PHP with MSSQL - mssql_connect() undefined

svguerin3

My apologies, as I am an extreme beginner to this, but I simply just need my PHP connection working to an MSSQL database. The "mssql_connect()" function is not recognized, and I have been searching the internet and trying everything before posting here. I am running on a Linux server.

I followed the following steps. Please let me know if I left something out:
1) Downloaded FreeTDS
2) Ran "./configure --with-mssql=/usr/local/freetds" within the FreeTDS directory
3) Ran "make", then "make install"
4) Added my host info to the freetds.conf file
5) Added "extension=mssql.so" to the php.ini file

After all this, and even after completely restarting the server itself, still no dice. It just will not recognize mssql_connect() in my PHP files. I'm probably doing something completely wrong, so my apologies again.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

dagon

not sure what you mean by "not recognized" what's the exact error you get?

svguerin3

Sorry, I should have been more specific. It basically just says:

Fatal error: Call to undefined function mssql_connect() in /var/www/html/testsql.php on line 14

svguerin3

Also, a quick follow-up info. I know the PHP manual states the following:

To get these functions to work, you have to compile PHP with --with-mssql[=DIR], where DIR is the FreeTDS install prefix. And FreeTDS should be compiled using --enable-msdblib.

That's good info, but as a beginner, I'm a bit clueless on how to re-compile the installed PHP. I've read up on it, and it seems I need to run the "configure" file in the PHP directory, but oddly enough, I am not finding a PHP directory or a "configure" file anywhere on my newly setup server (GoDaddy virtual dedicated server), outside of the FreeTDS directory. Do I really need to download a NEW version of PHP, and run the configure with that "--with-mssql" tag? How was the original PHP installed/configured if there is no directory anywhere with this? I'm worried sick that I'm going to mess up something here and trash all my PHP abilities, lol.

Thanks again for any help you can offer.

Shrike

What flavour of linux are you using? You may find it alot easier to use the package manager (e.g. apt, rpm etc).

Ashley_Sheridan

I'm not entirely sure that many Linux distros that bundle PHP include the mssql libraries, as the mssql database only runs on Windows. Are you sure you didn't mean to use the mysql functions?

svguerin3

That's great to hear that there may be other options outside of FreeTDS, as I'm not married to it in any way. I just simply need to have the ability to call an MS-SQL database from a PHP file. Whatever the most simple solution is, I'd love to find it and go with it. And yes, I'm positive it's an MS-SQL database, as we have many working MySQL-connecting PHP files that we use on a regular basis. This particular client has an MS-SQL database, though, so we are in dire need for this connection. Thank you all again for any help you can offer!

This is the version of Linux I am using:

Red Hat - Fedora release 7 (Moonshine)

Linux ip-xxx-xxx-xx-xxx.ip.secureserver.net 2.6.18-028stab059.6 #1 SMP Fri Nov 14 14:01:22 MSK 2008 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

Shrike

Ashley Sheridan;10931063 wrote:
I'm not entirely sure that many Linux distros that bundle PHP include the mssql libraries, as the mssql database only runs on Windows. Are you sure you didn't mean to use the mysql functions?

There is certainly one for Debian, which is the distro we use. I am not so sure about the others. We actually use ODBC to connect to a SQL Server on Windows box, but the underlying drivers are the same (FreeTDS). We have just shelled out for a commercial driver (Easysoft) which is a bit more complete than FreeTDS.

svguerin3

A quick update.. I switched over to use "odbc_connect()" in my PHP file now. I successfully installed unixODBC, and I re-installed FreeTDS. I setup my odbc.ini and odbcinst.ini files, and I was able to successfully connect using isql from the command line. However, even after adding the "extension=odbc.so" line to my php.ini file, the PHP file is printing the following error:

Warning: odbc_connect() [function.odbc-connect]: SQL error: [unixODBC][Driver Manager]Data source name not found, and no default driver specified, SQL state IM002 in SQLConnect in /var/www/html/testodbc2.php on line 13

I cannot seem to get anywhere with this. Are there any additional steps I need to take in order to ensure that PHP knows to look in the same place that isql is looking for the DataSource and Driver? Everything appears to be setup properly on the backend.

My apologies again for my being new to this, but after many hours of research and thinking that I've gotten somewhere, I keep arriving back at square one. 🙁 Thank you again for any help you guys can offer!

svguerin3

Problem solved. After all this, my issue was that it generated the odbc.ini and odbcinst.ini files in the wrong place on my server. They needed to simply be in /etc, rather than /usr/local/etc. I should have maybe realized this, since my php.ini file is actually in /etc, but I did not figure there was an odbc issue, since isql and tsql were working fine.

Thanks again for any and all help w/ this.