[RESOLVED] Unzip files and edit

the_lynx123

Hi,
I have a Windows software that has a bunch (40K) zip files and every one of these files has an access database inside. For a while I've been doing applications in PHP that will unzip a copy of these files and read data from them programatically. Since people are getting a bit lazy around here and boss is getting spoiled, now they want me to be able to edit the data in these Access files. Now, this is what I've been doing to unzip the files and read data from them:


if (file_exists($ZipLocation)) {                                                                                                                                                                                          

  $zipc = new ZipArchive;                                                                                             

  $zipc->open($ZipLocation);                                                                                   

  $zipc->extractTo('data/'.$hostip);                                                                                    

  $zipc->close();                                                                                                     

  $mdbFilename = *path to access file*

  $conn = new COM('ADODB.Connection') or die('Cannot start ADO');                                                    

  $conn->Open("Provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0; Data Source=$mdbFilename; Persist Security Info=False;");
  ......... etc

This code will extract a copy of the zip file,but I need to be able to edit the access file inside the zip file, not a copy of it (otherwise the changes I make won't show up in the Windows application).
Would I need to extract it and then zip it again? Any suggestions?
I hope this makes sense and thank you in advance

johanafm

Yes, you have to make changes to un uncompressed file, which means it'll need to be zipped again and replace the old archive. But if two people want to edit the same file, you have to make certain they are really using the same uncompressed file as well, or you risk either overwriting the existing uncompressed copy (undoing any current changes to it), or they will be operating on one copy each which means whomever saves last overwrites the other person's changes.

However, things I would consider:
How much total space is needed by the compressed files?
How much total space would be needed by the files if they were uncompressed?
How much would that disk space cost (and I'd be surprised if you'd actually need to invest in more disk space anyway)?
How much will your development time cost?

And also, if you're not using MS Access to make use of your databases, why use mdb files?
Why not just migrate the data to MySql or PostGre SQL

the_lynx123

Thanks for replying. I am not going to worry about hard drive space, we have a couple of Terabyte hard drives and each file (uncompressed) is about 300Kb. And as far as development time, i get paid by hour and it would take several weeks for somebody to go and make these changes manually, so all i can do is look at this as a learning experience instead of getting pissed :mad: lol.

Good point on overwriting files. The program makes a copy of the zipped file into the local hard drive and gets all the data from there and if they save it, it will overwrite the file in the server. Maybe I can run the script when nobody is here...oh well, thank you for your help.

Unfortunately, this software is a third party windows application that this company purchased a long time ago and they are using mdb files, i know it's lame but i just have to deal with it. All users hate it because it is SoOoOoOoO slow.