Uploading Word Document data into database

vivianp23

Hi Everyone,

I need to be able to upload information from a word document into a mysql database. Does anyone have any idea how to do this?

The reverse functionality would also be useful - i.e. create word documents from data in a database.

If it cannot be done via word.. would PDF help?

Basically, I have a problem whereby users must complete a report and upload it into my intranet. I would normally create a form to handle this, however, most users do not have the time to fill out a form online and must download a local copy, fill out the fields and then upload it next time they log in.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers 🙂

Weedpacket

Just storing the document is easy enough; if you want to parse it out, however, see this thread from a few hours ago.

Wien

Well I think it's not easy. Let's say your form is in a WORD document. Users can download it, fill it and then upload it back. Well this is easy but then you need to parse the file and even if it's possible to parse it, you're not absolutely sure about the structure because in a word document you can't have a fixed form and you're not sure what the users can do with your file.
Do you follow me ?
Well clearly I don't see how to parse something if its "syntax" is not rigourous enough
Am I wrong, maybe I don't understand exactly what you need.

vivianp23

Thanks for the replies!

What about if I use FDF (Acrobat Forms).. will this help me?

I still havent been able to find any useful information on this. Should I also be exploring the possibility of using XML?

The form doesnt have to be in Word. I just need any sort of format that the user can work on locally and then upload and have the data parsed and inserted into a database.

Any other ideas?