Writing Files to Local Machine

bandit8

Hi,

Does anyone know how to, using PHP or other, to automatically write files from a mySQL database on a server to a local machine?

Basically the reason I need it, is that the database will be continually getting new data from various users, and I want the information to be copied to a local file on my own computer every 15 minutes or so (just continually rewriting the file on my local machine, with the newest data). This way, if there is a server error, or internet connectivity issues, I will still always be able to access the latest data by opening the file on my local machine.

Any thoughts? If clarification is needed, just let me know.

Thanks!

etully

Your best bet is to write a script that runs on your local machine that connects to the remote machine every 15 minutes and obtains the newest data. There are tons of protocols that you could use to accomplish this so what you write will depend on what tools and protocols you are familiar with and comfortable with. Here's a few possible methodologies:

You have a PHP script on the server that reads the MySQL data and displays it in a CSV format or XML format. You have a script on your local computer that connects to your server via HTTP and connects to that PHP script and reads the data. The script on your local computer then writes the data to the hard drive.
You have a PHP script on the server that reads the MySQL data and writes it to a text file on the server. You have a local script that connects to the remote server via FTP and grabs a copy of the text file and saves the text file to your local hard drive.
You run MySQL on your local computer and it works as a slave to replicate the remote server.
You have a script on your local computer that connects to MySQL on the remote computer and reads the data and writes it to a text file or to a local copy of MySQL.
You have a PHP script on the server that reads the MySQL data and writes it to a text file on the server. You have a script on your local computer that triggers a local copy of rsync that connects to the remote server and copies the remote text file to your local computer.
You have a PHP script on the remote computer that reads the data from MySQL, puts it in CSV or XML format and emails it to you.

So... as you can see... there's not just one way to do it. Option 6 is probably the weakest way to do it... I just included it to show that there are lots of protocols that you could use for this task. Personally, I like option #3 because it's done in real time - there's no 15 minute gap.

Which solution you choose will be based on programming skill combined with the operating system you have at each end.

You could run PHP, Perl, Shell scripts, VB, or Applescript locally. So it's no necessarily a PHP based solution at either end - but it could be.

BobLennon

bandit8 wrote:
Hi,

Does anyone know how to, using PHP or other, to automatically write files from a mySQL database on a server to a local machine?

Basically the reason I need it, is that the database will be continually getting new data from various users, and I want the information to be copied to a local file on my own computer every 15 minutes or so (just continually rewriting the file on my local machine, with the newest data). This way, if there is a server error, or internet connectivity issues, I will still always be able to access the latest data by opening the file on my local machine.

Any thoughts? If clarification is needed, just let me know.

Thanks!

b.

Some thoughts, but it's not easy for casual users, and may cause me some grief for suggesting it.

If you schedule a local machine driver using a compiler driven language like C,C#, VB etc. , you could then control a server side PHP script to respond with some HTTP or XML.

It's also possible that you might be able to use (with reservations) the Yahoo Widget package with their version of Javascript on the client side, or perhaps a script like VBscript.

On the server side, you would need to write a PHP driver that when invoked at client request, would access the database, and formulate a client reply.

The client invocation can be scheduled at defined intervals from the OS, or the compiler executable itself (sleep) when it requests the HTTP or XML response.

On awake, the client can request, and update local files from the HTTP or XML response.

bandit8

Hey Guys,

Thanks to both of you for your quick response... definitely showed me that there are multiple ways to approach this, and will greatly help in my moving in the right direction.

Thanks again!