The first PDO_MYSQLND preview is available!

[Ulf Wendel]

Dear MySQL and PHP users,

The first preview version of PDO_MYSQLND for PHP has been released. 
PDO_MYSQLND is a new driver for PDO (PHP Data Objects) which can be used 
to connect to the MySQL Server 4.1 and newer. PDO is a data-access 
abstraction layer for PHP.

You can download PDO_MYSQLND from the MySQL Forge download page at

    http://downloads.mysql.com/forge/pdo_mysqlnd_preview

The new PDO_MYSQLND driver is a drop-in replacement for the PDO_MYSQL 
driver. PDO_MYSQL is developed and maintained by the community.

PDO_MYSQLND is based on the MySQL native driver for PHP (mysqlnd). The 
MySQL native driver for PHP is an optimized drop-in replacement for the
MySQL client library (libmysql). The MySQL native driver for PHP has 
proven its compatibility, stability and excellent performance as an 
optional backend library of the MySQL flagship PHP Connector ext/mysqli.

PDO_MYSQLND inherits all benefits of the MySQL native driver for PHP:

* The development is licensed under the terms of the PHP license to 
prevent any license issues.

* On the C-level, mysqlnd uses many of the proven and stable PHP 
internal functions.

* The backend library (mysqlnd) of PDO_MYSQLND is contained in the PHP 
5.3 source tree. There is no longer a need to link any external 
libraries. Thus you neither need to install the MySQL client library to 
compile PDO with MySQL Support nor do you need to take care of versions.

* Compiling has been made easier.

The preview version of PDO_MYSQLND will compile on Linux only and it 
supports PHP 5.3 only. Future versions will be available for all 
platforms supported by PHP. PDO_MYSQLND supports all functions of 
PDO_MYSQL but PDOStatement::nextrowset().

Like with ext/mysqli, we plan to support both the MySQL native driver 
(mysqlnd) and the MySQL client library (libmysql) as backend libraries
in future versions of PDO_MYSQLND.

We do not recommend using the preview release in production 
environments. We kindly ask users and developers to try it out and 
provide us with feedback, bug reports, bug fixes, patches, etc. To 
discuss PDO_MYSQLND, please use our PHP Forum at 
http://forums.mysql.com/list.php?52. You may also subscribe to the MySQL 
PHP mailing list which is available at http://lists.mysql.com/php .

More information is available on the projects wiki page at

    http://forge.mysql.com/wiki/PHP_PDO_MYSQLND

Enjoy!

Ulf Wendel

-- 
Ulf Wendel - Senior Software Engineer
MySQL GmbH, Dachauer Str.37, D- 80335 München, www.mysql.com
Geschäftsführer: Kaj Arnö - HRB München 162140