March 2010 release up for grabs

Mar 26, 2010 09:15 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft continues to work in order to woo PHP developers, attesting to drawing them away from Linux and Apache and converting them to its own Windows Server and Internet Information Services. One of the incentives that the Redmond company is offering is related to free training for those that decide to build on top of its own server technologies. The PHP on Windows Training Kit has been around for quite some time, offered as a free resource via the Microsoft Download Center. Earlier this week, Microsoft updated the kit, delivering a refreshed version.

According to the software giant, the updated kit now plays nice with Windows 7. Users that have previously used the PHP on Windows Training Kit on the latest iteration of the Windows client might have come across functionality glitches, which have been now dealt with as a bug in Windows 7 support has been resolved.

“The PHP on Windows Training Kit includes a comprehensive set of technical content including demos and hands-on labs to help you understand how to build PHP applications using Windows, IIS 7 and SQL Server 2008,” Microsoft reveals. “After downloading the training kit, run the self-extracting executable to extract all of the training kit files to your local machine. After the content is extracted, the starting page for the training kit will be displayed in your default browser. You can then browse through the individual hands-on labs, demos, and presentations.”

Developers building PHP apps on infrastructures leveraging Linux, Apache and MySQL will need to embrace Windows or Windows Server, IIS 7 and SQL Server if they are to give a try to what Microsoft has to offer. The PHP on Windows Training Kit is designed to simplify the development of apps on the Redmond company’s platform.

According to Microsoft, “this release includes the following:

PHP & SQL Server Demos; Integrating SQL Server Geo-Spatial with PHP; SQL Server Reporting Services and PHP.

PHP & SQL Server Hands On Labs; Introduction to Using SQL Server with PHP; Using Full Text Search over Office Documents in PHP.

PHP on Windows Hands On Labs; IIS Access Control Features for PHP; Using IIS 7.0 Media Features in a PHP Application; Troubleshooting PHP; Migrating PHP Applications to IIS 7.0.”