How easy is it to use PHP on an MS Server with MS SQL?

I generally use linux servers and program in PHP (plus other associated technologies) with mysql databases. A client has existing ASP sites using MSSQL databases on a Windows server and wants some new sites created on their server using their MSSQL database as the main data source. I have used ASP in the past but much prefer PHP so would rather use this.

I just wanted to confirm that i'm right in saying as long as the server has PHP installed (which it does) then there's no reason I can't create a PHP site on the Windows server and just use different connectors to connect to the MSSQL db (rather than what i would usually use for connecting to a MYSQL db). Presumably (other than the different connect/query code) this would work in pretty much the same way as with a linux setup with mysql and i could then code the site in PHP 开发者_运维知识库but use their existing datasource?

I would be extremely grateful if anyone could confirm i'm right in saying this and if there's any other issues that might cause any problems?

Thanks so much for your help as ever,

Dave

You can enable MSSQL support in PHP on Windows. The default Windows PHP install has the php_mssql.dll extension commented out in the php.ini file. Uncomment that line, restart Apache, and it should work.

There is a supporting DLL called ntwdblib.dll that you may need to find a replacement for, as the version included with PHP may be outdated and won't work with newer versions of SQL Server. (I had this problem when setting it up.)

There are two different libraries to connect to SQL Server from PHP:

• The legacy mssql extension, which has been discontinued on Windows
• Microsoft's sqlsrv extension, which only works on Windows

I've basically worked with the second one and I can say it's a very interesting product. It's robust, it has a very nice interface and it's totally up-to-date. But what I like most is that it has very nice features. E.g.:

• It can return dates as PHP DateTime objects
• It provides a PDO driver

The only drawback of using SQL Server is that there isn't an easy way to write a cross-platform app but I understand it isn't problem in your case.

Yes, it is rather straight forweard.

You need to have the mssql library activated in php.ini. Which can be troublesom.

MSSSQL docmentation