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PHP

Posted by Ryan Smee
Ryan Smee
3,392 Points

Connecting PHP, MS SQL Server & Mac

I have started working on a project with a friend. Working locally on my Macbook I have created a simple web app using front end languages, and php to connect to a local MySQL db using MAMP.

My friend who is a back end guy and a PC User, has been building a more complex backend with stored procedures etc.

The issue we have is he uses MSSQL and so I am having trouble making my end communicate with his. He has uploaded hiss MS SQL database to an Amazon AWS hosting area and its all working fine. I can view it using RQLSQL etc but can't seem to connect to it using PHP in my project?

Does anyone know of a way I can work locally on my Mac and connect to this db??

Christian Andersson
Christian Andersson
8,712 Points

This is quite a complex and very specific question you're asking. I think you're better off asking the peeps over at http://stackoverflow.com. Good luck.

Ryan Smee
Ryan Smee
3,392 Points

Yeah i was starting to think that too. Thank you for having a look though.

3 Answers

Ryan Smee
Ryan Smee
3,392 Points

For anyone who has the same issue. I ended up using the 'FreeTDS' plugin, installed using Homebrew via the command line. I then added 'brew install -v php56 --with-apache --with-mssql --without-snmp' to the terminal to reinstall php5.6.2 with the new drivers. The reason I have to do it with '--without-snmp' was because I have upgraded to Yosemite and that part of the driver doesn't work correctly as of yet. Its now working perfectly :)

I then just use simple MSSQL commands as found on the PHP website:

    $dbUser = 'username';
    $dbPass = 'password';
    $dbServer = 'url';
    $link = mssql_connect($dbServer, $dbUser, $dbPass);

    if(!$link) {
        echo'Could not connect';
        die('Could not connect: ' . mssql_error());
    }
    echo"Successful connection \n";

    mssql_select_db('dababaseName', $link);

I hope this helps anyone.

Nikolay Batrakov
Nikolay Batrakov
9,604 Points
Nikolay Batrakov
Nikolay Batrakov
9,604 Points

Shouldn't be a problem.

  1. You need to setup an SQL server on your AWS machine

  2. You need to grant access to a database for remote user. Do like

> mysql -u root -p
mysql> GRANT ALL ON yourdatabase.* TO user@% IDENTIFIED BY 'password';

Then you shall be able to connect to your database from PHP like

mysql_connect("$dbhost", "$dbuser", "$dbpass")

Check if you set a rule on your AWS machine which allows your SQL server to enable incoming connection to the port set up while install the server (3306?)

% is a wildcard gives the user ability to connect to database from any host.

check this also

hope it helps

Ryan Smee
Ryan Smee
3,392 Points

I believe the SQL Server instance is set to allow all incoming traffic at the moment as we got a load of security popups when I did it. Also it appears you are referencing MySQL where as we are using MS SQL Server which is the bit thats making it hard :/

I'm not sure if I just need to look into freeTSD or something?

Nikolay Batrakov
Nikolay Batrakov
9,604 Points
Nikolay Batrakov
Nikolay Batrakov
9,604 Points

My mistake, I should be careful while reading, sorry about that. Ya, MS SQL makes the problem bit harder. I did this with MySQL lot of times and have never done it before with MS SQL. I'll ask some of my friends, maybe we can figure out something.

Ryan Smee
Ryan Smee
3,392 Points

No worries. Yeah My Sql makes life a lot easier and it's what I am used to using. But my friend is well versed in MS SQL so understandably doesn't want to make the tradition and I don't really fancy taking up .net haha

If you do hear anything from your friends, that would be fantastic. cheers