hitting an access database???

adavis

I have a project coming up where I have to hit an existing Access database. Has anyone here done that? I need some pointers. I want to write my part in PHP because I abhor ASP. I'm the only PHP developer in this office. The others are :eek: Microsoft :eek: developers.

bastien

yes you can....I don't have the code at the office, but you can use the odbc functions to access the db with a dsn...

I can post the code later (like 1830 EST) if you can wait...

adavis

This project won't start until sometime next week, so no real hurry. I just know it's coming up soon. I had already written it for mySQL, but of course the fields will change and the connet, sql statements, etc, I guess will change as well.

Thanks,
Alisa

bastien

<HTML>
  <HEAD>
  </HEAD>

  <BODY>

<?php

  // Program to test connecting to a Microsoft Access ODBC Data Source
  $connection = odbc_connect("postcard", "", "");
  print "Connected to datasource<BR><BR>";

  if ($result = odbc_exec($connection, "SELECT * FROM postcard"))
    print "Command executed successfully<BR><BR>";
  else
    print "Error while executing command<BR><BR>";

  // Print results
  while(odbc_fetch_row($result))
    print odbc_result($result, 1) . "   " . odbc_result($result, 2) . "   " . odbc_result($result, 3) . "   " . odbc_result($result, 4) . "   " . odbc_result($result, 5) . "<BR>";

  odbc_close($connection);
  print "<BR>Connection closed.";

?>

  </BODY>
</HTML>

Joseph_Sliker

I have been looking for some good simple examples for such a situation. I made the mistake of contracting for space on a Windows NT server because I thought "Hey, I know a bit about Access, this .ASP stuff can't be so bad?" Boy was I wrong. The Front Page database wizards do help you get going...but when you are totally green like me, they get you good and lost pretty quickly too.

Anywho....

Something that would have helped me in the preceeding example would be the following changes...

<?php

  // Program to test connecting to a Microsoft Access ODBC Data Source
  $connection = odbc_connect("[DSN name]", "", "");
  print "Connected to datasource<BR><BR>";

  if ($result = odbc_exec($connection, "SELECT * FROM [TABLE OR ACCESS QUERY NAME]"))
    print "Command executed successfully<BR><BR>";
  else
    print "Error while executing command<BR><BR>";

  // Print results (Number after $result in parentheses refers to field number in each row)
  while(odbc_fetch_row($result))
    print odbc_result($result, 1) . "   " . odbc_result($result, 2) . "   " . odbc_result($result, 3) . "   " . odbc_result($result, 4) . "   " . odbc_result($result, 5) . "<BR>";

  odbc_close($connection);
  print "<BR>Connection closed.";

?>

Now what I need are some concrete examples of INSERT and UPDATE queries to an Access DB via php!

adavis

Thanks for the start. I will probably just need to read, so the SELECT statement example is all I'll need at this point.

I really cringe at the thought of this. I have heard that Access, which was not designed for the internet, does not perform very well online, is very slow, can't handle the record volume that a mysql or postgres can, and crashes or boggs down very easily if stressed.

bastien

Connection management becomes critical for access and php needs to use use the odbc_free_result command on microsoft servers.

No opening at the beginnning of the script and holding the connection until needed...it has to be


code

build sql
open conn
execute sql
close conn

more code to process

It can work very well, IF properly coded and managed.