Recently at work, I was tasked with finding a method to retrieve data from a third-party SQL Server 2000-based system into our own MySQL-based application. It's worth noting that both system are behind their own firewalls and I was trying to bear security in mind as I did this.

Some highlights of his work included using GoToAssist to get to the system, using EMS SQL Manager to work with the SQL server itself and some of the PHP code he "threw at it" to grab the info he needed from the database (with the PDO drivers).

Just a short entry to let everyone (and the search engines) know that I've updated my comprehensive WAMP guide so it now covers PHP version 5.2.3. I always had a help file on how to upgrade to 5.2.3 at the end anyway, but now that 5.2.3 is officially released I updated the core guide to reflect this.

This tutorial is a "comprehensive guide to installing and running Apache 2.2.4 with PHP 4.4.7 and PHP 5.2.3 on Windows XP. It covers all of the steps in detail with lots of screen grabs so you can follow the process visually."

I'm very happy to announce that I've just released my comprehensive guide to installing, configuring and running Apache 2, PHP 4.4.7 and PHP 5.2.2 on Windows XP. The guide is broken down into small manageable sections and contains over 50 screen shots of the entire process, so you won't go wrong while following it.

The guide helps you set up a Windows XP machine with all of the needed software, including the setup of a virtual host to make switching back and forth between PHP4 and PHP5 simple.

The tutorial is just a text listing of the steps to set it all up, but it does a great job of covering what's needed.

This document explains how to set up a WAMP (Windows Apache MySQL PHP) development environment on a Windows XP/2k machine, without having all the clutter a package installer creates. I initially created this document for a few co-workers, I'm not a big fan of windows myself (if you are serious about developing, consider using *nix all the way, Win32 is inferior and not very flexible).

Anyway, maybe teaching people how to install PHP tools in an environment they feel home at can later persuade them to use a free operating system :) Beside that it's a piece of cake to translate the document to english, so why not share it. Here's the process in a number of easy steps.

A twenty-size step process sounds intimidating, but since it's broken up into all of the "baby steps" of the process, it's really not that much.

I'm doing this post because I hope that Google will index it, and the next person hitting the issue will find my blog this way, so he doesn't have to go through the same issues that had to deal with.

He gives some of the "official" symptoms that he saw and the seven step simple process that he followed to correct the situation.