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flowdoc (PHP)

PHP FFI binding for FlowDoc — a fast serialization format: indent-delimited key: value records, parsed by a shared Rust core (flowdoc-core) linked over PHP's FFI extension.

Entry points

• NativeParser::parseFlow($data) — over flowdoc_parse's JSON string, decoded with json_decode(). Use this one.
• NativeParser::parseFlowBinary($data) — over flowdoc_parse_binary's length-prefixed binary wire format, decoded in a pure-PHP loop of unpack()/substr() calls. Measured slower than parseFlow, not faster — kept as a documented negative result (see its docblock in src/Flowdoc.php): json_decode() is a single optimized C-extension call, and thousands of small interpreted-PHP unpack() calls cost more than the JSON round-trip they were meant to avoid.
• NativeParser::parseFlowCompact($data) / NativeParser::writeFlowCompact($records) — .flowc ("compact flow", see docs/FORMAT_FLOWC.md), a denser text sibling of .flow with no Record header, no indentation, and a blank line separating records. Same array<int, array<string, string>> shape and FFI/JSON round-trip discipline as parseFlow, over flowdoc_parse_compact/flowdoc_write_compact instead of flowdoc_parse. A pure string-transform API, like parseFlow — not file-based like Flowb::saveFlowb/loadFlowb below.
• Flowb::saveFlowb($path, $records) / Flowb::loadFlowb($path) — .flowb, the MessagePack-encoded binary counterpart to .flow. Same array<int, array<string, string>> shape parseFlow() returns, just written to/read from disk as MessagePack instead of parsed from key: value text. Implemented entirely in pure PHP with rybakit/msgpack — deliberately independent of flowdoc-core and the FFI boundary above (no native library required), matching this repo's finding that PHP's FFI/native path is slower than plain PHP for this kind of encode/decode workload.

Licensing (soft gate)

NativeParser::parseFlow() (and every other parse/write method) works identically whether or not a license key is configured — there is no Pro-exclusive capability gated by this yet. If FLOWDOC_LICENSE_KEY is set, Flowdoc\License::status() validates it against FLOWDOC_LICENSE_SERVER + /api/licenses/validate (no default server — validation is skipped entirely if this isn't set too) and logs a warning (error_log('flowdoc: ...')) on an invalid key or an unreachable server.

Unlike bindings/python's license_status() and bindings/nodejs's licenseStatus(), this check does not fire automatically — PHP has no "on import" hook comparable to a Python module's top-level code or a Node require() call (Composer's PSR-4 autoloading only registers a namespace-to-directory mapping; it executes nothing until a caller actually calls something), and a typical PHP process is a single short-lived CLI script or php-fpm request that may never touch licensing at all. So License::status() is explicit-only: call it yourself when you want the check to run. Its result is still cached for the rest of the process, so a long-running worker (RoadRunner, Swoole, a queue consumer) that calls it repeatedly only pays the network cost once — call License::resetStatusCache() to force a fresh check.

valid is null when there was nothing to check (no key configured) or nothing could be checked (no server configured, or unreachable) — see src/License.php for the full behavior. Never throws.

In production, set FLOWDOC_LICENSE_SERVER=https://license-admin.sendwavehub.tech/api (the trailing /api is required — see RELEASING.md's "Production license server" section for why). There is no default; validation is skipped entirely without it.

Activation

License::activate(string $activatedBy, ?string $activationIp = null, ?array $metadata = null) is a separate, explicit call — like status(), it never runs automatically, and it's a mutating call (it flips the license to "Activated" server-side, unlike /validate's read-only check). Call it once, e.g. on first run/install:

Posts to FLOWDOC_LICENSE_SERVER + /licenses/<FLOWDOC_LICENSE_KEY>/activate (a single /api/ segment, since FLOWDOC_LICENSE_SERVER is expected to already carry one — see /validate's doubled /api/api/ above). Cache signedLicenseArtifact yourself if you need it later; this method doesn't persist anything. Never throws.

Requirements

• PHP 8.1+ with the FFI extension enabled (extension=ffi in php.ini, and ffi.enable=1 — or run with -d ffi.enable=1 for CLI scripts).

• The native flowdoc_core library, resolved in this order:

  1. FLOWDOC_NATIVE_LIB_PATH environment variable, set to the full path of the library file — the documented way to point this package at a library you've built yourself. This requires access to the private flowdoc-core source (not available publicly) and a Rust toolchain:

  2. native/{darwin,linux,windows}/<filename>, relative to this package. Populated automatically by composer install/composer update via a post-install-cmd/post-update-cmd hook (Flowdoc\Installer::postInstall, see src/Installer.php): it looks up the installed package version and current platform in native-checksums.json, downloads the matching GitHub Release asset, and verifies its SHA-256 against the manifest before writing anything — a mismatch is discarded, not written. This step never fails your composer install: no network, no published version, or a checksum mismatch all just skip with a message and fall through to options 3/4 below. Set FLOWDOC_SKIP_NATIVE_DOWNLOAD=1 to skip it outright (offline CI, restricted environments). This is the normal path for a real composer install — see native-checksums.json for exactly which versions/platforms currently have a published native library.
  3. A system library directory (/usr/local/lib, /opt/homebrew/lib, /usr/lib), under the OS-standard filename (libflowdoc_core.so/.dylib or flowdoc_core.dll).
  4. This binding's own private source checkout's flowdoc-core/target/release/ build output — only reachable from inside that checkout (e.g. this binding's own test suite), not as an installed Composer dependency.

  If none of these resolve, NativeParser throws a RuntimeException naming the path it tried and how to fix it.

Cutting a release (publishing a native library)

1. Run .github/workflows/build-native-libs.yml (workflow_dispatch) — its php job builds and tests on all three platforms, and php-bundle downloads them and computes a checksums.json artifact.
2. Attach each platform's file as a GitHub Release asset on the vX.Y.Z tag, named libflowdoc_core-<platform>.<ext> to match the url pattern in native-checksums.json.
3. Copy the matching sha256 values from step 1's checksums.json into native-checksums.json under that version, and commit it.

Steps 2-3 are deliberately manual (or a separate, not-yet-written automation job) rather than CI writing back into the repo on its own — see build-native-libs.yml's php-bundle job comment for why.

Build & test

See the FlowDoc project for the format overview, benchmark numbers, and links to every other language binding (Rust, Go, Python, Node.js, C#, C++).