDB PHP Extension, MCAL Functions, Mcrypt Encryption Functions, MCVE (Monetra) Payment
Functions, Memcache Functions, Mhash Functions, Mimetype Functions, Ming functions for Flash, Miscellaneous Functions, mnoGoSearch
Functions, Microsoft SQL Server Functions, Microsoft SQL Server and Sybase Functions (PDO_DBLIB), Mohawk Software Session Handler
Functions, mSQL Functions, Multibyte String Functions, muscat Functions, MySQL Functions, MySQL Functions (PDO_MYSQL), MySQL
Improved Extension, Ncurses Terminal Screen Control Functions, Network Functions, Newt Functions, NSAPI-specific Functions, Object
Aggregation/Composition Functions, Object property and method call overloading, Oracle Functions, ODBC Functions (Unified), ODBC and DB2
Functions (PDO_ODBC), oggvorbis, OpenAL Audio Bindings, OpenSSL Functions, Oracle Functions [deprecated], Oracle Functions
(PDO_OCI), Output Control Functions, Ovrimos SQL Functions, Paradox File Access, Parsekit Functions, Process Control Functions, Regular
Expression Functions (Perl-Compatible), PDF Functions, PDO Functions, PHP Options&Information, POSIX Functions, Regular Expression
Functions (POSIX Extended), PostgreSQL Functions, PostgreSQL Functions (PDO_PGSQL), Printer Functions, Program Execution Functions,
PostScript document creation, Pspell Functions, qtdom Functions, Radius, Rar Functions, GNU Readline, GNU Recode Functions, RPM Header
Reading Functions, runkit Functions, Satellite CORBA client extension [deprecated], SDO Functions, SDO XML Data Access Service Functions,
SDO Relational Data Access Service Functions, Semaphore, Shared Memory and IPC Functions, SESAM Database Functions, PostgreSQL
Session Save Handler, Session Handling Functions, Shared Memory Functions, SimpleXML functions, SNMP Functions, SOAP Functions,
Socket Functions, Standard PHP Library (SPL) Functions, SQLite Functions, SQLite Functions (PDO_SQLITE), Secure Shell2 Functions,
Statistics Functions, Stream Functions, String Functions, Shockwave Flash Functions, Sybase Functions, TCP Wrappers Functions, Tidy
Functions, Tokenizer Functions, Unicode Functions, URL Functions, Variable Handling Functions, Verisign Payflow Pro Functions, vpopmail
Functions, W32api Functions, WDDX Functions, win32ps Functions, win32service Functions, xattr Functions, xdiff Functions, XML Parser
Functions, XML-RPC Functions, XMLReader functions, xmlwriter Functions, XSL functions, XSLT Functions, YAZ Functions, YP/NIS Functions,
Zip File Functions, Zlib Compression Functions,

5. PHP Oracle Extensions
• OCI8 Extension
• Improved/Refactored
• Zend Core for Oracle: Joint effort with Zend
• Prebuilt stack (Apache, PHP, OCI8 Extension, and Oracle
Instant Client driver)
• Enterprise support from Zend
• php.net
• PECL
• Used by ADOdb, PEAR DB and PEAR MDB2
• PDO_OCI
• php.net
• PECL

6. PHP/Oracle: How They Stack Up
Apache
PHP
OCI8 Extension
Oracle Client
Libraries 8i, 9i or 10g
Oracle Database
Mid Tier
Web User 8i, 9i or 10g

7. OCI8 Extension
Easy Connect
• Example [//]host[:port][/service_name]
<?php
$c = oci_connect('hr', 'hrpw', 'localhost/XE');
$s = oci_parse($c, 'select city from locations');
oci_execute($s);
while ($r = oci_fetch_assoc($s))
echo $r['CITY'] . quot;<br>quot;;
?>

8. PHP and Oracle
Best Practices and Roadmap
• Oracle and PHP
• PHP Oracle Extensions
Best Practices for Performance and Scalability
• What’s New for PHP in Oracle Database 11g

9. PHP/Oracle: Best Practices for
Performance and Scalability
• Connection Management
• Statement Management
• Transaction Management
• Globalization

10. <Insert Picture Here>
Connection Management

11. OCI8 Connections
• Non-Persistent Connections
• Standard Connection
• Multiple Unique Connections
• Persistent Connections

12. Non Persistent Connections
Standard Connection
$c = oci_connect($username, $password, $dbname);
• Connection bound to the life of the script
• Second oci_connect() in script returns same DB connection
Multiple Unique Connections
$c = oci_new_connect($username, $password,$dbname);
• Connection bound to the life of the script
• Each oci_new_connect() returns a new DB connection
• Use for independent operations
Costs of Non-Persistent Connections
• High connect times
• Unnecessary connect/disconnect CPU load

13. Persistent Connections are Cached
oci_pconnect()
user:db:charset:privilege
hr:XE:ALU32UTF8:normal
system:XE:ALU32UTF8:sysdba
Connection Cache

14. Persistent Connections
$c = oci_pconnect($username, $password, $dbname);
• Not automatically closed at script completion
• Fast for subsequent connections
• But holds resources when application idle
• Configurable in php.ini
oci8.max_persistent
oci8.persistent_timeout
oci8.ping_interval
Costs of Persistent Connections
• Too many connections hanging around
• May Allocate too much memory
• Significant number not doing work

15. <Insert Picture Here>
Statement Management

16. SQL Statement Execution
The Steps for Executing a SQL Statement with OCI8:
• Parse - oci_parse
• Prepares a statement for execution
• Bind - oci_bind_by_name
• Optionally binds variables in WHERE clause
• Execute – oci_execute
• The Database executes the statement and buffers the results
• Fetch - oci_fetch_all
• Optionally retrieves results from the database

