PHP SQL Server Driver for All You Communists

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I’ve been meeting a lot of open-source devs lately and most tend to be genuinely surprised about the ability to now use SQL Server 2005/2008 with PHP applications.  The best PHP devs, especially those who own or run development houses, tend to be a platform neutral bunch even those that work almost exclusively on Linux, Apache, and MySQL.  They simply live, eat, and breath PHP and don’t care about the rest of the stack as long as it “just works.”

One of the biggest audiences that PHP devs haven’t been able to break into is the enterprise world.  I’m not talking about web companies like Facebook and the like, I’m talking about manufacturing, utilities, communications, transportation, government, etc.  By and large, a huge chunk of these industries rely, at least partially, on a big Microsoft technology stack. 

Its not only important to make a great web app in these places, but it is just as important that the system cleanly integrates as well.  Up until recently, the idea of running a PHP application on Windows just seemed ridiculous for a whole host of reasons, but now Microsoft is committing a lot of time and energy to ensure Windows and MS SQL provide a 1st class experience for the PHP community!

Introducing the SQL Server Driver for PHP

The SQL Server Driver for PHP is a PHP 5 extension that provides data access to SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2008. The extension provides a procedural interface for accessing data in all versions (including Express) of SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2008. The SQL Server Driver for PHP API includes support for Windows Authentication, transactions, parameter binding, streaming, metadata access, and error handling.

To use the SQL Server Driver for PHP, you must have SQL Server Native Client installed on the same computer on which PHP is running. For more information, see System Requirements (SQL Server Driver for PHP).

What's New in Version 1.1 of the SQL Server Driver for PHP

Support Resources

About Code Examples in the Documentation

Server Driver for PHP)

SQLSRV Constants

Example ApplicationGetting Started
Programming Guide

Full MSDN Reference Documentation on PHP SQL Driver

Of course, if after some really successful projects you find yourself making a ton of money from your clients, I suggest you check out .NET.  After all, .NET offers every style of programming you could want:

  • functional
  • declarative
  • concurrent
  • interpreted
  • static
  • dynamic

.NET also supports a huge number of languages under a common language runtime as well as a dynamic language runtime:

  • C#
  • VB.NET
  • ASP.NET
  • ASP.NET MVC
  • Iron Ruby
  • Iron Python
  • F#

I highly recommend anyone who likes money check it out :)