Archives
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The SQL Server ODBC Driver for Linux is Available!
The first beta release of the SQL Server ODBC Driver for Linux is available for download! As announced in October, the “Multiplatform Team” (a.k.a. the “MPlat Team”) has released a preview version of a driver that will provide first-class access to SQL Server from applications running on Linux operating systems. The team is looking for feedback on this release to incorporate into their production-ready release, so try it out and let us know what you think. Here are the important links to get you started:
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Microsoft Announces SQL Server ODBC Driver for Linux!
In this morning’s keynote address at the Professional Association of SQL Server (PASS) Summit 2011, Quentin Clark (Corporate Vice President at Microsoft) announced that a preview of the Microsoft SQL Server ODBC Driver for Linux will soon be widely available to customers. Yes, you read that right. Microsoft plans to release a driver that provides 1st class access to SQL Server from Linux/Unix operating systems. Recently, Microsoft has been working closely with a handful of partners to get feedback on private releases of the driver. A publicly available preview release of the driver is planned for later this fall.
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Why is PHP 5.3 on Windows faster than previous PHP versions?
Last week I had the good fortune of hearing Rasmus Lerdorf speak at the Seattle PHP Meetup. His talks was excellent – it was sprinkled with history, personal stories, tips, best practices, and insights into what he’s thinking about for the future. At one point, during a section on best practices, he urged everyone to move to PHP 5.3 if they hadn’t already. He added (and I’m paraphrasing here), “If you aren’t running PHP 5.3 on Windows, you’re lucky…because you have a 40% performance boost coming.” He clarified this by saying that, with some help from Microsoft, improvements were made in PHP 5.3 that led to a 40% performance improvement of PHP on Windows. Because he didn’t go into the details of why this performance boost was realized, I got questions in email the next day asking about why. So, here’s a slide from a presentation I did last year that explains why:
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Version 3.0 (beta) of the SQL Server Drivers for PHP Released!
A Community Technology Preview (a beta release) of v3.0 of the SQL Server Drivers for PHP was released today (see the announcement on the team blog). You can download it here: Download v3.0 of the SQL Server Drivers for PHP. In this release, there are three new features: buffered queries, support for LocalDB, and support for high availability and disaster recovery. It’s important to note that the latter two features are dependent on the next version of SQL Server (code named “Denali”). A preview of Denali can be downloaded for free here (see notes later in this article about the installation process): Download SQL Server Denali CTP 3. More detail about each new feature is in the sections below. We’re hoping to get feedback from you. If you have feedback, please comment on this post or reach out to me (@brian_swan) and/or Jonathan Guerin (@kop48, the Program Manager for the drivers) on Twitter.
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Starting a New Blog: Windows Azure’s Silver Lining
If you are a regular reader of my blog, you have probably noticed I haven’t been publishing much lately. That is not to say, however, that I haven’t been writing. I have. I’ve been working with a colleague (Larry Franks) to start a new blog: Windows Azure’s Silver Lining. The focus of that blog will be open source and device development on the Windows Azure platform. I’ve been writing about PHP on the Azure platform for a while now, but I’m excited to take my knowledge to a new level and to branch out into new areas. Part of my excitement stems from the vision laid out by Satya Nadella (President of Microsoft Server and Tools Business Division) for Open Source integration with the Windows Azure platform. In his words (and you can read more here)…
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Consuming SQL Server Result Sets as XML with PHP
At last month’s SQL Server JumpIn! Camp, one of the SQL Server features that generated some excitement among the participants was SQL Server’s ability to return result sets as XML. I felt a bit foolish for not having investigated this feature, so I’m rectifying that with this post. The SQL Server XML functionality is very rich (just look at the MSDN documentation devoted to it!), but I will provide only an introduction in this post. As you will see, nothing special is required in your PHP code…the magic is all in the SQL queries.
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This Week’s Link List (July 15, 2011)
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 things that annoy programmers. Enjoy…
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PHP Driver for SQL Server – Request for Feature Feedback
Jonathan Guerin, the Program Manager for the SQL Server Driver for PHP, just posted a request for feature feedback on the team blog. I want to make sure that his request gets in front of lots of eyes, so I’m re-posting his request here (below). Jonathan included some links in his post so you can learn more about what the team is considering for the next release of the driver, but he didn’t elaborate on “Buffered Queries”. If it’s not obvious what that feature is, it is simply functionality that allows you to bring an entire result set into memory all at once (which the SQLSRV driver doesn’t currently support – you currently have to use a scrollable cursor if you want to move back and forth within a result set).
