MS Open Sources Sql Server Extension
Microsoft has put their new SQL Server Driver (for Microsoft SQL Server 2005+ and hopefully the replacement for the aging mssql extension that uses dblib) on Codeplex under their BSDish Microsoft Public License – and YES, that is OSI approved
It’s a C++ extension and after a brief glance I see a number of things that are definitely not “best practices” for PHP extensions, from odd parameter parsing to bad naming of their version constant and beyond, and the thing definitely wouldn’t compile on any *Nix system but even a small step is a step in the right direction. However I can’t help but think they could have moved faster on the extension with some help from the PHP community – they might know SQL Server and Windows but WE know PHP.
I’m also a little concerned that this isn’t a true “open sourcing” of the code, allowing for patches and improvements because of the statement on the front page
We will be responsive to feedback on the CodePlex, MSDN Forum and through our blog, weighing in on both feature requests and bug reports. We currently plan to update the driver available on the MSDN download site approximately once every three months. When we update the driver on the MSDN download site, we will also push the corresponding changes to the source code up to the CodePlex site.
With each successive update, we will revisit this plan. We’ve seen too many projects over-reach in their plans to be responsive to the community. We would prefer to start with a more conservative approach and make sure we’re successfully delivering on that before expanding.
– David Sceppa
I wonder why they are taking the path of keeping most of the development internal and only pushing it once in a blue moon – three months can see a LOT of changes, take a look at how far PHP 5.3 has come in three months.
I’ll keep my skepticism at a minimum though, I’m generally an optimistic person, and since that code is now open source, you can always fork 
I’d recommend some light reading to the head guys of the project – Producing Open Source Software is a good manifesto of what open source development needs to be successful and more than just a token gesture.
July 30th, 2008 at 8:47 am
It still can’t be a replacement, as it only runs on Windows. Also, everybody else is using PDO, so find it all sort of a useless effort. On top of that, this API seems to be modelled after phpbb’s…
Derick
July 30th, 2008 at 10:35 am
Until this SQL Server driver works on *nix, better stick with http://freetds.org/. MS has missed the problem here. The problem is not connecting to SQL Server from PHP, the problem is connecting to SQL Server from PHP on *nix.
July 30th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
Rich: actually from SQL Server 2005 the freetds stuff doesn’t even work right anymore – windows or nix – so BOTH problems exist
July 30th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
@Derick: I am sure that it already works better than the freetds driver. And I’m told the oci PDO driver is also not (yet) on par with the oci8 one. Sorry for not being evangelizing the golden path to a better future, but sometimes “meglio un uovo oggi che una gallina domani” a.k.a. one better to have an extra customer running on windows than none… (hey, oci8 version 1.3.4 just got released, too! ach – off to a compile and test cycle)
July 30th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
oh, and mysqlNd or whatever it is going to be called is also not yet pdo compliant, is it?
July 30th, 2008 at 11:56 pm
I believe PDO-MySQLND just landed recently:
http://blog.ulf-wendel.de/?p=193
September 9th, 2008 at 8:37 am
Why so many hidden links in your post ?
I found them after disabling CSS on this post.
September 9th, 2008 at 8:50 am
No clue, they’re gone now