Dynamic site with Access and PHP

dpcooke

I am making a website at my work and have a bunch of info in an Access 97 database. I need to make a few pages that display tables and have controls that can sort the tables...
My main problem is i am not quite sure how to set this up. Our network guys gave me a folder on the network and i can easily go to pages that are in html that i put there but i am not sure how to set it up to get to my database.
I am very new to php and dont know if i need to put somethin in the folder to access the info in the database. Do i need to put the entire database in the folder? Do i need to have the network guys put a driver for the ODBC on the server to go to my database? Or is there an easy way to convert my database to SQL to make this easier(note i have to update the access database constantly)?
Please and help/tips are welcome.
Thanks

jpmoriarty

You need a web server - something like apache or Microsoft IIS, which will run the PHP script when you access it through a browser interface. The web server can in turn talk to the database, and populate your website with information from it.

The browsing to html files on the network is just a bit of a quirk really - it will only work with html files, not with any scripting language. Once you have your server, you then need to be able to get to that database from the server, and program your PHP or ASP or whatever script to talk to the database.

If there are going to be lots of people using this website at the same time, then you'd be best off heading to SQL server since it's much better at handling multiple connections. Hoever, if it's internal and there will be less than 50, access should be okay. If you've got access installed on the server then the ODBC drivers should be installed with it, and you'd be best to check out www.php.net and search for ODBC or connecting to Access databases on there - there's a lot of helpful stuff.

But first port of call is to get yourself a web server.

dpcooke

sorry i wasn't clear...
the folder is on a server.
so if type in my browser..
150.45.1.124/ceg/index.html
it goes to the file on the intranet....
i just need to know how to get my database working with the files that i would put in there...
by this i mean i want to be able to say...
150.45.1.124/ceg/index.php
and get it to work......

jpmoriarty

just so i can be sure - you'r site has to be on a web server, not just a server. You need to be able to browse to http://150.45.1.124/ceg/index.html , not just go to the file through explorer. (ie if you go to http://150.45.1.124/ceg you should get one of two things - either the index.html page, or a page giving a 404 "File could not be found" page, or a listing of the files in the directory (not a windows view though, a HTML generated listing) - you should not get a friendly windows view of fils and folders etc.)

With that cleared up, and assuming we're both talking about the same sort of server now!...

connecting to a ms acceess database isn't quite as friendly as connectng to a database server, and it's definitely the poorer option of the two, but it's by no means difficult.

Just a search for msaccess on this board has returned these (and many others):

http://www.phpbuilder.com/board/showthread.php?s=&threadid=10218700&highlight=msaccess

http://www.phpbuilder.com/board/showthread.php?s=&threadid=10214844&highlight=msaccess

http://www.phpbuilder.com/board/showthread.php?s=&threadid=10210142&highlight=msaccess

They in turn have links to the php manual, which, unsurprisingly, also has instructions on how to do it (but the manual was "down for reindexing" when i went there so i couldnt search it myself)

dpcooke

you are correct in assuming that it is already on a server....
also i think i understand how to write the php code that will get my stuff to work my main problem is that i do not know how to get the database set up on the server...
i just have access to one folder on the server...
do i need to put my database in the folder and then i am fine...
do i need to contact the people that run the server and have them create me a driver using odbc...
i just don't know where to begin..
thanks for all your help so far...

jpmoriarty

if you're using access as opposed to SQL server or MySQL, then the database should really reside on the server. You'll want to call it locally from your page (since the PHP is executed server-side, so opening the database c:\database.mdb on your php will open the database c:\database.mdb on the server. Hence you'll need access on the server too, and if that's on there then the ODBC drivers should be there too. You could, I suppose, put your database straight into your folder, but that's not a particularly good idea because it's not very safe (anyone would be able to download it). You'd want to put it in a folder that the web browser doesnt have acccess to usually - however, if you're on an intranet then that might not bother you too much.

Would strongly reccommend moving to a database server though, particularly if there are going to be lots of people accessing it.

Easiest way to check that your odbc drivers and everthing are working? Do a test page - create a database with a few tables (or use the northwind one), and then try to echo data from it to the screen. If it chucks up errors, try searching for them on this board for answers, and if there are none then post back.

dpcooke

ok thanks for all your help so far...
i talk to our network admin and he told me that there is two ways to set up a ms access database, one using the odbc driver and one not using it.
He said that i have to use the second method, the problem is he doesn't know how to do it and neither do i......
so to recap i am putting the database in the same folder that the php files will be in....
do you know this method...
thanks again

jpmoriarty

I dont know how you'd do it without ODBC - if you're using a database in access then you cant get to it without having access installed on the server (unless you go through SQL server or something, but if you've got access to SQL server then you'd be better off using that rather than access). If you have access on the server, then you'd get ODBC too.

EVERY entry (that I could find) in the PHP manual about connecting to MSAccess mentions ODBC- you cant get to it without it as far as i'm aware.

But once you're past that problem, then i guess you'll have the database on the server in the same directory as the php files (which is a secruity risk as discussed above), you'll need to know where on the server it's located - not the url, but the local path (ie e:\inetpub\wwwroot\intranet\database.mdb) and use that path to connect to it. use the manual ( http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.odbc-connect.php for starters) for more info.