14 DAY TRIAL // PHP developers can now access new and enhanced resources from Microsoft, designed to let them leverage their existing set of skills to build Windows Azure applications and services.
Even back when Microsoft’s Cloud platform was still referred to mainly under the codename Red Dog, the company had placed interoperability at the core of its strategy to attract developers.
Windows Azure offers support to a range of technologies, including .NET, Java and PHP. More importantly, the predilection of certain languages has made the software giant invest resources into ensuring that devs using them will feel right at home on Windows Azure.
Case in point: PHP. The Redmond company was already offering a software development kit for PHP to the developers building Windows Azure projects.
But as is the case with any SDK, this particular collection of dev resources continues to evolve, maturing nicely.
Windows Azure SDK for PHP version 3.0 is now available via CodePlex, free and open source, of course.
“This Open Source SDK gives PHP developers a “speed dial” library to take full advantage of Windows Azure’s coolest features. On top of many improvements and bug fixes for this version we’re particularly excited about the new service management possibilities and the new logging infrastructure,” revealed Craig Kitterman, a Senior Technical Ambassador in the Interoperability Strategy team at Microsoft focused on HTML5, PHP, Java and cloud technologies.
While the Windows Azure SDK for PHP evolved to version 3.0, Microsoft also launched new dev content, the Windows Azure Sample Kit for PHP.
Just as it is the case with the SDK, the kit’s job is to simplify the work that PHP developers will need to do for their projects.
The Windows Azure Sample Kit for PHP label is somewhat of a giveaway, and the resource does include, as you’d expect, PHP sample code and apps which act as examples for devs to build their own PHP projects on Windows Azure.
“Today we are releasing two samples to the repository: the Guestbook application (example of how to use the Windows Azure storage objects – blobs, queues and tables as well as a simple web/worker pattern) and “Deal of the Day”. We look forward to feedback on the samples and I am also hoping to see some forks and new samples coming from the community!” Kitterman added.
The Windows Azure SDK for PHP is available for download here.