Is PHP what I need

[Kryff]

I have been designing simple web sites in Dreamweaver for a couple of years and am familiar with HTML. I am now being asked to produce "Active Pages" to collect data from HTML forms and to post replies to customers.
I have been struggling to work out the best way to do this and to link my web pages to a Microsoft Access database. (I am afraid I am stuck with Access for the database as SQL is a No-no in our Company).
PHP appears to be a reasonable option but will it work with Access?
Are other server-side languages better or worse?
Which is easiest to use ?
Which are most compatible across all platforms and is this relevant?

Can anybody out there give me some guidance?

 

[jimoblak]

I'm not sure how SQL is a no-no. Access uses SQL.

ASP is the best fit for Access. Since Access and ASP are both from Microsoft, there are more accessible development tools. But, of course, PHP can also work with Access.

http://www.google.com/search?q=microsoft+access+php

I personally do only a little with ASP and most with PHP. PHP can run on more platforms than ASP.

 

[sleipnir214]

I've encountered stability and concurrency problems with sites that use Access as its backend, particularly in busy sites. FYI.



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[M8KWR]

why don't you use mysql, and link access to mysql.... then use php to ammend records in mysql.....

clear as mud

 

[Kozusnik]

PHP is a server-side application, for the active pieces, you'd need to use javascript.

I would also tell the company that Access needs to be removed and replaced by a SQL engine, preferably MySQL. It's free and very fast.

On a side note...I HATE MICROSOFT!!! I'd use any excuse to eliminate them.

Mark

 

[jimoblak]

for the active pieces, you'd need to use javascript.

I think there is a translation error here. It seems that Kryff's reference to 'active pages' simply means pages that are scripted to process form data. This is not javascript.

 

[jpadie]

This is not javascript

or at least it need not be javascript. js is an acceptable scripting language for ASP.

access has a licensing cost attached to it so if you were to install access on the web-server, a further fee would be payable. you could link to access on another box over the network.

Other sql-ansi (ish) based solutions include sqlite which is just a single file in your filesystem and so, in that way, is somewhat similar to access. backups are easy as they are peformed in the same way as your normal file-system back-up.

if your site is going to be high-traffic then abandoning access is a must. similarly, if you are going to need to do some complex data-mining queries then i feel that access would not serve you well. Conversely, for light applications like contact storage, guest books, chatrooms etc I have recently started administering a site using vbscript (ASP) and access as the backend (sitting on IIS 6). I find vbscript annoying limiting and the learning curve on each object is frustrating compared to php, but there is no getting around the fact that the site works and that the integration between vbscript and access/jet is very neat.

I say again though, although the solution is "light-weight", it's not cheap. windows + access is a licensing cost of at least £200. compared to completely free and portable with mysql/sqlite + php + apache (on linux).

 

[Kozusnik]

My apologies about the js comment. Maybe I was assuming too much. However, I can't imagine a page that did not require some type of client side interaction or data verification. Even a simple survey could be a monster if you waited for the post data, validated, and posted back "Sorry, you forgot to fill something in." You'd have to re-populate the fields that were filled in.

I'm not an asp or dot-not programmer, but I have unfortunately used VB. I have a decent understanding of the language. asp, d-net, and java all have client and server-side components, but this is a PHP forum, so maybe my assumption was somewhat founded.

The point is, I suppose there are api's for access, but the majority, I believe, would recommend a sql solution. Without using odbc, thereby using sql, I'm not sure how to use access.

Mark

 

[feherke]

Hi

You'd have to re-populate the fields that were filled in.

Why ? PHP can just populate the [tt]form[/tt] with the already accept values.

Feherke.

http://rootshell.be/~feherke/

 

[Zuggy]

I am encountering the same problem, I have to use PHP on an Access Database, and this is my first experience with PHP. If you really can't get out of using Access but still want to use PHP, look into the ADOdb abstraction layer.

 

[Olavxxx]

Hi,

I would say:
* Use mySQL (it's free, it's better than Access).
* Use PHP OR asp.net 2.0

If you are to make a SIMPLE version of registration in asp.net 2.0, you do it like this:
1) Create a project / website
2) Create a datasource (xml, sql or access if you are crazy!)
3) Go in the toolbox in visual studio and drag the correct datasource into your page
4) enter the "wizard mode" and create the three queries there
5) bind a detailsview to the datasource

Then you have an input for data, which can display, insert and delete, as well as update, without doing any code!

Ps. you can also let it just insert and nothing else, also without 0 lines of code!

Let's say you want a button to trigger the insert, maybe an "Register" button.

You can then draw a button on the form, doubleclick it (vb style) and then in codebehind, you just code some simple code like this:

DetailsViewUserInfo.ChangeMode(DetailsViewMode.Insert)
DetailsViewUserInfo.Visible = True

And let's say you want it to disappear afterwards..
Then you doubleclick the Detailsview, go to the "Inserted" event and there you can change the mode to DetailsView.ReadOnly and finally make it .visible=false.

If you also use the asp.net 2.0 ajax components, you get all this without page-refresh!

http://ajax.asp.net/

HOWEVER:
This is a big however

If you are to code asp.net 2.0 and use AJAX, you might use more time to do stuff.. Sure, it's nice to drag and drop controls onto the page via a GUI, but this sometimes makes it harder to access certain parts of controls.

If you also are used to php, using asp.net might be a bit time consuming getting used to.

I program in both asp.net 2.0 and in PHP and I believe some things are easier in PHP (mostly thanks to the opensource community). I would say: what you should use, depends on how advanced this is to be.

I would also point out asp.net should run on IIS ($$), while php can run on apache (free). They can both connect to mySQL (free).

Olav Alexander Mjelde

http://www.volvo-power.net

Admin & Webmaster