Now that you are familiar with how to use OCI8 APIs to access Oracle database from PHP, it is worthwhile to take a moment to briefly touch on the other tools that can be used as alternatives to the OCI8 extension. This will not only give you an overview of some popular tools other than the OCI8 extension that can be used to build PHP/Oracle applications, but it can also help you understand whether OCI8 is the best choice for a particular application or there is another tool that fits your needs better.
As mentioned previously, there are several open-source libraries that can be used to communicate with Oracle from PHP. This section briefly touches upon the most popular two, namely PEAR DB and ADOdb, as well as the PHP Data Objects (PDO) extension that provides a lightweight interface for accessing databases in PHP. Finally, it discusses how you might benefit from creating your own library on top of the OCI8 extension.