php-general | 2001062

[PHP] Re: [PHP-DB] access to a access db via php From: Miles Thompson (milesthompson <email protected>)
Date: 06/25/01

Mathias,

Welcome and we hope you'll have fun.

At 12:53 PM 6/25/01 +0200, you wrote:
>Hello NG,
>it's the first time I use this NG and I'm not sure whether I'm I right here
>or not.
>The problem: I'm a beginner in php (just started to read the first
>introductions). I created a "guestbook" with FP2000. The entrys where safed
>in and shown from a db. FP 2000 nearly created it by itself using asp. The
>problem is that my provider doesn't support a db connection via asp. They
>told me that php3 is supported. My question: Can I use the created db (where
>my guestbook entrys are safed) and edit and show results via php? I think
>yes but all tutorials I found about it described a odbc connection and I
>think the provider I'm using doesn't support this , too.

Confirm with your ISP:
- which version of PHP is supported
- is ODBC support compiled in
- is an Access database supported

>Is there any
>possibilty to work in an access DB without any odbc connection (cause then I
>need a server which supports DNS and so on and all Servers I knew are too
>expensive for me at the moment). Maybe I can access the db via php like a
>text file?

Why do you need DNS? If an IP number is needed for ODBC connectivity to
work you can just use localhost (127.0.0.1) for development, retrieving the
value from an include file. On your production machine you use a file with
the same name, but with the appropriate IP number.

OR - Do you mean DSN -- Data Source Name? If so you can establish that on
your local Windows machines, and your ISP will certainly have to give you
one for database access on their server. The DSN can be passed to the PHP
odbc_connect call as a variable. Same as for IP numbers as above.

Go to www.php.net and check which databases are supported. They are listed
alphabetically in the manual. There's a double whammy here - the manual
reflects the current version, your ISP may be a couple of versions behind.

I believe you will find direct support for Access, but again your ISP has
to have compiled it in for it to function. The beauty of ODBC is that you
have a more portable interface you can take to other databases.

Yes you can use a text file, but it's more likely that your ISP supports
MySQL which will give you good results with a guestbook app. With a text
file you will end up with a lot of sequential reads - a real performance
killer.

>There are many question I have, sorry if this description isn't precise
>enough. I'm glad about any hints, comments, suggestions, links or whatsoever
>that would help me.
>Thanks in advance to read and answer this long posting.
>MFG Matthias
>
>
>
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