The Microsoft Drivers for PHP are the PHP extensions that allows for reading and writing of SQL server data from PHP scripts. To enable it, we will need to add two extensions in PHP. The SQLSRV extension provides a procedural interface while the PDO_SQLSRV extension implements PDO for accessing data in all editions of SQL Server 2008 and later. Please follow below steps to enable it.
To check the compatible version of MS SQL drivers for your php click here.
To check the compatible version of MS SQL drivers for your php click here.
- Log in to your Windows VPS via RDP (Remote Desktop Access). This tutorial will guide you to connect to Windows VPS server using the RDP from different operating systems.
- To download the drivers for php from click here. Select the appropriate version and click Next.
Note: As we are using php 5.6, we have downloaded version 3.2.
- It will prompt to save the exe file. Click on Save File.
- Once the drivers are downloaded, run the exe file. It will ask for the path to extract. Provide the path and click on Ok.
- Go to the extracted folder and copy the NTS (for windows) dll files to the php extension folder.
Note: As we are using php 5.6 we have copied the files to C:\Program Files (x86)\PHP\v5.6\ext
php_sqlsrv__56_nts.dll
php_pdo__sqlsrv_56_nts.dll
- Once the files are copied, we need to add the following extension in php.ini file.
php_sqlsrv__56_nts.dll
php_pdo__sqlsrv_56_nts.dll
- Create a phpinfo file and check if the extensions are shown properly. To create phpinfo file follow instructions here.
That's it. Now you will be able to access MS SQL database from php.
