How do I retrieve external data from MS SQL from a Wordpress Blog?
php, sql-server, wordpress
Solution
Wordpress runs on PHP and so you need to use a PHP provider for SQL Server. See Accessing SQL Server Databases with PHP.
If you host Wordpress on Linux, you need FreeTDS, see PHP mssql Requirements.
Problem
In Wordpress, how would I pull data from an external Microsoft SQL database to display as a read only table? To be clear, this is not a question on how to convert Wordpress over to MS SQL, but rather how to pull data for a specific widget from a source outside the primary Wordpress DB. The data I need to pull from happens to be in a MS SQL database. For the sake of example, let's say that I need to pull store locations and hours: ``` /* Retrieve store locations from the external MS SQL database*/ SELECT id, name, address, city, state, zip, phone, openingTime, closingTime FROM locations ORDER BY name ``` And display that data into a table on a Wordpress page: ``` <table> <tr> <th>Store Name</th> <th>Address</th> <th>Store Hours</th> </tr> <!-- Display rows of store locations here --> </table> ```