Introduction

PHP's database access functions are not standardised. This creates a need for a database class library to hide the differences between the different database API's (encapsulate the differences) so we can easily switch databases. PHP 4.0.5 or later is now required (because we use array-based str_replace).

We currently support MySQL, Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, Sybase, Sybase SQL Anywhere, Informix, PostgreSQL, FrontBase, Interbase (Firebird and Borland variants), Foxpro, Access, ADO and ODBC. We have had successful reports of connecting to Progress, SQLite and DB2 via ODBC. We hope more people will contribute drivers to support other databases.

PHP4 supports session variables. You can store your session information using ADOdb for true portability and scalability. See adodb-session.php for more information.

Also read http://php.weblogs.com/portable_sql (also available as tips_portable_sql.htm in the release) for tips on writing portable SQL.