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SQL Server Migration Assistant 5.1 Supports SQL Server v-Next
On the heels of today’s announcement at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference of the availability of SQL Server code name “Denali” CTP3, the SQL Server Migration Assistant Team announced the release of the SQL Server Migration Assistant for MySQL 5.1. (You can download SSMA here.) This big news in this release of SSMA is support for SQL Server v-Next (code name “Denali”).
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Performance Tuning PHP Apps on Windows with Wincache
A few weeks ago I wrote a post that showed how to improve the performance of PHP applications on Windows by using the IIS output caching module. Using the output caching module can have significant positive impact on application performance since pages are served from cache without executing any PHP code. However, this very strength can also be a drawback depending on how your application is built. Because entire pages are cached, using output caching may not be ideal for pages that have multiple data sources. The Wincache extension to PHP provides an alternative (and/or compliment) to output caching. In this post, I’ll look at what performance improvements you get for “free” just by enabling the Wincache extension, as well as how you can cache user objects to get finer caching granularity than output caching affords.
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This Week’s Link List (July 1, 2011)
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, my list is a bit shorter than usual (but not short on quality!). Enjoy…
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SQL Server JumpIn! Camp Wrap Up
As I arrived yesterday for day 4 (the last day) of the SQL Server JumpIn! Camp, one participant said to me,“I’m starting to feel worn down.” I think that was the general sentiment of everyone that was there…and with good reason. During each day of the camp, PHP developers worked side-by-side with Microsoft developers to add SQL Server and SQL Azure support to their projects, but nearly everyone put in many extra hours late at night (and even early morning!) to add support for other Microsoft technologies (such as IIS, Web Platform Installer, and Windows Azure). The amount of work done by the participants was incredible. You can get a sense of just how much progress was made by this picture of our “progress” board taken on the last day of the camp:
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Interview with Ben Waine, 2011 PHP on Azure Contest Winner
I recently had a chance to catch up via e-mail with Ben Waine, winner of the 2011 PHP on Azure contest winner. The announcement of his victory was actually made at the Dutch PHP Conference in May, but we’ve both been extremely busy since then, so exchanging e-mails has taken a while. I only followed the contest from a distance while it was happening, but after hearing that Ben had won the contest (I had the good fortune of meeting Ben in person at the 2010 Dutch PHP Conference) and after reading his blog series about building his application, I wanted to find out more about his experience. He does a great job of detailing his experience on his blog, so I highly suggest reading his articles if you are looking to understand the benefits and challenges of running PHP application on the Windows Azure platform. If you are interested in learning more about Ben and his hind-sight perspective on his project, read on…
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Looking Forward to Next Week’s SQL Server JumpIn! Camp
Next week, Microsoft will host its second SQL Server JumpIn! Camp, and I’m very excited to be a participant (take a look at the list (below) of PHP applications and frameworks that will be represented and you will understand why!). I was fortunate enough to attend the first JumpIn! Camp (last November), and what I liked most about that camp was that it was an excellent two-way learning experience. The main goal of the first camp was (and is for next week’s camp) to add SQL Server support to several PHP applications and frameworks. (To understand why this was the goal, read these two interviews: Interview with Julian Egelstaff, Technical Architect at Freeform Solutions and Interview: Ashay Chaudhary on the SQL Server JumpIn! Camp.) In the first camp (as will be in the second camp) PHP and Microsoft developers worked side-by-side to learn from each other in working toward this goal. The end result was that, in addition to the stated goal being achieved, both PHP and Microsoft developers learned a great deal about each other and their respective technologies. (To see some of what I learned at the camp, check out these articles: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/brian_swan/archive/tags/jumpin+camp/.) I have every reason to expect next week’s camp to provide a similar experience for all involved.
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Performance Tuning PHP Apps on Windows/IIS with Output Caching
In this article, I’ll show you how to improve the performance of PHP applications on Windows/IIS by covering the What, When, and How of using the IIS Output Caching module. As background reading (or for the condensed version of my post), I suggest reading this: Configure IIS 7 Output Caching (and I strongly suggest reading the introduction to that article).