17. Statement Tuning
Reduce Round Trips b/w PHP & Oracle
Round Trip
• Row Prefetching
• Server-side Statement Caching
• Client-side Statement Caching

18. Row Prefetching
Set oci8.default_prefetch
PHP Database
Oracle Client
OCI8 Extension
Libraries
Beijing Beijing
Bern
Bombay
...
Reduces round trips

19. OCI8 Prefetch Rows
• “prefetched rows” are cached internally by Oracle
• Improves query performance by reducing “round trips”
• Default Prefetch Size in php.ini
oci8.default_prefetch = 10
• Maximum number of rows in each DB quot;round tripquot;
• Memory limit of 1024 * oci8.default_prefetch is
also set
• Value can also be set inline
oci_set_prefetch($s, 100);

20. Statement: No Bind Variables
select col
from tab
where v = 1
select col
from tab
select col where v = 2
from tab
where v = 1
1: select col from
tab where v = 1
Poor use of db 2: select col from
select col
pool tab where v = 2
from tab
where v = 2
Database cache

21. Statement Caching: Bind Variables
Server-side Statement cache
select col
from tab
where v = :bv
select col
from tab
select col where v = :bv
from tab
where v = :bv
Increases
1: select col from
performance
tab where v = :bv
select col and security
from tab
where v = :bv
Database cache

22. Statement Caching - OCI8 Bind
$s = oci_parse($c,quot;select last_name from employees
where employee_id = :eidbvquot;);
$myeid = 101;
oci_bind_by_name($s, quot;:EIDBVquot;, $myeid);
oci_execute($s);
oci_fetch_all($s, $res);
echo quot;Last name is:quot;
.$res['LAST_NAME'][0].quot;<br>nquot;;
$myeid = 102;
oci_execute($s); // No need to re-parse
oci_fetch_all($s, $res);
echo quot;Last name is: quot;
. $res['LAST_NAME'][0] .quot;<br>nquot;;

23. Client-side Statement Caching
Set oci8.statement_cache_size
select col
from tab
select col “Use statement 1”
from tab
1: select col from tab 1: select col from tab
select col
from tab
Client cache Database cache

24. OCI8 Client-side Statement Cache
• OCI8 extension has client side statement cache
• php.ini
oci8.statement_cache_size = 20
• Moves statement cache management load from DB
to PHP side
• Uses memory on PHP side for cached statement
handles
• Uses memory on DB for session cursors

25. <Insert Picture Here>
Transaction Management

26. Auto Commit
By default oci_execute() auto-commits
function do_simple_insert($conn, $array)
{
foreach ($array as $v) {
$s = oci_parse($conn,
quot;insert into ptab (pdata) values ('quot;.$v.quot;')quot;);
$r = oci_execute($s);
}
}
This is slow and not a not a good practice

27. Explicit Commit
function do_transactional_insert($conn, $array)
{
$s = oci_parse($conn,
'insert into ptab (pdata) values (:bv)');
oci_bind_by_name($s, ':bv', $v, 20, SQLT_CHR);
foreach ($array as $v)
$r = oci_execute($s, OCI_DEFAULT);
oci_commit($con);
}
This is fast

28. Bulk Inserts (PHP Code)
function do_bulk_insert($conn, $array)
{
$s = oci_parse($conn,
'begin mypkg.myproc(:c1); end;');
oci_bind_array_by_name($s, quot;:c1quot;, $array,
count($array), -1, SQLT_CHR);
oci_execute($s);
}
Could be fastest

29. Bulk Inserts (PL/SQL Stored Proc.)
create or replace package mypkg as
type arrtype is table of varchar2(20)
index by pls_integer;
procedure myproc(p1 in arrtype);
end mypkg;
create or replace package body mypkg as
procedure myproc(p1 in arrtype) is
begin
forall i in indices of p1
insert into ptab values (p1(i));
end myproc;
end mypkg;

30. Globalization
• Globalization in OCI8 is built-in, inherited from OCI
• Mostly transparent to PHP applications
• NLS_LANG defines the Oracle Locale
<language>_<territory>.<character set>
GERMAN.GERMANY.AL32UTF8
• Retrieve User Locale from the Browser ISO locale setting
$s = $_SERVER[“HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE”]
• Multibytes character manipulation requires PHP mbstring or iconv
libraries
- Enable mbstring extension
- set mbstring.func_overload
• PHP applications that call PL/SQL should also map ISO locale to
NLS_LANGUAGE and NLS_TERRITORY
• See “The Underground PHP and Oracle Manual” for more
details.

31. PHP and Oracle
Best Practices and Roadmap
• Oracle and PHP
• PHP Oracle Extensions
• Best Practices for Performance and Scalability
What’s New for PHP in Oracle Database 11g

32. Will be including New Features for PHP as soon as
the Oracle Database 11g is announced, pretty soon!
Apologies for the delay.
Kuassi Mensah

33. Oracle PHP Developer Center

34. OTN PHP Developer Center
• www.oracle.com/technology/php
• Underground PHP and Oracle Manual
• Articles, FAQs, links to blogs, JDeveloper PHP Extension,
Zend Core for Oracle
• ISVs and hardware vendors
oraclepartnernetwork.oracle.com
• Contacts/Blogs
• christopher.jones@oracle.com
• kuassi.mensah@oracle.com
• blogs.oracle.com/opal
• db360.blogspot.com