all of theese extensions depend on other DLLs 
being installed on your system
like, for example, sybase_ct client DLLs
(this is the native sybase call interface, _not_ the ODBC stuff)

maybe we could improve the error message?
(moved to feature request)

all of theese extensions depend on other DLLs 
being installed on your system
like, for example, sybase_ct client DLLs
(this is the native sybase call interface, _not_ the ODBC stuff)

maybe we could improve the error message?
(moved to feature request)

Yes, a more detailed error message, or/and two more lines in the manual could have saved me some time. And maybe it would for others too.

Thank you.

so better documentation is needed for extensions that rely on external libraries.

The extensions are all (mostly) listed in a table at http://www.php.net/manual/en/install.windows.php#install.windows.extensions which also lists if the extension is dependent upon a specific library (another dll).

Most of the extension documentation also lists 'You need xxx to use this extension', or 'In order to use this extension you need to install xxx', etc.  I think it is clearly documented in the manual.  A possibility would be to improve the error message, perhaps 'php_xxx.dll:  This extension requires xxx library installed', something simliar would be helpful.

Changing to feature request.

i completly agree
i also spend almost 2 days
for connecting to remote sybase server

couldnot load php_sybase_ct.dll

i know it requires other files like libct.dll but how to get them

i know its not php bug but atleast the ppl who have worked on this can reply

We are sorry, but we can not support PHP 4 related problems anymore.
Momentum is gathering for PHP 6, and we think supporting PHP 4 will
lead to a waste of resources which we want to put into getting PHP 6
ready.

This issue is reproductible under Win2003 Server - IIS6 - PHP 5.3.2. That would be great to update the status of this ticket for the latest PHP version.
Regards

There is no issue, read the install guide to learn how to install PHP, or use the installer.

Sorry for the misunderstanding. I was mentionning that a detailed error message is still missing when it's about missing external libraries like the one described for php_sybase_ct.dll with PHP 5.3.2 (the latest version as of today) and that would be useful to have such info

Regards

We can't provide this message as php does not have the hand at this stage.

At the end, I succeed to solve the php_sybase_ct.dll that couldn't be loaded letting you unable to connect to sybase databases via PHP.I just needed to reinstall PHP with an installer that includes php_sybase_ct.dll, so no need to copy it from somewhere else to the extensions directory. To be more clear I first installed this package php-5.3.2-nts-Win32-VC9-x86.msi which doesn't come with the dll and used instead php-5.3.2-nts-Win32-VC6-x86.msi which does from http://windows.php.net/download.
The following tool really helped me to find the solution : http://www.dependencywalker.com/, by telling me that php_sybase_ct.dll was missing a specific PHP dll which couldn't be found in the package I installed in the first stage.

I wish I found this solution somewhere but as many guys fell into this problem (sometimes since 2001!) and all suggestion/resolution where turning around a wrong direction PHP.ini, extensions folder directives malformatted... I find it important to share this point!