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This Week’s Link List (June 3, 2011)
For me, the highlight in this week’s list are the first two. Both the SQLSRV and PDO_SQLSRV drivers are now in PECL. For some, that may not be a big deal, but it’s something I’ve been pushing for a long time. I see it as one more (small) step toward community citizenship…
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This Week’s Link List (May 27, 2011)
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 winning the PHPAzure contest and MODX releasing v2.1 with support for the full Microsoft stack…
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New Version of Windows Azure SDK for PHP (v 3.0) Available
The Interoperability Team at Microsoft announced today that the production-ready 3.0 version of the Windows Azure SDK is now available. You can read about the details of the release here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/interoperability/archive/2011/05/26/new-sdk-shows-how-to-leverage-the-scalability-of-windows-azure-with-php.aspx, but I wanted to share what I consider the highlights of the release in this post.
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Consuming OData via JSP in Windows Azure
A colleague recently asked me if I knew anything about consuming OData from a Java deployment in Windows Azure. My answer at the time was “no”, but with a quick pointer to http://code.google.com/p/odata4j/ I know the answer would soon change to “yes”. In this short post, I’ll show you how I used this tutorial, Deploying a Java Application to Windows Azure with Command-line Ant, to quickly comsume OData from Java running in Windows Azure.
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This Week’s Link List (May 20, 2011)
Working on posts for next week didn’t prevent me from doing my weekly reading. Lot’s of interesting news related to Microsoft interoperability with open source technologies, as well as good stuff from this week’s TechEd conference in Atlanta…
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This Week’s Link List (May 13th, 2011)
I happen to think that Friday the 13th is a lucky day (note that I’m knocking on wood as I write that). In any case, once again, lots of good reading this week. Actually, this list is made up of links I’ve collected over the past two weeks (since I didn’t publish a Link List last week). Enjoy…
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Book Review: Easy PHP Websites with the Zend Framework
Several weeks ago (more than I’m willing to admit) Jason Gilmore asked approached me on Twitter and asked me if I’d be interested in reviewing his latest book, Easy PHP Websites with the Zend Framework. I was familiar with Jason’s publications on the PHPBuilder site and I had been itching to dive into the Zend Framework, so I jumped at the opportunity. It has taken me a while to get around to reviewing it, but I’m glad I did. Jason’s writing style makes challenging concepts easy to learn and his focus on good development practices are sure to inspire you to become a better developer. Here’s more detail on what I thought after reading the book…
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Using PDO::quote with Parameterized Queries
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: Should you use the PDO::quote method to quote a parameter if you are also using the PDOStatement::bindValue or the PDOStatement::bindParam method to bind the parameter? My answer is no, you shouldn’t. I’ll explain why not, but I wonder if I’m potentially missing some use cases where it does make sense…I’d be very interested to learn those cases if I am.
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This Week’s Link List (April 29, 2011)
I’m partial to writing, so one of the highlights in this week’s list is the podcast Elizabeth Naramore’s 2010 DPC presentation on technical writing. Other highlights are Andrew Burst’s look at NoSQL and the Azure platform and my discovery of chat rooms on Stackoverflow. Lots more good stuff too…happy reading…
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Sorting Azure Table Entities by Timestamp with PHP
This is a short post that describes one way to sort Windows Azure Table entities by timestamp when using the Windows Azure SDK for PHP. The problem boils down to sorting an array of objects by a timestamp property, so the information here is nothing that hasn’t been done before. However, after spending some time looking for a way to use a filter in the Windows Azure SDK for PHP API, I didn’t find one, so I’m hoping this post might save others some time. In the end, my solution simply uses the PHP array_multisort function.
