Rserve-php
php5 client for Rserve http://www.rforge.net/Rserve/ (a TCP/IP server for R statistical software)
Maturity
The library provide several way to parse R structures ($parser parameter in evalString)
-
native php array : you get only the results in nested php array (without R attributes). It's a good way to handle simple R results. This feature is in beta and has unit tests
-
wrapped native php array : you get the results in a simple object (RNative) with results as php array and you can access to R object attributes.
-
Debug : full description of the Rserve protocol results
-
REXP: All R structures are wrapped in an REXP_* class This feature is in alpha: not very documented, tests in progress. Only low level R structures are handled (data.frame is a GenericVector, etc..)
Tests
You can run tests using phpunit
- Create a file config.php in the "tests" directory (copy config.php.sample)
- define the constant RSERVE_HOST with the address of your Rserve server (custom port not supported yet)
- run tests . phpunit tests\ParserNativeTest.php . phpunit tests\SessionTest.php . phpunit tests\REXPTest.php
Usage
The use of the library is simple
- create an instance of Rserve_Connection
$cnx = new Rserve_Connection('myserverhost');
- Send R commands and get the results as Php array
$result = $cnx->evalString('x ="Hello world !"; x');
// Get results as a REXP object tree $result = $cnx->evalString('x="Toto is my Hero"', Rserve_Connection::PARSER_REXP);
// Get as wrapped native array (object with array behaviour and attributes) $result = $cnx->evalString('x="Toto is my Hero"', Rserve_Connection::PARSER_NATIVE_WRAPPED);
This will produce a php array containing R results (using native array parser). Others parsers could be used by using $parser parameters (@see Rserve_Connection)
Async Mode
Several functions allow to use connection in async mode
- getSocket() to get the socket an set some options
- setAsync() allow to set the async mode
- getResults($parser) : get and parse the results after a call to evalString() in async mode
Files Description
- Connection.php : main class Rserve_Connection, you only need to manipulate an instance of this class (evalString method for now)
- helpers.php : helpers function librairies
- Parser.php : Parser class used to Parse Rserve binary packets to php structures (native array or REXP children)
- RNative.php : an array wrapper used to catch attributes (experimental, usefull ?)
- REXP/*.php : R expression classes
Contacts
Clément Turbelin, clement.turbelin@gmail.com http://www.sentiweb.fr Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6, France