I wrote a web based program using PHP, HTML, CSS and MySQL database. I would now like to convert it into a standalone desktop app for Windows and Apple.
I’ve done a lot of research and the ‘Titanium’ SDK has been advised, however even though it includes PHP, it is quite limited. Particularly I can’t use <?php ?> in a html file to display a PHP variable, PHP echo isn’t supported, and there seems to be an issue with global variables. While these may seem minimal, it would require considerable reprogramming, some of the functionality which I’m not sure I could re-achieve which is vital for the program.
Does anyone know of a program, similar to XCode/Titanium etc where I can bundle a web based program together for distribution as a standalone desktop app for Windows and Apple. I’m happy to use SQLite as the database as I use this already in Xcode.
If all you use is a hammer…
PHP is in no way meant for building desktop applications. It’s meant to handle a request/response paradigm such as that of a web server.
You could in theory write a PHP commandline script and have a separate GUI application issue commandline instructions to the PHP script, but such a solution would be messy, klunky, and require your users to install PHP.
In the end, there’s an entire slew of languages and development platforms vastly more suited to the task. C and all its variants, Java, .NET (for Windoes applications)…
If you want to develop a desktop application, use a tool appropriate to developing desktop applications. Also, see this question.