Running multiple instances of php

[Ricky55]

Hi guys,

I have hired a developer to help me create an e-commerce project using Laravel. The customer admin and checkout were written by an in house dev that has since left who wrote these outside of Laravel, using Laravel for just the main admin to control orders etc. I told the new dev to throw away anything that didn’t make good sense or fit with modern best practices. He kept the two sections outside of Laravel, although he is using Laravel for authorisation.

Looking at his code I have lost all confidence, I’m no expert but he has functions all over the place, repeated in different files there’s no OOP it looks a mess then yesterday he announced that I’d need two instances of php running on my server to get the site to even work. Not two different versions, the same version. I’ve never even heard of this. He said one for Laravel and one for the other parts of the site.

Long story I know but what do you guys think? Is this possible? Is it a bad idea? What do you think of what I’ve said? I’ve googled around and it seems possible to run two different versions of php but that’s  not what he’s talking about.

Any advice very welcome and sorry if I’ve posted in wrong category.

Thanks Richard

 

[kicken]

It's possible he means you will need the CLI version of PHP in addition to whatever is used by your webserver (fpm / apache module).   These are sometimes split into different packages by linux distributions so you can install only the specific one you need.  The CLI version might be used for background tasks for example. 

[Ricky55]

Thanks man.

He's now saying this can be done in the Apache config using two ports. Getting a bit out of my depth to be honest.

[requinix]

Exactly what is he saying you should do and what are the reasons for it?