How to use SQL Server connection in Laravel?

I got a working project made in Laravel 3 that I have to switch to MsSQL Server (not my call though, sniff...) and I don't understand the Laravel configuration on this database type...

I changed the default inside database.php to this 'default' => 'sqlsrv' then I configured the host, database, username, password in the sqlsrv array but then I get this error message:

This extension requires the Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Native Client ODBC Driver to communicate with SQL Server`

After some research I found that we need PDO of SQLSRV, which I already have as version 5.4 and in my phpinfo I get this returned pdo_sqlsrv support : enabled so it seems all correct but at the same time it seems to ask for ODBC SQLSRV connections, does I really have to use that?

I would rather connect directly from the Laravel database connection... but even if I need it and I created some ODBC connection to the server, how do I put them inside my configuration? Here is what I have in my configuration (of course the my... is replace by my real details) :

'sqlsrv' => array(
    'driver'   => 'sqlsrv',
    'host'     => 'myServerIP', 
    'database' => 'myDatabase',
    'username' => 'myUsername',
    'password' => 'myPassword',
    'prefix'   => '',
 ),

Any help would be greatly appreciated, the only thing I found close to my problem was this link from the Laravel forum: Laravel query on SQL Server but then it just stop without giving any configurations.

Solution

Ahh after a lot more research, I found out that my driver of SQL Server Native Client 10.0 was out of date and not sufficient to connect to a MsSQL Server 2008 with PDO, you need to have at least version 11.0 in order to connect to an SQL Server 2005+

If you want to validate your driver version, you can go through Control Panel >> Administrative Tools >> Data Sources (ODBC) and then click on the Drivers tab to find out which SQL Server Native Client you have already installed. If you want to update your driver, depending on your OS configuration you may choose the proper link below...

SQL Server 2012 Native Client
x86 (32 bits) Package http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=239647&clcid=0x409
x64 (64 bits) Package http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=239648&clcid=0x409