14 DAY TRIAL // The interoperability bridge Microsoft has been building between PHP and its own technologies, especially its data platform, continues to evolve. The latest efforts from the Redmond company are bound to come in handy to those leveraging the Drupal content-management system, but also to additional customers. DrupalCon SF 2010 was the stage where Microsoft announced that it had introduced support for PDO (PHP Data Objects) in the second version of the SQL Server Driver for PHP.
In fact, a new testing milestone of the SQL Server Driver for PHP 2.0 with PDO support is currently available for download. Ashay Chaudhary, program manager, SQL Server Driver for PHP, explains that the latest Community Technology Preview of the driver is designed to allow customers running PHP projects to take advantage of PHP's PDO style data access for SQL Server. This, of course, translates into a boost in terms of interoperability. Specifically, PHP apps, including Drupal 7, will be able to now easily interoperate with the software giant’s SQL Server databases, by using the PDO “PHP style.”
“For PHP developers, this will reduce the complexity of targeting multiple databases and will make it easier to take advantage of SQL Server features (like business intelligence & reporting) as well as SQL Azure features (like exposing OData feeds),” Chaudhary explained. “My team and I have been working hard over the past months to introduce PDO into the existing SQL Server Driver for PHP. The decision to add PDO was a direct result of the feedback we received from the PHP community.”
The most recent SQL Server Driver for PHP 2.0 CTP brings to the table a new Application Programming Interface (API) as defined by the PDO. This is only valid for version 2.0 of the driver. Older releases, such as v1.1, only feature the SQL Server Native API. It is important to underline that Microsoft has worked to present the native SQL Server application programming interface, and added the PDO API alongside it.
“The SQL Server Driver for PHP 2.0 CTP is available for download at the Microsoft Download Center (installation through Web PI available as well). Don’t be surprised if you don’t find the source yet, we have packaged only the binaries for now. Rest assured that the SQL Server Driver for PHP 2.0 will be available as a shared source project (like current version 1.1) in our next public release. We expect the final version in the second half of this year,” Chaudhary promised.
SQL Server Driver for PHP 2.0 CTP is available for download here.