[Q] Setting up connection between MS Access and PHP...

[cyanblue]

Howdy guys... 🙂

I have a question... I have searched forum and google, but I couldn't find good answer on this question... 🙁

This is what I want to do... I have to create a connection to the MS Access database from Flash MX via PHP... To test this locally, I am on W2K and IIS 5.0... and eventually progarm will be running on WXP server with DSN... (This part, I will be needing some more searching...) According to the articles that I have read, I will be needing ODBC driver installed on the machine for PHP to have an access to the MS Access database... So, I have been to the Microsoft's Universal Data Access Web Site to find the ODBC driver, http://www.microsoft.com/data, where I have been more confused... 🙁

I was able to find some information on Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC), OLE DB, ADO, and ODBC... Basicaly what it said on the page is that MDAC, OLE DB, ADO all works on top of ODBC which makes sense so far... Well... The confusing part is that I cannot find any link where I can download ODBC driver for Windows... According to the search from this forum, somebody suggested that I can basically install ODBC driver with MS Office, but I don't see that option on my machine...(I don't have ODBC icon in the Control Panel... and I don't see any ODBC listed in the Services section from the Administrative Tools...) So... I was wondering if anybody know where I can download ODBC driver for W2K and WXP...

Okay... Let's just say that somebody gave me the link and I installed ODBC driver in my computer... I will be needing ADO set up so that I could actually call MS Access database with PHP... Am I right???

I have done several MySQL database job with PHP, but MS Access is the first time... Please correct me if I am wrong... With MySQL, the MySQL server should be running all the time, but there is no need of server in case of MS Access, am I right??? I just want to store the form data from the Flash to the MS Access database such as survey or contact form so that people can utilize that database later on...

Any help would be appreciated...
Thank you and have a nice day... 🙂
Jason

[mnewhart]

ODBC is already available on W2K. Start==>Programs==>Administrative Tools==>Data Sources (ODBC). You will have to have MS Access installed on your system. Follow the directions in the PHP Manual. If you do not own MS Access, your out of luck and will need to buy it. MS Access does not make for a good database environment on the web if there are going to be a large number of hits to it. Its engine is slow by any comparison. I write software using MS Access, but for small, local networks.

mnewhart

[cyanblue]

Thank you for the heads up, mnewhart... Appreciate it... I finally figured that out after spending 3 days looking for the ODBC driver... 🙁

Could you check this one for me??? I think I am right about this, but I need someone else's confirmation... 😃

Please correct me if I am wrong... With MySQL, the MySQL server should be running all the time, but there is no need of server in case of MS Access, am I right???