Archives
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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…