On Sun, 24 Aug 2003 14:54:41 -0400 (EDT), you wrote: >I'm building a small web application for a friend using PHP. He'd like to >use MS Access to keep the data in, and update the data on the site by FTP'ing >Access files he edits on his machine up to the web host. > >The web host is unix-based (FreeBSD, slightly hacked by Verio, I believe), so >this means COM functions aren't available. ODBC was my next thought, but I've >never used it, and there are a few things I don't understand. Setting up a >DSN is one of them -- apparently this isn't as simple as constructing a string, >and all the tutorials I can find seem to involve going into a Windows control >panel and making a setting. This of course will not be possible, since there >are no windows control panels on FreeBSD.
Suggestion: go backwards. Set up the data in, say, MySQL with an ODBC driver, and use Access as a front-end onto that data (Access makes a good front-end for manipulating other databases). I've done this with SQL Server, but it should be possible with anything that can talk ODBC. He gets the interface he's used to, you get a database that can run under BSD. Of course, changes will be reflected in the site in real-time, which may be a good thing or a bad thing. Either that or export the data from Access in a readable format, and import it at the other end. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=connect+access+mysql 4th link looks useful. >In short: can anyone offer any quick tips on how to use the odbc database functions >or PEAR::DB to query data from an MS Access file sitting on a UNIX box? That's not what ODBC does. It's a protocol for talking to a database server, not a program for parsing a file. -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
