ODBTP (Best solution for MSSQL & Win32 ODBC) at SourceForge

The first version of ODBTP (Open Database Transport Protocol) is now available at http://odbtp.sourceforge.net. ODBTP is a solution to connecting to MS-SQL 7.0/2000 and other Win32 ODBC accessible databases from UNIX or Linux. The statement "Best solution..." is not just a blanket opinion on my part. I did not create ODBTP because I had nothing else better to do. I created it because the extensions included with PHP for connecting to MS-SQL were inadequate. Neither the odbc nor the mssql extensions can properly read nvarchar and ntext fields. In fact, the mssql extension breaks if you try to read a ntext field. Handling of datetime data was also not satisfactory. Parameterized queries were not possible with the odbc extension, and was only supported for stored procedures by the mssql extension if used with Win32-based PHP. And while the odbc and mssql extensions were ok on Win32, they caused too many problems for me when used on a UNIX platform. Because I preferred to use PHP instead of ASP or JSP for web application development, I created ODBTP to solve all of the problems inherent in PHP when connecting to MS-SQL databases. ODBTP has been in use successfully at my place of employment for about 6 months, and I felt that it was good idea to make it available to other people who also have a need to connect to MS-SQL from PHP. The URL http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en points to a site that uses ODBTP to dynamically generate its pages. -- bob