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This Week’s Link List (April 22, 2011)
There was a lot of good content this week. Highlights for me included the release of the Windows Azure SDK for PHP v3 (beta), some excellent interviews, and Chris Cornutt’s insight into the work he puts into PHPDeveloper.org…
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How to Use the Storage Emulator with the Windows Azure SDK for PHP
This is a short post to address this question: How do I use the local Storage Emulator (formerly known as Development Storage) when using the Windows Azure SDK for PHP? The Windows Azure Command Line Tools for PHP provide an option for running an application locally in the Compute Emulator, but I didn’t see an option for using the local Storage Emulator. As it turns out, the answer is very simple, although somewhat difficult to find…
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This Week’s Link List (April 15th, 2011)
Lot’s of news coming out of MIX11 in Las Vegas this week, some interesting discussion of the state of PHP development, and don’t miss the the latest build of WinCache that fixes WordPress plug-in bug…
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Updating PHP Settings in Windows Azure
I came across this question on Twitter last week: “How can I turn display_errors on for an application that is running in Windows Azure?” I have to admit that I was stumped. The only thing I could think of was to re-deploy the application with an updated php.ini file. But, I happened to mention this question to Ben Lobaugh who suggested a very simple idea: Store your PHP settings in some durable store external to your application as key-value pairs, then loop through the settings and update them with the ini_set function when a page loads. An example will help make this clear, but first, a couple of caveats:
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This Week’s Link List (April 8, 2011)
Once again, lots going on this week. I found the two articles about Zitec deploying their PHP social networking application to Windows Azure to be especially interesting. And, of course, topics for math geeks are near and dear to my heart…maybe I should make “For the math geek” a regular category? Enjoy…
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Interview with Mark Brown, Senior Product Manager for Microsoft Web Platform
I recently had a chance to catch up with the very busy Mark Brown, Senior Product Manager for the Microsoft Web Platform. I’ve had the good fortune of working with Mark in my day-to-day work as well as at a couple of conferences (DrupalCon SF and JumpIn! Camp Redmond), but lately he’s been heads-down focused on WebMatrix. I wrote about WebMatrix in its beta stages and purely from a PHP-developer point of view (here and here), but I know it has come a long way since then. In this interview, Mark talks about what WebMatrix has evolved into and what it will take to make it successful. However, what I found most interesting about the interview is the perspective Mark shares about Microsoft’s engagement with open source technologies and communities…
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This Week’s Link List (April 1, 2011)
I missed posting my weekly reading last week, so this week’s list is longer than usual. Lot’s of interesting news around PHP-Microsoft interoperability and PHP on Azure as the PHP on Azure contest heats up. Enjoy…
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Java Access to SQL Azure via the JDBC Driver for SQL Server
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 that promise. Specifically, I’ll show you two things: 1) how to connect to a SQL Azure Database from a Java application running locally, and 2) how to connect to a SQL Azure database from an application running in Windows Azure. You should consider these as two ordered steps in moving an application from running locally against SQL Server to running in Windows Azure against SQL Azure. In both steps, connection to SQL Azure relies on the JDBC Driver for SQL Server and SQL Azure.
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This Week’s Link List (March 18, 2011)
A shorter than usual list this week as I didn’t have as much time to read, but the quantity is eclipsed by the importance (and in some cases, weight) of some of the news…
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Windows Azure Command Line Tools for PHP and web.config Files
Last week, Ben Waine blogged about a problem he ran into when using the Windows Azure Command Line Tools for PHP to deploy a Zend Framework application to Windows Azure. As I investigated the problem further, I was able to generalize it and offer a work around, which is what I’ll explain in this post. (My work around is essentially the same as Ben’s, but my hope is that explaining it in the context of the generalized problem you will be able to avoid headaches when deploying any application to Azure, not just Zend Framework applications.)
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Architecture of the Microsoft JDBC Driver for SQL Server
I recently began investigating the Microsoft JDBC Driver for SQL Server (see my Getting Started with the SQL Server JDBC Driver post for more information). In this post I’ll continue that investigation by looking at the architecture and history of the driver. While the information in this post may not all be immediately useful when building Java applications, I found it interesting to learn.
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This Week’s Link List (March 11, 2011)
As evidenced by the number of “Just for Fun” links, this wasn’t my most productive week (but it was fun). Now, I didn’t spend all my time playing…I read lots of intelligence-enhancing posts…I just hope some of it sticks…
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Interview with Julian Egelstaff, Technical Architect at Freeform Solutions
I recently had a chance to catch up with Julian Egelstaff, Technical Architect at Freeform Solutions. Julian attended last year’s SQL Server JumpIn! Camp where he worked with Microsoft engineers and other participants to add SQL Server support to Formulize, a PHP application that lets you to quickly create forms and reports in your website. Julian is the co-founder of Freeform Solutions, has 10 years of PHP development experience, and is a Zend Certified Engineer.
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SQL Server Driver for PHP Connection Options: Encrypt
This short post adds to my series on connection options in the SQL Server Driver for PHP. I’ll go into a bit more detail on the Encrypt and TrustServerCertificate options than the driver documentation does. I’ll start with three important points related to these options, then I’ll go into a couple of hypothetical situations that should shed more light on what these options actually do.
