anybody know of a test MSSQL database to connect to and read?

[lead_zepplin]

I'm writing a web app that uses either MySQL or MSSQL databases.  I have a MySQL database of my own to test connection and program functionality, but I can't set up a MSSQL database on my server to test. I don't want to go through setting one up on my local computer and putting the app on the web and testing it that way, because I would have to change the code to specify a connection to a specific file on my hard drive. that's too much hassle and the code wouldn't be the same as the finished product which connects to a normal server (full blown MSSQL, not SQL lite or express or whatever) and given a url instead of url+filepath/filename or whatever other hoops I would have to jump through.

 

does anybody know of a test MSSQL database to connect to? simply connecting and reading data is good enough for now, no need to write or create tables. I can't find anything like that on google.

 

for example, the Northwind example database from M$ is very popular. perhaps somewhere it's on a server available to be connected to anonymously?

[trq]

simply connecting and reading data is good enough for now, no need to write or create tables.

 

That's not exactly testing the application. You are aware that MSSQL & MySql don't share all common functionality? There are numerous differences.

[lead_zepplin]

I am acutely aware of the differences. the app is written to be capable of using either. I already tested the MySQL part of the code, now I am trying to test the MSSQL part of the code. reading data tests part of that.

[lead_zepplin]

anybody?

[Brian Swan]

This might work, but only if you are using the sqlsrv extension for connecting to SQL Server: You could sign up for the free trial of SQL Azure (Microsoft's RDBMS in the cloud) and test against it. If you are using the php_mssql extension to connect, I'm not sure this is an option. In case you are, by chance, using the php_sqlsrv extension, this blog post will get you started with SQL Azure: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/brian_swan/archive/2010/02/12/getting-started-with-php-and-sql-azure.aspx

 

-Brian