Go here to create apps that work with SQL Server

This is a very useful site that you should acquaint yourself with. You can create apps that work with SQL Server with all of the following:

C#
Java
NodeJS
PHP
Python

on

Windows
macOS
RHEL
UBUNTU
SLES (Suse...)

You need to start at this link:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sql-server/developer-get-started/

SQL Server Backend for WebApps

We live in a data-centric world.

Data in your store changes with time and you may have to handle data that need to scale. It follows that the applications that you build should scale. Also the developers who work for you may be more proficient in one programming language than the other. Azure Web Apps using SQL and NoSQL database backends are most suited, as scaling is built into Azure. Further Azure Web apps can be written in a number of languages that include: 

• .NET
• Java
• PHP
• Node.js
• Python

Most developers can handle two or more from the above list.

Infrastructure management is highly automated and scaling is no problem as Auto scaling capability helps you to go up or down depending on your traffic.

Web Apps with backend are really crucial for your business and your backend can be SQL Database (relational) or NoSQL (non-relational). Microsoft can handle both types, relational with SQL Azure database and NoSQL with DocumentDB (service that helps you to store, index and query JSON-based data. Review references for DocumentDB on Hodentek blog at the conclusion of this post.

You are not sure but would like to try it out for free. Here is the link (https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/scenarios/web-app/) where you can get started.

Free trial may be available only for new users. I have been using Azure since it's beta and I have tried to get the free service but I have not been successful. This may be different now.

References:
Format SQL Response in JSON Format
Moving data to DocumentDB
Data store for IOT
Getting to know DocumentDB-2
Getting to know DocumentDB-1
Signing up for Azure DocumentDB
DocumentDB is announced
 

phpBB brings interoperability with SQL Servers on Windows OS

One of the bastions of LAMP has arrived at Windows OS with full regalia . This highlights two facts, firstly Microsoft's increasing willingness to accept PHP despite the rich flora and fauna of .NET technology; secondly the world got that much larger with ability to fork out in other directions. It is not just because Microsoft is nice, but because PHP user-base is large and sky is the limit for the cloud. Most importantly it is free.

There are a number of databases including SQL Server 2000 and abvee that this driver can configure connections. The list of databases that is supported is in the read me file.
Where to get phpBB3?
It may be downloaded from here.[http://www.phpbb.com/]

Installation basic steps:
1. Unpack the zip file and place it in the root directory of your web server or a directory accessible by the web server. In my case (Windows 7), I have used C:\inetpub\wwwroot. Make sure you make the config.php altered to have write permission.

2. After you have done this, assuming your IIS7 is working, browse to the index.php in the web folder from within the IIS 7 console as shown.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

You should see the following web page:

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Now click on Install button and on the displayed page click Proceed to next. In the displayed page scroll down on the right to see if you have a game waiting. Looks like I have both MySQl and SQLServers. Actually I have at least 3 or 4 SQL Servers on this machine. Too bad it did not recognisze by SQL Anywhere server.
 

Well you can also use an ODBC connection.
I believe this can connect to SQL Azure on Windows Azure as well.