We are currently developing a relatively simple PHP application that makes use of an Oracle database back-end. Up until now I have been using the PHP OCI8 extension to connect to the database.
However, there is a chance in the future that we may want to use a different database (e.g. MySQL). To save myself the pain of having to rewrite the code that accesses the database, I'm considering using an abstraction layer.
PHP Data Objects (PDO) was one possibility, but only has experimental support for Oracle, so I'm eyeing up ADOdb (although I am still open to alternatives). It looks like a relatively small download and I like the idea that it can be just 'dropped-in' and included in an existing PHP application.
I have three related questions:
- Is Oracle support in ADOdb good/reliable enough?
- While I recognize that there will always be some performance loss when using an abstraction layer, is this likely to be excessive?
- Are there any ways to improve performance when using ADOdb with Oracle (or any database in general)?