Hey!

I'm having a pretty hard time with something right now and I was wondering if you guys could give me a hand. This might be a long description of the problem but please bear with me if you think you could help.

First of all, I have this mySQL database. I currently have an Access front end for it. However, I want to convert it to a web-based front end using PHP. Now, there is also this other database which contains chemical structures and to query that database, you need to create an instance of a MolServer object.

Using VBA (in Access), we can include the MolServer DLL, hence allowing us to create an instance of it. Furthermore, it would seem to me that I should be allowed to create a COM instance of it using PHP since it has a CLSID in the registry.

However, if I try to create a COM instance of it with PHP, my Apache crashes. So I realized that that wasn't the way to go. I also tried loading the DLL directly at the beginning by including it as an extension in php.ini (because I can't use the dl() function since I'm using XP) but that gives me an error saying that MolServer.dll is an invalid PHP DLL. As a result, I assumed that that was probably why it wouldn't create the COM object in the first place.

So I then thought that I could maybe create a wrapper around the DLL that would be PHP compatible. I tried both with VB 6.0 and VC++ 6.0. In both cases, I was able to create a test DLL. Fortunately, I had found a website that gave me the configurations settings for VC++ to create a PHP-compatible DLL. I have found no such website for VB. As a result, I was able to load my VC++ test DLL with PHP but had no luck with the VB one.

However, when importing my MolServer DLL into VC++, I couldn't see the functions associated with it. Therefore, I assumed VC++ could not understand the DLL (my guess is it was created in VB in the first place).

So, this is where I stand. I'm stuck because I don't know how to get VC++ to read what is in that DLL or to get VB to create the wrapper which would be compatible with PHP (because VB can read the content of MolServer.dll).

Anyways, if you guys have any ideas that could help me get somewhere with this, it would be most appreciated.

Thank you for your time!

Ben

Note: Some of you might be interested to know some information about the setup I currently have

Win XP
Apache 2.0.43
PHP 4.3.0

    Alright, it seems like I may have answered my own question.

    This seems to be an error that occurs only when you use Apache. Using IIS, I was able to create a COM instance of MolServer without the WebServer crashing. I'm still not sure why Apache doesn't like it but it just doesn't.

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