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This Week’s Link List (March 4, 2011)
This week’s list is long. I highly recommend the first two links…both are interesting reads…I would be interested in comments from readers. Otherwise, I hope the categories help you find other interesting reads (but I don’t think you can lose)…
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SQL Server Driver for PHP Connection Options: Failover_Partner
One of the best things about writing this series on connection options for the SQL Server Driver for PHP is that I get to learn about lots of interesting SQL Server features. This time, the Failover_Partner connection option has led me to do a bit of homework on database mirroring. The short story is that as an application developer you don’t really need to understand much about database mirroring…it’s a DBA concern. Of course, if you are both app dev and DBA and have the need for a failover database, then you might want to invest some time in learning more about mirroring than I'll go into (the MSDN documentation starts here). In this post, I'll provide an introduction to mirroring and hopefully give you enough information about the Failover_Partner option for you to send your DBA an intelligent email in case something goes wrong.
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Getting Started with the SQL Server JDBC Driver
Okay, okay. I know that Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) doesn’t have much (if anything) to do with PHP, so I apologize in advance if you are tuning in expecting to find something PHP-related. However, I temper my apology with the idea that getting out of your comfort zone is generally beneficial to your growth. The fun part is that it is very often beneficial in ways you cannot predict. So, with that said, I’m embarking on an investigation of the SQL Server JDBC Driver in hopes that I will learn something new (maybe even many things). I do not plan to stop writing about PHP, so consider this trip to be a jaunt down a side street. In addition to my usual PHP-related content, I’ll aim to make Java/JDBC-related posts a couple times each month as I learn new and interesting things. But, when you start walking down side streets, you never know where you’ll end up…
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This Week’s Link List (February 25, 2011)
With all the snow in Seattle this week (I know people in the mid-west and on the east coast are laughing at me when I say that), I feel out of sync. I’m sure I’ve missed lots of interesting links this week…I should have plenty of time this weekend to hunt more down since we’ll be iced in. But, what I did come across this week is good – lots of PHP/Azure news as the PHP on Azure contest heats up…
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SQL Server Driver for PHP Connection Options: CharacterSet
In this post, I’ll add to my slowly growing series that elaborates on the connection options for the SQL Server Driver for PHP. This time I’ll focus on the CharacterSet option. This is the option that specifies how data will be encoded when it is sent to and from the server. I’ll take a look at how and when to use the different values for this option, as well as briefly look at what the driver is doing under the hood for each value. This is especially interesting in the case of storing UTF-8 encoded data since SQL Server only supports storing USC-2 encoded data.
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This Week’s Link List (February 18, 2011)
In this week’s list, be sure to look at the comprehensive list of conferences if you haven’t already made your conference plans for the year. There’s also some good links that are helpful in learning about testing, but maybe nobody needs to read those since everyone knows how to write good tests…right? The “just for fun” links require a beverage, but that’s fine since it’s Friday…
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Do Stored Procedures Protect Against SQL Injection?
When I’ve asked people about their strategies for preventing SQL injection, one response is sometimes “I use stored procedures.” But, stored procedures do not, by themselves, necessarily protect against SQL injection. The usefulness of a stored procedure as a protective measure has everything to do with how the stored procedure is written. Write a stored procedure one way, and you can prevent SQL Injection. Write it another way, and you are still vulnerable. This post will look at one common pitfall that can leave stored procedures vulnerable to SQL injection.
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Three Components of a Successful Project
Earlier this month I attended the monthly meeting of the Seattle PHP Meetup Group. In ways I didn’t expect, it was a very interesting meeting. The content itself was interesting enough (we were talking about database design), but what I found even more interesting was how the meeting dynamics provided a good reminder of what goes into a successful software project. What I observed was nothing new – what I have to say will all be familiar to anyone who has run successful software projects – but my observations served as reminders of some of the key components of a successful project.
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This Week’s Link List (February 11, 2011)
In categorizing this week’s links, I was reluctant to put so many interesting links into the Miscellaneous category because I sometimes think of miscellaneous as implying a lack of importance. But note, that thought is wrong! Miscellaneous means “made up of many different things or kinds of things that have no necessary connection with each other.” There is no mention of (or even implication of) lack of importance in that definition. Some of this week’s most interesting links are in the made-up-of-many-different-things-or-kinds-of-things-that-have-no-necessary-connection-with-each-other-(not-unimportant) category…
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SQL Server Driver for PHP Connection Options: ReturnDatesAsStrings
This is short post to address a frustration I’ve seen mentioned on Twitter and in forums a lot: By default, the SQL Server Driver for PHP returns datetime columns as PHP DateTime objects, not strings. This can be especially frustrating if you are not aware of the ReturnDatesAsStrings connection option. By simply setting this option to 1 (or true) when you connect to the server, datetime columns will be returned as strings.
