[development] ASP Integration with Drupal?

[Tao Starbow]

Ron Dorman wrote:
>
> I would love to to. I have built php that connected directly to MSSQL 
> on a backoffice system. I have never before thought about having php 
> connect to two different db servers in the same app.
>
> We would use the MySQL on the client server for Drupal, then need to 
> connect to the 3rd party MSSQL for the small bits of data from the 3rd 
> party inserted into the two pages.
>
> I have not seen that Drupal has the capability to support and connect 
> to two different db's. Is there such capability I have not found yet?
This is one of the cooler, not-so-well known drupal features.  In 
settings.php you can define $db_url as an array
$db_url['default'] = normal drupal string
$db_url['backoffice'] = other mysql connect string

then you use db_set_active( db_key ) to switch between them as needed.