HELP!! Php - SQL on Win2k3 WE

Ok so this is a follow up on a previous post. I tried installing SQL on win2k3 web edition (but as most of you will tell me, its not possible)

with that said. is there a way to connect php to MSSQL (on a remote host) with php running windows 2003?

im totaly desaprate at this point for any possible solutions to this. MySQL is not a possibility (no matter how much i tried to get them to use mysql, they want mssql).

thanks

You'll have to enable MSSQL support in Php (uncomment a few lines in php.ini) then check that the extension is loaded properly with the usual info.php and finally put up a script to query MSSQL, you can find a reference for this here

Thanks for the reply, sorry but i was remiss in mentioning it before, mssql support is fully enabled in php. all the dlls are installed and everythign seems to be loaded to spec.

with using php's mssql connections directly (without mssql client tools or mssql installed on the php hosted box) everytime i try to connect to the mssql remote host by way of mssql_connect _pconnect .... either nothing happens, or i get an error. the SQL host does even see my ip hitting the server so i dont think im getting in by way of mssql connections.

Why don't you install mssql client tools?

cant install mssql client tools or mssql on windows 2k3 web edition. thats where the real problem is. Web edition doesnt allows this install. So i need to find a way to connect to a remot mssql host, with php runnning on a windows 2003 web edition server with no client tools or sql server on it.

You should find what dll's are needed and install them by hand.
As a sidenote, why did you choose this s*ting "win 2k3 web edition" when you could use linux and connect to MsSQL with FreeTDS as shown in the link I suggested?

thanks everyone for the help.

reply to side note: i personally am an advocate of unix and run most of my sites from there but its not always up to me. i think the unix, php, mysql choice is the best, otherwise windows php mysql... but they didnt want to here it .

Did you find the DLL's that are needed for web edition to connect to the remote sql server? I'm having the same problem.

Actually i had a few issues:
1. Getting SQL Server on Win2k3 Web Edition. This is not possible i found out, so that is now a mut point. I am moving to sbs 2003 PE and that will solve this problem with more then what i need.

2. As for connectivity to SQL with PHP, the DLL's are in the ZIP from PHP all you need to do to create the Connectivity is uncomment the dll lines in the php ini file and move the actual dll over to the system root. i used the mssql dll and it worked fine, you will need to recompile your php before it will work though.

Another alternative is ODBTP. It should easily solve your problem. Also, the php_mssql.dll extension does not fully support SQL Server 2K. You will have problems if your database has varchar(>255), nvarchar or ntext fields. The php_odbtp_mssql.dll extension supports all of these fields.