Access2000/PHP web database help

Anon

I am very new to PHP.
I already use Access 2000, but would like to use the database on my web site - purely as a search for products in the database.
Am I correct in thinking that I can do this with the help of PHP?
I have read the basic tutorial on linking the database with PHP, do I just upload the access database to the website? If so I cannot see any link from the PHP pages to the database file in the tutorial about linking Access 97+ with PHP.
Can anyone provide a simple explanation ?
Thanks in anticipation.

Anon

You would need to set up a MySQL database on your server, then export the access database to it using ODBC. This sounds complicated, but in practise is quite straightforward. Instructions on setting up an ODBC link from your machine can be found at: http://www.dsvr.co.uk/support/reference/extensions/odbc.phtml

Good luck !

Anon

Am I correct in thinking that I can do this with the help of PHP?

Yes, PHP can be used as a database scripting language. It is quite easy to learn and pretty powerful as far as a web language goes. You need a web hosting company that supports PHP. If they don't, convince them that they should. 🙂

I have read the basic tutorial on linking the database with PHP, do I just upload the access database to the website?

First off, I assume that you are not hosting your own website. You need to find out from your web hosting company if they have provisions for databases and if so, what databases they will let you use. If it is an NT Server then ODBC will be your database connection type. If it is Unix or Linux then there are quite a few different databases they could be using. If they are not using databases then your only option will be to make your own using text files for data storage. (Not really that difficult unlesss it is a huge database)