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This Week’s Link List (February 4, 2011)
Once again, here’s the highlights of what I read this week. As I call out in one point below, I’m sure I’m missing some good stuff…would be interested in what readers have come across this week they find worth sharing.
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Paging Data with Different Cursor Types
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 of scrollable cursor: a static cursor. In this post, I’ll investigate the behavioral differences of paging data with a static cursor and the other two scrollable cursor types: keyset and dynamic cursors. I did write a high-level comparison of the different cursor types last year, but what I really want to focus on in this post are the practical differences between the different cursor types in the paging scenario.
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This Week’s Link List (January 28, 2011)
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 announcements, and a PHP on Azure contest…
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Paging Data with the SQL Server Drivers for PHP: Simplified
One of the best insights I had at the SQL Server JumpIn! Camp back in November was this: Lots of PHP applications and frameworks generate SQL queries dynamically. I’m sure that for very experienced developers, that realization comes across as somewhat naive – and perhaps it is. However, to be clear, the realization had more to do with just how often applications/frameworks need to dynamically create SQL queries, not that the practice is sometimes necessary.
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This Week’s Link List (January 21, 2011)
Whew! Friday…made it! Once again, lots of interesting content out there this week. Instead of simply listing a bunch of links, I’m experimenting this week with categorizing some of them. Hopefully, this will help you find stuff that YOU find interesting…enjoy!
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Using the Zend Framework and the PDO_SQLSRV Driver
A couple of months ago, Rob Allen pointed out in a blog post that no Zend Framework PDO adapter existed for SQL Server. But, he also noted that it would be easy to write one…so he did: https://github.com/akrabat/Akrabat/blob/master/zf1/Akrabat/Db/Adapter/Pdo/Sqlsrv.php. Rob also mentioned that it would be very easy to use his adapter with the Zend Framework, but I wondered just how easy – that’s what I’ll investigate in this post. (Cut to the chase: it is very easy.)
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Interview: Ashay Chaudhary on the SQL Server JumpIn! Camp
Well, December did finally slow down a bit and I had a chance to catch up with Ashay Chaudhary, the Program Manager for the Microsoft Drivers for SQL Server for PHP. We had a lot to catch up about because we haven’t found much time to sit down and chat since the JumpIn! Camp last November. Ashay, with the help of the esteemed Josh Holmes, brought several PHP developers from several countries to the northwest corner of the U.S. and put them in a room with a bunch of Microsoft developers for a week. I was there for most of the week, so I have a feel for how things went. However, I was very interested to sit down with Ashay and get his perspective on the camp…
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This Week’s Link List (January 14, 2011)
If you only read one thing from this week’s list of PHP-related content, read the article about sanitizing user input data (2nd from last). Of course, there is lots of other good content too…enjoy!
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Using the Windows Azure Storage Explorer in Eclipse
Some time back I wrote a post that showed how to get started with creating Windows Azure PHP projects in Eclipse. What I didn’t talk about in that post was a nifty Eclipse feature (the Windows Azure Storage Explorer) that allows you easily manage your Windows Azure blobs, tables, and queues. That’s what I’ll look at in this post.
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This Week’s Link List (January 7, 2011)
My first link list of 2001 picks up where 2010 left off – probably too long, but there was too much good stuff to overlook. Highlights include information about the release of Drupal 7, report and resolution of an interesting PHP bug, a look back PHP in 2010, and an intriguing job possibility at Microsoft…
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Windows Azure Tools for Eclipse Now Support Windows Azure SDK 1.3
The Interoperability Team at Microsoft announced today the availability of an update to the Windows Azure Tools for Eclipse that includes support for the Windows Azure SDK 1.3. People who upgraded to the Windows Azure SDK 1.3 and tried using a previous release of the Eclipse plug-in ran into troubles that are fixed in this release. And, as I found out, this release also includes some subtle (but nice) improvements. This post, Using the Windows Azure Tools for Eclipse, is still relevant for getting started with the Eclipse tools, but in this post I’ll walk you through the steps I took to upgrade to the latest version and through some of the subtle changes I noticed. I’ll assume that you have already installed the previous release of the Windows Azure Tools for Eclipse and the Windows Azure SDK 1.2.