Windows Azure SQL Database PDO

I faced a problem while trying to connect Windows Azure SQL Database from local system using PDO. Here I'm using PHP 5.4+ and Apache 2.4 on Windows 8. I didn't find better tutorial for trouble shooting.

Following are the steps that explains you what to do..

1. Download php_pdo_sqlsrv_54_ts.dll and placed it in php/ext directory. Here you can find it

   http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=20098

   Download SQLSRV30.EXE and extracted to php/ext directory
2. Open the php/php.ini file and added the following line

   extension=php_pdo_sqlsrv_54_ts.dll

3. It needs Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Native Client, to go further. So download it from
   http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/confirmation.aspx?id=29065

   for 32bits(x86)
   http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=239647&clcid=0x409
   for 64bits(x64)
   http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=239648&clcid=0x409

4. Restart the Apache server.
5. Write the following code in php file to connect.

   $server_url = "xxxxxxx.database.windows.net,1433";
   $db_name = "database_name";
   $db_user = "db_username";
   $db_pwd = "db_pword";
   $conn = new PDO("sqlsrv:Server=tcp:$server_url;Database=$db_name", $db_username, $db_pwd);
   $conn->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE, PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION);
   

6. Fetching data from table

   $query = "SELECT * FROM categories";
     $stmt = $conn->prepare($query, array(PDO::ATTR_CURSOR => PDO::CURSOR_SCROLL));
     $stmt->excute();
   
     while($cat = $stmt->fetch(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC)){
       echo $cat['cat_id']."---".$cat['cat_name']."<br />";
     }
   

That's it...