importing variables from a flat file

jasonyoung

I have a web site which is behind a firewall I do not control. One of the pages is a form which posts to MySql. That works fine. The trouble is for employees on the outside (but on the Internet) can't get to the server to post new entries. IT guys say no VPC access either soooo, is there a way to populate a text file (with the answers and "import" these into the DB?

Like this:

userName=Jason
accountCreated=12-25-2006
accountStatus=active

and so on. Probably around 100 variables need to be posted.

Can this be done? Any help would be great!!!

DemonMaestro

what you have is a inturnal website. and No there is not a way.

jasonyoung

yeah, I know it's internal, I'm just looking for a way to collect the information "offline" and then put it into the DB in some other fashion. Is it really that cut and dry -- as in "No there is not a way"?

rkolbe

jasonyoung wrote:
yeah, I know it's internal, I'm just looking for a way to collect the information "offline" and then put it into the DB in some other fashion. Is it really that cut and dry -- as in "No there is not a way"?

Soo...you want people to use the first form and have the information saved to a flat file in the above format, then at a later time you or someone would take that flat file and import it into a database?

You could do this...just have the form append new data to a file in the format you want (like the above). Then you could make an internal php script that would take that flat file and prep it for the database.

jasonyoung

Yes. The offline form could even be an XLS file. The part I don't grasp yet is the source file parsing and inserting into the DB. In my mind I envision a link on the online form which when pressed asks for the flat file I want to upload. I browse to it, select it, see it populate the real online form and then post it. Am I wishing again????

rkolbe

jasonyoung wrote:
Yes. The offline form could even be an XLS file. The part I don't grasp yet is the source file parsing and inserting into the DB. In my mind I envision a link on the online form which when pressed asks for the flat file I want to upload. I browse to it, select it, see it populate the real online form and then post it. Am I wishing again????

It can be done. The upload script would have to be on the internal server it sounds. I say this only because if the internal server is firewalled...and is just that, an internal server only with NO way to the outside world...you will need to have people submit the flat file to you where you would then (or someone with access to the internal server) could "browse" and "upload" the file where it would be parsed by a php script..this script would pull out the variables etc...I would personally use preg_match or preg_match_all to find the variables you need...

ORRRR if it was me, and there was no possible way to get that internal server to the outside world, I would open an FTP port for that server...being a Linux guy I would setup a cronjob to run a php script that would look in a specific FTP folder for files. If it finds a complete flat file, it would parse it, then remove it or move it to a "completed" folder (just in case you need to come back to it). The online form for people would save the flat file over FTP into that folder (forgot to mention that).

jasonyoung

I see, I think. The idea here is while my field reps are out at customer sites, they could populate the file (text, XLS, whatever...) and when they return to the office, begin the upload procedure rather than having to retype it into the actual form. That's it.

Unfortunately if I could get FTP open I would just have HTTP open instead. You see, I have a Naziest I-T group ever-- unless they want it or see a "use" for something it won't happen.

I think what would be helpful would be a snippet of the code I could use/adapt to do the parsing. Thanks again!