Last week, Microsoft held a virtual conference to announce the availability of SQL Server 2012. The conference included a number of events (speakers, videos, training activities, etc.) that focused on the new functionality available in this release. Now that most of the fanfare has died down a bit, I'd like to take a look at what some of that new functionality means for PHP developers. Combined with the release of the Microsoft Driver for SQL Server for PHP, I think the SQL Server 2012 release makes some big improvements in developing PHP/SQL Server applications.

He includes instructions on getting the latest version set up with the SQL Server Express LocalDB (and command line tools). He mentions only a few of the new things this latest version has to offer - easier pagination with OFFSET/FETCH NEXT, client-side cursors and other things like "AlwaysOn Connectivity" and the PDO::ATTR_EMULATE_PREPARES constant.

I'll build a web page that exposes enough of the driver functionality for you to understand the basics of connecting to a server, inserting and retrieving data, and handling errors. A quick note about simplicity: The web page I'll build in this post is very simple '" it's just a simple form, really. It collects information about people who are registering for some fictional event. I'm intentionally keeping it very simple so I can focus on the PHP code for using the driver.

He walks you through the full process - everything from the installation of the driver to creating the database and, finally, building the page that connects to the SQL Server database and inserts/selects data from the sample table.

This article assumes you have a basic understanding of PHP and relational databases - if you can write PHP and SQL code to manipulate database records, you're good to go. We'll move through the PHP fairly quickly, in order to focus on the power and simplicity of the platform.

You'll need to download the Web Platform Installer to follow along with the tutorial (or, obviously, have all of the needed software installed already). He walks you through the installation complete with screenshots including how to create the handler to let your PHP connect to the SQL Server backend and making some sample tables for PHP to select data from.

Over the past week or so I've been figuring out how to compile PHP on Windows, specifically Windows Vista. It's been an interesting ride since I'm not very familiar with compiling on Windows to start with. [...] If you are using Windows Vista, or intend updating/using Visual C++ Express 2008, then my blog entry is largely another coat of sugar on top of Elizabeth's guide to clear up any difference between the two approaches.

He lists the software you'll need to make the compile work (including Virtual Clone Drive, WinRAR, VS 2008 Express and the .NET Framework SDK) and then breaks it down into three steps - the installation of the development environment (and setup), downloading PHP/libraries to the environment and, of course, compiling the PHP instance to your specs (complete with command line calls to make it all happen).

No, I'm not insane. And I realize that there are some great resources for downloading precompiled ready to go PHP windows binaries and extensions. However, I've been working with PHP-GTK2, and writing C code. I wanted to be able to test new things being placed in CVS and learn enough C to help increase the implementation percentage.

She breaks the process up into the four logical steps for getting it up and running:

• Setup a (free as in money, not beer) compile environment
• Compile PHP
• Compile PHP-GTK2
• Deploy PHP-GTK2

Michael McLaughlin calls his new book PHP Web Programming an enabling book. I'd go further and call it a desert island book. It is the only thing you'd need to carry. It has much reference material strategically placed in the text, well thought out examples, and teaches how to build applications.

Christopher mentions some of the contents of the book - HTTP authentication, the POSIX file function,strings/objects, error handling, etc - it has it all. It especially has detailed information about using PHP with Oracle - PL/SQL, LOBs, REF CURSORS, and much more. It comes with a CD of code and applications, everything you'd need to get a PHP/Oracle installation up and running including the Oracle Database 10g Express Edition, Zend Core for Oracle's PHP stack, and the Apache web server.