Database driver support?
Development and Programming
Since EE3 uses CodeIgniter, can I import some (copy over files) of CI’s database drivers (i.e. odbc or sqlsrv) for use with custom EE3 add-on development?
ExpressionEngine 3 must use PDO MySQL for the application database. If your add-on needs to connect to other databases, your add-on will need to include those libraries and manage its own database connectivity.
Side note, ExpressionEngine 3 does not use CodeIgniter, and the few individual legacy components that remain from v2’s start on CodeIgniter have diverged significantly.
Derek, Thank you for the response. I’m evaluating EE3 and considering switching to it as our organization’s primary web framework. We currently heavily rely on ASP and MS SQL server. I thought that CMS features of EE (users, login, pages etc.) combined with the power of an underlying framework would be well suited for a company Intranet. I assumed incorrectly it was still powered by CI which I’ve used in the past and found very capable.
Would I be able to use any of the legacy database functionality to load multiple database and use the active record class?
Having worked extensively on both products for years, I can tell you that I think ExpressionEngine is far more capable and pleasant to work with. But it’s also a CMS, an opinionated finished software product, so its goals are not identical to that of a framework, which by design tries as much as possible to avoid opinion or solution. So in that vein, ExpressionEngine does not ship with drivers that it does not use. Adding in foreign drivers to the core would essentially be a hack as you’d have to modify files and directories that belong to the app.
That said, your add-on could have its own db loader, and could certainly use the legacy active record and db result classes that still ship with ExpressionEngine. The caveat is that I have a strong personal aversion to software that tries to straddle between two disparate systems. In my experience they are fraught with error and can seriously impact the cost and maintainability of both systems. Which leads me to ask: are you planning on moving away from ASP and MS SQL? And can you describe what types of interactions your add-on needs to have with a foreign database server?