One of the simplest way to integrate PHP and Java is by means of Web Services. Since we are mostly interested in building the Server-side in Java we will develop a JAX-WS Web Service and then consume it with a PHP Client.

It's possible as well to perform the reverse path: that is coding the Web Service in PHP and invoke it with a Java Client - if any reader is interested to know more about it please leave some feedback in the comments and we'll try to add later an article about it.

Coding the Web Service

package com.sample;

import javax.jws.WebMethod;    
import javax.jws.WebService;   
import javax.jws.soap.SOAPBinding;   

   
  
@WebService(targetNamespace = "http://www.mastertheboss.com/", serviceName = "HelloWorldService") 
@SOAPBinding(style = SOAPBinding.Style.RPC)   
  
public class HelloWorld     
{   
   @WebMethod  
   public String sayHello(String input)   
   {   
      return "Welcome " +input + " !";   
   }   
             
      
}  

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<web-app xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee" xmlns:web="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd" xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd" id="WebApp_ID" version="2.5">

  <servlet>  
     <servlet-name>HelloWorldService</servlet-name>  
     <servlet-class>com.sample.HelloWorld</servlet-class>  
   </servlet>  
   <servlet-mapping>  
     <servlet-name>HelloWorldService</servlet-name>  
     <url-pattern>/helloWorldService</url-pattern>  
   </servlet-mapping>
</web-app>

Now deploy this Web Service and verify from the Web Console that it's available as a Service:
 

This will expose the following WSDL:

<definitions name="HelloWorldService" targetNamespace="http://www.mastertheboss.com/" xmlns="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/" xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/soap/" xmlns:tns="http://www.mastertheboss.com/" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
  <types /> 
  <message name="HelloWorld_sayHello">
   <part name="arg0" type="xsd:string" /> 
  </message>
 <message name="HelloWorld_sayHelloResponse">
  <part name="return" type="xsd:string" /> 
 </message>
 <portType name="HelloWorld">
 <operation name="sayHello" parameterOrder="arg0">
  <input message="tns:HelloWorld_sayHello" /> 
  <output message="tns:HelloWorld_sayHelloResponse" /> 
 </operation>
 </portType>
 <binding name="HelloWorldBinding" type="tns:HelloWorld">
  <soap:binding style="rpc" transport="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/http" /> 
 <operation name="sayHello">
  <soap:operation soapAction="" /> 
 <input>
  <soap:body namespace="http://www.mastertheboss.com/" use="literal" /> 
  </input>
 <output>
  <soap:body namespace="http://www.mastertheboss.com/" use="literal" /> 
  </output>
  </operation>
  </binding>
  <service name="HelloWorldService">
   <port binding="tns:HelloWorldBinding" name="HelloWorldPort">
     <soap:address location="http://127.0.0.1:8080/HelloWorld/helloWorldService" /> 
   </port>
  </service>
</definitions>

Creating the PHP Client:

It's assumed that you have a PHP 5 environment configured on Apache Server.
the first thing you have to do is enabling RCP and SOAP libraries in your php.ini file:

extension=php_soap.dll
extension=php_xmlrpc.dll

Using an Unix/Linux platform you'll have to enable the corresponding .so libraries.

After activating the SOAP extension in the PHP configuration file, we are able to create both  SOAP servers and a SOAP clients using the SOAP PHP class library.

Creating SOAP Client is just a matter of using the SoapClient class which accepts as input in the constructor the name/location of the WSDL.
Using a reference to the SoapClient Class we will then invoke Web Service methods:

 

As you can see the $client instance references directly the Web Service method sayHello with :
  $response = $client->sayHello($name);

Save this php page in your htdocs Apache folder and verify that the it correctly invokes the JBoss Web Service:

Welcome Frank !

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