php-local-liblouis

PHP-LibLouis

PHP-LibLouis is a PHP Library that lets you interact with LibLouisXML directly from PHP code.

About the Library

The PHP-LibLouis is a PHP library with the goal of the library, making interacting with the command line tool file2brl (LibLouisXML) an easy experience in PHP. This library allows complete braille translations from PHP-LibLouis library calls. The library allows interaction with the file2brl program from within PHP without any knowledge of system calls.

What you need to use PHP-LibLouis

In order to use the PHP-LibLouis PHP framework in your applications, you must first meet some requirements:

System Requirements

The system that PHP-LibLouis is running on must have file2brl (LibLouisXML) and the LibLouis packages installed. Furthermore, this software has only been tested on L/MAMP-compatible environments.

Installing file2brl on Linux Systems

Installing file2brl onto Linux-based systems with apt- get

$ sudo apt-get install liblouisutdml-bin

PHP Requirements

PHP must be able to make a system call using the system(), passthru(), and exec() functions. PHP-LibLouis relies on this link to be able to call the file2brl program and pass data back and forth. On some systems (notably shared hosts), this functionality will most likely be disabled. Disabling this functionality will result in the inability to use PHP-LibLouis with your setup. Furthermore, PHP-LibLouis will run only on PHP v5.0 and higher, and the use of temporary files must be allowed. If you are unable to meet these requirements, you may want to consider using the translation service library instead.

Interacting with the Library

Including PHP-LibLouis in your project

You will first need to download the PHP-LibLouis framework, and then place the contents of the 'php-local-liblouis' folder inside of your PHP project. Then, in order to use the functionality, you will need to include the php-liblouis.php file in your PHP project.

<?php
//include once 
include_once 'php-liblouis.php';   
?>

or

<?php
//require
require_once 'php-liblouis.php';
?>

It is important that you DO NOT call any of the PHP-LibLouis functions or use any of the variables containing an underscore (_). These functions are for use by the PHP-LibLouis system for system functionality only.

Library Functions

There are numerous library functions that aid in the ability to translate a plain text string into various braille outputs.

returnBrailleForString($textToTranslate, $libLouisOptions)

When called, this function will return a Braille ASCII encoded string that can be used by your program at will. The $textToTranslate variable should be a plain-text string that you wish to translate into a Braille ASCII string of text. If the translation fails, then the function returnBrailleForString will return a constant of either kErrorTranslating_NoText, kErrorHandlingFile, or kErrorReceivingFile. Anything else should be considered a successfully translated string of text.

Usage

<?php
include('/path/to/PHP-LibLouis.php');

//vars
$textToBeTranslated = "Hello, World!";

$translatedText = returnBrailleForString($textToBeTranslated, kNoOptions);

if($translatedText == kErrorTranslating_NoText || 
   $translatedText == kErrorHandlingFile       || 
   $translatedText == kErrorReceivingFile       )
{
  //translation failed
}
else
{
  //do something with $translatedText
}
?>

returnBRFFileForString($textToTranslate, $libLouisOptions)

When called, this function will return a PHP temporary file with the Braille ASCII contents included that can be used in your program at will. The $textToTranslate variable should be a plain-text string that you wish to translate into a braille-ready file. Remember that the temporary file that is returned will not be unlinked by PHP-LibLouis. It is up to you to call unlink($file) to remove the temporary file.

Usage

<?php
include('/path/to/PHP-LibLouis.php');

//vars 
$textToBeTranslated = "Hello, World!";

$fileWithTranslatedText = returnBRFFileForString($textToBeTranslated, kNoOptions);

if($fileWithTranslatedText == kErrorTranslating_NoText || 
   $fileWithTranslatedText == kErrorHandlingFile       || 
   $fileWithTranslatedText == kErrorReceivingFilem      )
{
  //translation failed
}
else
{
  //do something with $fileWithTranslatedText
}

unlink($fileWithTranslatedText);
?>

Constants

There are many helpful constants that make PHP-LibLouis easier to check for errors and all-around easier to use. Below are all of the constants that PHP-LibLouis uses.

Option Constants

Option Constant Name	Description
kNoOptions	Uses the standard file2brl translation options.

Error Constants

The error constants make it easier to detect and check for errors in your program's logic. Here are the error constants that PHP-LibLouis uses.

Error Constant Name	Description
kErrorTranslating_NoText	Means that there was no text provided to the translation function. Ensure that text was provided in the correct argument order.
kErrorTranslating_NotConfigured	LibLouis and/or file2brl is not installed on the system. Follow our guide above to install file2brl onto your system before attempting to use the PHP-LibLouis framework.
kErrorHandlingFile	There was an error creating, reading, or writing to the PHP temp files. Ensure that PHP temp files, and specifically the tempnam() PHP function, is allowed.
kErrorReceivingFile	No text was provided back in the translation file from the file2brl CLI program. Ensure that file2brl is installed and working properly.

Temporary Files

PHP-LibLouis utilizes PHP temporary files to interact with the file2brl command line program. As a result, for every system call made to PHP-LibLouis, two temporary files will be stored in your system's standard location for temporary files. If an error is encountered, or if you are using the returnBrailleForString() function, then all of the temp files at this location will be cleaned up automatically by initiating a call to the unlink() PHP function. However, the translated text file that is returned by returnBRFFileForString() will not be cleaned up automatically through the unlink() PHP function—it is up to your program to clean up the remaining temp file resulting from the use of returnBRFFileForString().

Options

For version 0.9 of the PHP-LibLouis framework, options are not yet included; however, as the documentation states, any options will be passed to the functions as a string for either returnBrailleForString() or returnBRFFileForString().

Changelog

Version 0.9

• Initial version of the library available for beta testing

License

PHP-LibLouis is released under the MIT Open Source License.

Testing

In order to run the tests, you must have PHPUnit installed..

$ phpunit test/*
>>>>>>> 46d6d03eaa9f260bd508693078f2ec34a3b81c04