Installation of extensions on Windows

After installing PHP and a web server on Windows, you will probably want to install some extensions for added functionality. You can choose which extensions you would like to load when PHP starts by modifying your php.ini. You can also load a module dynamically in your script using dl().

The DLLs for PHP extensions are prefixed with php_.

Many extensions are built into the Windows version of PHP. This means additional DLL files, and the extension directive, are not used to load these extensions. The Windows PHP Extensions table lists extensions that require, or used to require, additional PHP DLL files. Here's a list of built in extensions:

In PHP 4 (updated PHP 4.3.11): BCMath, Caledar, COM, Ctype, FTP, MySQL, ODBC, Overload, PCRE, Session, Tokenizer, WDDX, XML and Zlib

In PHP 5 (updated PHP 5.0.4), the following changes exist. Built in: DOM, LibXML, Iconv, SimpleXML, SPL and SQLite. And the following are no longer built in: MySQL and Overload.

The default location PHP searches for extensions is C:\php4\extensions in PHP 4 and C:\php5 in PHP 5. To change this setting to reflect your setup of PHP edit your php.ini file:

• You will need to change the extension_dir setting to point to the directory where your extensions lives, or where you have placed your php_*.dll files. For example:

  extension_dir = C:\php\extensions
  

• Enable the extension(s) in php.ini you want to use by uncommenting the extension=php_*.dll lines in php.ini. This is done by deleting the leading ; from the extension you want to load.

  Example #1 Enable Bzip2 extension for PHP-Windows

  // change the following line from ...
  ;extension=php_bz2.dll
  
  // ... to
  extension=php_bz2.dll
  

• Some of the extensions need extra DLLs to work. Couple of them can be found in the distribution package, in the C:\php\dlls\ folder in PHP 4 or in the main folder in PHP 5, but some, for example Oracle (php_oci8.dll) require DLLs which are not bundled with the distribution package. If you are installing PHP 4, copy the bundled DLLs from C:\php\dlls folder to the main C:\php folder. Don't forget to include C:\php in the system PATH (this process is explained in a separate FAQ entry).

• Some of these DLLs are not bundled with the PHP distribution. See each extensions documentation page for details. Also, read the manual section titled Installation of PECL extensions for details on PECL. An increasingly large number of PHP extensions are found in PECL, and these extensions require a separate download.

Note: If you are running a server module version of PHP remember to restart your web server to reflect your changes to php.ini.

The following table describes some of the extensions available and required additional dlls.

PHP Extensions

Extension	Description	Notes
php_bz2.dll	bzip2 compression functions	None
php_calendar.dll	Calendar conversion functions	Built in since PHP 4.0.3
php_crack.dll	Crack functions	None
php_ctype.dll	ctype family functions	Built in since PHP 4.3.0
php_curl.dll	CURL, Client URL library functions	Requires: libeay32.dll, ssleay32.dll (bundled)
php_dba.dll	DBA: DataBase (dbm-style) Abstraction layer functions	None
php_dbase.dll	dBase functions	None
php_dbx.dll	dbx functions
php_domxml.dll	DOM XML functions	PHP <= 4.2.0 requires: libxml2.dll (bundled) PHP >= 4.3.0 requires: iconv.dll (bundled)
php_dotnet.dll	.NET functions	PHP <= 4.1.1
php_exif.dll	EXIF functions	php_mbstring.dll. And, php_exif.dll must be loaded after php_mbstring.dll in php.ini.
php_fbsql.dll	FrontBase functions	PHP <= 4.2.0
php_fdf.dll	FDF: Forms Data Format functions.	Requires: fdftk.dll (bundled)
php_filepro.dll	filePro functions	Read-only access
php_ftp.dll	FTP functions	Built-in since PHP 4.0.3
php_gd.dll	GD library image functions	Removed in PHP 4.3.2. Also note that truecolor functions are not available in GD1, instead, use php_gd2.dll.
php_gd2.dll	GD library image functions	GD2
php_gettext.dll	Gettext functions	PHP <= 4.2.0 requires gnu_gettext.dll (bundled), PHP >= 4.2.3 requires libintl-1.dll, iconv.dll (bundled).
php_hyperwave.dll	HyperWave functions	None
php_iconv.dll	ICONV characterset conversion	Requires: iconv-1.3.dll (bundled), PHP >=4.2.1 iconv.dll
php_ifx.dll	Informix functions	Requires: Informix libraries
php_iisfunc.dll	IIS management functions	None
php_imap.dll	IMAP POP3 and NNTP functions	None
php_ingres.dll	Ingres II functions	Requires: Ingres II libraries
php_interbase.dll	InterBase functions	Requires: gds32.dll (bundled)
php_java.dll	Java functions	PHP <= 4.0.6 requires: jvm.dll (bundled)
php_ldap.dll	LDAP functions	PHP <= 4.2.0 requires libsasl.dll (bundled), PHP >= 4.3.0 requires libeay32.dll, ssleay32.dll (bundled)
php_mbstring.dll	Multi-Byte String functions	None
php_mcrypt.dll	Mcrypt Encryption functions	Requires: libmcrypt.dll
php_mhash.dll	Mhash functions	PHP >= 4.3.0 requires: libmhash.dll (bundled)
php_mime_magic.dll	Mimetype functions	Requires: magic.mime (bundled)
php_ming.dll	Ming functions for Flash	None
php_msql.dll	mSQL functions	Requires: msql.dll (bundled)
php_mssql.dll	MSSQL functions	Requires: ntwdblib.dll (bundled)
php_mysql.dll	MySQL functions	PHP >= 5.0.0, requires libmysql.dll (bundled)
php_mysqli.dll	MySQLi functions	PHP >= 5.0.0, requires libmysql.dll (libmysqli.dll in PHP <= 5.0.2) (bundled)
php_oci8.dll	Oracle 8 functions	Requires: Oracle 8.1+ client libraries
php_openssl.dll	OpenSSL functions	Requires: libeay32.dll (bundled)
php_overload.dll	Object overloading functions	Built in since PHP 4.3.0
php_pdf.dll	PDF functions	None
php_pgsql.dll	PostgreSQL functions	None
php_printer.dll	Printer functions	None
php_shmop.dll	Shared Memory functions	None
php_snmp.dll	SNMP get and walk functions	NT only!
php_soap.dll	SOAP functions	PHP >= 5.0.0
php_sockets.dll	Socket functions	None
php_sybase_ct.dll	Sybase functions	Requires: Sybase client libraries
php_tidy.dll	Tidy functions	PHP >= 5.0.0
php_tokenizer.dll	Tokenizer functions	Built in since PHP 4.3.0
php_w32api.dll	W32api functions	None
php_xmlrpc.dll	XML-RPC functions	PHP >= 4.2.1 requires: iconv.dll (bundled)
php_xslt.dll	XSLT functions	PHP <= 4.2.0 requires sablot.dll, expat.dll (bundled). PHP >= 4.2.1 requires sablot.dll, expat.dll, iconv.dll (bundled).
php_yaz.dll	YAZ functions	Requires: yaz.dll (bundled)
php_zip.dll	Zip File functions	Read only access
php_zlib.dll	ZLib compression functions	Built in since PHP 4.3.0