[Resolved] PHP, MSAccess, W2K tutorial

jacksonpt

I've done some PHP/MySQL programming, and some ASP/MSAccess programming, but I'd like to start using PHP with MS Access. Is there a good tutorial you can recommend to get me started? I don't want to pester you all with 1000 really beginner type questions.

I'm looking to put Apache on my W2K box for a personal webserver, and I'd like to be able to use Access databases for a variety of things. Apache doesn't support ASP, and Microsoft's Personal Web Server doesn't support the amount of traffice I'll be getting.

stolzyboy

Any particular reason you can't run MySQL?

jacksonpt

I could, but I was hoping to find a way to get PHP to interact directly with an Access db. I'm hoping to be able to query the db and get real-time results. If I understand the MySQL/Access relationship, I'd have to import the tables into Access before the db could be querried.

Is there a way to use PHP to take info straight from an HTML form directly into an Access db? And conversly, take info straight from an Access db straight into a dynamic webpage? This second part is less important, but still worth asking about.

stolzyboy

go to www.php.net and look up odbc, you have to have an odbc connection to use access

Joseph_Sliker

Young and ignorant, I was, about a year or so ago. I agreed to help someone build a simple website for a small real estate company (mostly for the chance to rent some space on a server so I could start experimenting).

I had a decent beginners course in MS Access behind me and owned a nice new copy of Office XP Pro and Microsoft promised great ease in making all this stuff work on the web.

So when I rented the server space and laid claim to a URL for the company, I figured the way to go was a Windows NT server configured to cater to MS Access.

The liars....

Writing ASP code with Front Page to talk to Access on a Windows server has been like...I dunno. Just crappy. It's been so much easier to learn php/MySQL on an Apache server. I can do a lot of cool stuff with a minimum of code. The code that all the menus and choices and wizards and stuff that Front Page/ASP requires is such a spaghetti for a beginner like me. What the heck is all that gunk in there? Sheesh!

Still, I have made a halfway decent site with ASP/Access and mess with it very gingerly only when I am in my most alert frame of mind.

But I'm getting very curious about trying to use php with Access...just to get away from the dismal Front Page "Database Interface Wizard"....that usually crashes my system after waiting 15-20 minutes for it to complete.

I have not done much but the following code HAS succeded in getting output from one of my online Access tables.

Here it is if it is any help to other beginners:

<html> 
<head><title>Access Test 2</title> 
<style type="text/css"> 
</style> 
</head> 
<body> 
<?php 
$odbc_dsn = "Listings"; 
$odbc_userid = ""; 
$odbc_password = "";

$query = "SELECT MLSID, Address FROM CURRENT";

$odbc_db = odbc_connect($odbc_dsn, $odbc_userid, $odbc_password); 
$odbc_rs = odbc_exec($odbc_db, $query); 
$fields = odbc_num_fields($odbc_rs);

odbc_result_all($odbc_rs); 

odbc_close ($odbc_db);
?> 
</table> 
</body> 
</html>

Joseph_Sliker

Hi;

I've been playing with this a little today and found that if I try to insert a new record into an online MS Access table that has an Autonumber/Primary Key field, the insert always failed unless I provided a unique number. Trying to first figure out how many rows already existed in the table gave rise to a new problem....the php odbc_num_rows command apparently does not work very well. Some searching trhough the PHP.net manual led to this bit of code that will return the number of rows as a variable. This could be useful in generating an autonumber...so long as you never delete any records.

<?php 
//THE FOLLOWING CODE WORKS TO INSERT A NEW VALUE INTO THE FIRST TWO FIELDS OF THE IDEAS TABLE
$odbc_dsn = "joestuff"; 
$odbc_userid = ""; 
$odbc_password = "";

 $connection = odbc_connect($odbc_dsn,$odbc_userid,$odbc_password) or die("ERROR");

//First query to see how many rows are already in table 
 $query1 = "SELECT COUNT(*) FROM IDEAS";
 $sql_result = odbc_prepare($connection,$query1) or die("ERROR");
 odbc_execute($sql_result) or die("ERROR");
 $rc = odbc_fetch_into($sql_result, $my_array);
 echo ("Total rows: " . $my_array[0]);

//Add 1 to the result to create the next highest number (will only work if no records have been deleted) 
 $newID = ($my_array[0]+1);

//This is just a query to auto-enter a new record...just for test purposes
$query2 = "INSERT INTO IDEAS (IDID,IDEA) VALUES ($newID,'TEST $newID')";
odbc_exec($connection, $query2); 
//end of test

//Free the result and close the connection
 odbc_free_result($sql_result);
 odbc_close($connection);
?>