This is a short post to shareexciting news: Jooma! 2.5, which shipped earlier this week, now has support for SQL Server! Of course, this release contains lots more goodies, but the addition of a database abstraction layer that supports multiple databases...

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 ....

Microsoft will be at DrupalCon Denver next week, and I have the good fortune of being one of the Microsoft representatives that will be attending. The program looks great – it’s packed with great speakers and sessions, and there are lots of...

Last month, the Interoperability team at Microsoft highlighted work done to move the Screen Actors Guild Awards Drupal website from a Linux-Apache-MySQL-PHP (LAMP) environment to the Windows Azure platform: SAG Awards Drupal Website Moves to Windows Azure...

I spent some time last week investigating a puzzling issue raised in the SQL Server Driver for PHP forums: Need help with PDO::quote() and PDOStatement::bindValue and PDO::execute using new SQLSRVR 2.0 driver . At the heart of the issue was this question...

I came across lots of good links this week, but I have to say that I’m most excited about the first two (yes, I know, long overdue). Lot’s of other good reading too…everything from tips for running PHP in Windows Azure to the top 10...

I wish I could attribute my recent lapse in reading to enjoying more time outside in a beautiful, sunny Seattle summer. But alas, summer hasn’t really arrived yet, and work hasn’t slowed down (the pace seems to have picked up, actually). So...

A couple of weeks ago I ran into some problems when figuring out how to do backups and restores with the SQL Server Driver for PHP . The problem itself* isn’t the point of this post, but how the problem took me further down the stack is. The short story...

One of the things I like most about my job is that I get to work directly with our software development teams. This has obvious benefits – I have direct access to the people who can explain how and why code does what it does when I can’t figure it out...

[Updated November 9th, 2011] In this post, I’ll show you how to get started with PHP and SQL Azure . I’ll walk you through building a very simple Web page in the same way I did in a recent post: Getting Started with the SQL Server Driver for PHP . That...

Microsoft is getting serious about offering SQL Server access from Linux...and your input is being requested. Actually, the request is that you provide your thoughts about Microsoft offering ODBC support for non-Windows platforms (which would provide...

Recently I was able to catch up with Zach Owens, a technical evangelist here at Microsoft who is focused on getting the word out to developers about the Microsoft Data Platform. As I think you will see, catching up with Zach is no easy feat. During my...

This has been a busy week…apparently especially so for Maarten Balliauw and Josh Holmes (lots of good stuff from them this week). And, it seems to have been a busy week for news about Windows Azure – a higher-than-usual proportion of this...

My “PHP on Windows” presentation at the Dutch PHP Conference (presented today…whew!) focused on the recent improvements in interoperability between PHP and Microsoft Technologies (my slides are attached to this post). If you attended...

Presenting at conferences is something that is still new to me…I’m amazed at how much time it takes to put a presentation together. I definitely have new found respect for those folks who are good at doing it. I’m sure I’ve spent...

I’ve written a couple of posts ( here and here ) about Java and the JDBC Driver for SQL Server with the promise of eventually writing about how to get a Java application running on the Windows Azure platform. In this post, I’ll deliver on...

Based on my reading list this week, you can infer that I was either very busy with other work or that I was goofing off more than I should have. Since my manager may be reading this, I’ll go with “very busy”. Highlights include Ben Waine...

[Author's note: See this post for an alternative strategy for paging data: Paging Data with the SQL Server Drivers for PHP: Simplified .] Shortly after the 1.0 version of the SQL Server Driver for PHP was released , I posted on the team blog as about...

Last week at JumpIn Camp we spent quite a bit of time focusing on the SQL Server Driver for PHP . As developers worked to build SQL Server support into their applications, they had lots of questions about how both the SQLSRV and PDO_SQLSRV drivers work...

I have been a slacker about posting my weekly link list recently…I’ll chalk that to attending conferences in the last couple of weeks, though I know that is a poor excuse. This week, however, I’m back in action and have LOTS to share because I have been...

A few months back, I wrote a post that demonstrated how to access SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) reports with the SSRS SDK for PHP . There have been many comments on that post, many of which indicated that people have struggled to get users set...

An update release to the Microsoft Drivers for SQL Server for PHP 2.0 is now available. You can download it here and you can read what Ashay Chaudhary (Program Manager for the drivers) had to say about the release here . The release contains fixes for...

November was an exceptionally busy month and, by the looks of things, December promises to be just as busy. This week’s links include news about an update release for the PHP Drivers for SQL Server, the JumpIn! Camp that took place a couple of weeks...

You might need more than a weekend to get through all of these links. My favorite is Ashay Chaudhary’s post about the journey to adding SQL Server support to Drupal 7. But there are lots of other interesting links, including webinar and conference...

This post is a follow up to a post I did last week: Paging Data with the SQL Server Drivers for PHP: Simplified . In that post, I showed how to leverage scrollable cursors to simplify code for paging data. However, my investigation used only one type...