feat(connections): Support mssql-python driver.

[walanguzzi]

Background

Issue #5645 - support the official mssql-python driver from Microsoft.

The new driver implements PEP 249 interfaces and should work as a pluggable drop-in: https://pypi.org/project/mssql-python/

Motivation

The driver bundles a lightweight and high-performance binary layer replacing the platform's Driver Manager hence eliminating the need for system-level ODBC installations.

As per the mssql-python overview, additional benefits include:

• Consistency across platforms
• Lower function call overhead
• Zero external dependencies on Windows (the mssql-python is all that's needed)
• Full control over connections, memory, and statement handling

Code Changes

• Implemented connect_mssql_python and moved the prior pyodbc logic to connect_pyodbc.
• Added driver configuration support for "mssql-python" to relevant *ConnectionConfig classes:
  • MSSQLConnectionConfig
  • AzureSQLConnectionConfig
  • FabricConnectionConfig
• Updated documentation.
• Automated refactors around import order (done by ruff and pylance).

Test Plan

All CI runs are successful.

The fast-test, slow-test and doc-test targets are also passing (locally).

However, there is one issue with the test_state_sync:test_version_schema test case being "out of sync" and prompting for a migration when run locally - I have yet to resolve this.

Note

This was due to my initial tag-less checkout, fetching the upstream release tags allowed setuptools-scm to derive the real version string (as it does in CI).

[CLAassistant]

All committers have signed the CLA.

[codykonior-hsi]

I'm interested in having this driver in the product because the existing driver does not work well with my VPN. I have a set of patches I use to do it, but, didn't submit them because I couldn't do it very cleanly.

I can't comment on the PR itself.

[RG-sw]

@walanguzzi thanks for the contribution! Are there any updates on this pending PR? Is there someone we can ping?

[walanguzzi]

Thanks @RG-sw and @codykonior-hsi. We've been waiting for a review from one of the maintainers, however, it seems this branch is now out-of-date and needs rebasing against main (CC-GHA migration etc.).

I will do this within the next few days and then try to @ someone from the team so hopefully it gains some traction🤞

[walanguzzi]

Subsumed by #5839 for clean CI following the CircleCI migration.