README

The Chilkat PHP extension as a Composer package: the CkHttp, CkCrypt2, CkEmail, CkImap, CkMailMan, CkZip, CkFtp2, CkSFtp, CkSsh, CkRest, CkJsonObject, CkXml, CkPdf, CkCert, CkJwt ... classes (110 in all), plus a command that installs the native extension for your PHP.

composer require chilkat/chilkat
vendor/bin/chilkat-install

That's it. chilkat-install asks the PHP it runs under which version, architecture and thread-safety it is, downloads the matching build of the extension (chilkat.so / chilkat.dll) from chilkatdownload.com, verifies its SHA-256, copies it into PHP's extension_dir, enables it in the right place (phpenmod on Debian/Ubuntu, a chilkat.ini in the conf.d directory on Alpine, RHEL/Fedora, Homebrew and the official Docker images, or an extension= line in php.ini — created next to php.exe on Windows when there is none), and verifies that a fresh PHP loads it. Supported: PHP 7.2 – 8.5 on Linux (x86_64, x86, arm64, armv7l), Alpine Linux (x86_64, arm64), macOS (Apple silicon, Intel) and Windows (x64, x86; TS and NTS).

The package version is the Chilkat version (11.6.1 installs Chilkat 11.6.1; a fourth number, e.g. 11.6.1.3, is a fix to the package itself and still installs Chilkat 11.6.1), so the classes and the extension always match. Updating is composer update chilkat/chilkat followed by vendor/bin/chilkat-install again. Let composer require write its usual caret constraint ("chilkat/chilkat": "^11.6") rather than pinning an exact version, so those updates come through.

Usage

<?php
require 'vendor/autoload.php';

$glob = new CkGlobal();
$glob->UnlockBundle('Anything for 30-day trial');   // your unlock code after purchase

$http = new CkHttp();
$html = $http->quickGetStr('https://www.chilkatsoft.com/');
if ($html === null) {
    echo $http->lastErrorText(), "\n";
} else {
    echo strlen($html), " bytes\n";
}

The classes are global (no namespace), one per file, loaded on demand through Composer's classmap. Every method carries a PHPDoc summary and a link to its reference page, so IDEs and static analyzers see signatures, parameter names and return types without extra stubs. Reference documentation: https://www.chilkatsoft.com/refdoc/, examples: https://www.example-code.com/php/.

chilkat-install

vendor/bin/chilkat-install [--dry-run] [--no-ini] [--dir=DIR] [--version=X.Y.Z] [--uninstall]

It installs for the PHP that runs it. To target a specific PHP (the one PHP-FPM uses, or one of several versions) run that binary explicitly: /usr/bin/php8.2 vendor/bin/chilkat-install.
--dry-run prints what would be done — which build, where it goes, which ini file — and changes nothing.
Installing into a system extension_dir usually needs root: the script tells you when, and prints the exact sudo command to run (Windows: an Administrator prompt). --dir=DIR installs somewhere writable instead; PHP ≥ 7.2 accepts the absolute path the ini line then uses.
--no-ini installs the file and prints the extension= line for you to add yourself.
--uninstall removes the extension file and the ini entry it wrote.
If PHP runs under a web server or PHP-FPM, restart it after installing so it picks up the extension.

Without Composer, the same installer exists as a shell script and a PowerShell script: curl -fsSL https://chilkatdownload.com/php/install-php.sh | sudo sh and irm https://chilkatdownload.com/php/install-php.ps1 | iex — see https://www.chilkatsoft.com/php.asp.

Docker and CI

In a Dockerfile based on the official php images (Alpine or Debian; cli, fpm, apache) the build runs as root and the extension is enabled through $PHP_INI_DIR/conf.d for every SAPI, so:

FROM php:8.3-cli-alpine
COPY --from=composer:2 /usr/bin/composer /usr/bin/composer
WORKDIR /app
COPY . .
RUN composer install --no-dev --no-interaction && vendor/bin/chilkat-install

Without Composer, RUN curl -fsSL https://chilkatdownload.com/php/install-php.sh | sh does the same for the image's PHP (| sh -s -- --version 11.6.1 pins the Chilkat version). On Alpine both installers also add the libstdc++ package, which the minimal php:*-alpine images do not ship and chilkat.so needs. In a multi-stage build, run the installer in the final stage.

GitHub Actions (PHP from shivammathur/setup-php keeps a root-owned extension_dir, hence sudo):

- uses: shivammathur/setup-php@v2
  with:
    php-version: '8.3'
- run: composer install --no-interaction
- run: sudo php vendor/bin/chilkat-install

License

Chilkat is commercial software: the extension works in trial mode for 30 days, after which a license is required. See LICENSE.

Support

https://www.chilkatforum.com/ · support@chilkatsoft.com

chilkat / chilkat

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