How Workbooks Runs Scripts

Scripts are run “at arms length” in a separate environment known as a “Jail”. This page runs through what this means in more detail.

How Workbooks Runs Scripts

A Workbooks Script can be very flexible and hence for security reasons Scripts are run “at arms length” in a separate environment known as a “Jail” and they access the main Workbooks service just as any other Workbooks API program does.

In addition to enforcing basic security limitations, the Jail environment allows the Workbooks Script access to a reasonable amount of memory and processor time. The Script is killed if it exceeds the runtime you request when creating the Process, or it exceeds memory and processor usage limits.

PHP Libraries

Within the Jail, the Script is interpreted as PHP code and has access to a number of useful PHP libraries. These include 

Web Services: xmlrpc curl

Email: imap

Databases:

• SQLite: sqlite sqlite3
• Microsoft SQL: mssql
• MySQL: mysql mysqli pdo_mysql
• ODBC: odbc pdo_odbc pdo_mysql pdo_pgsql pdo_sqlite
• PostgreSQL: pgsql pso_pgsql  

The current PHP version is 5.4; Workbooks will update this from time to time.