Microsoft makes available PHP development kit for its Azure cloud

Microsoft has taken the wraps off a new software development kit (SDK) for testers interested in building apps in PHP for the Azure cloud.

Microsoft made the announcement at TechEd India this week -- a show running simultaneously with TechEd 2009 in Los Angeles.

Microsoft collaborated on the PHP SDK with RealDolmen. Microsoft provided the funding for the development of the SDK (like it is doing with a Java SDK for Azure being developed by Schakra).

The PHP SDK for Windows Azure, known as PHPAzure, is an open source project, available for download from Microsoft CodePlex. The SDK "provides consistent programming model for Windows Azure Storage (Blobs, Tables & Queues), according to the CodePlex site.

On Microsoft's Port 25 blog, Open Source Community Program Manager Peter Galli said Microsoft also is annoucing "the launch of a series of projects that offer samples and a toolkit that enable PHP developers to include Silverlight controls, Microsoft Virtual Earth maps and IE Webslices and Accelerators in PHP web applications; as well as automatically generated a simple "Create, Read, Update, Delete (CRUD)" PHP application from a table in SQL Server."

Today's build of the PHP SDK is considered a Community Technology Preview.  Milestone 2 is due out in late July, and the final in late August of this year.