What do I need to develop a web page to view data in an Access db? 1

[malibu65k]

I've been asked to develop a webpage that can display and manipulate data in an access database. Is there anything specific I need installed on the computer other than knowing how to code the webpage? The database and webpages will be on the company intranet. Any other additional help on PHP please reply as well.

Thanks!!

 

[IPGuru]

If possible move the data off of access

possible options include mysql, sqlite & postgresql

all are supported by PHP (microsoft sql is also supported)

the computer hosting the app wil require a webserver (Apache or IIS depending on os) php & your choice of database engine.

Most linus distributions will have all of these installed or availabe (google LAMP) but it can also be done on windows (google WAMP)

 

[jpadie]

for a basic form of CRUD application see my site

http://rathercurious.net/archives/167

this is a copy of code i posted here some time ago.

there is no difficult using access as a database storage engine. just set up a dsn in windows. you need to change the code above to use PDO or odbc but this is the work of 5 minutes.

 

[IPGuru]

Jpadie you are correct again.
I found refrences to access & PHP as soon as I had posted the above.
(I only code for fun on a linux box so do not have much knowledge of PHP in a windows environment)

Q) looking at your responces here, when do you ever find any time to work?

 

[malibu65k]

Thanks for your replies.

It's a good thing, because in a military environment we are only approved to use Micrsoft Office. Anything else has to be contracted out and this is a small enough job for access, no need for outside development.

So PHP has to be installed on their computer to run the code or can I create it on my machine, being I have PHP installed and just transfer the files to their machine to run. Will that work?

They have an intranet set up already. Does this mean they already have some sort of webserver?

 

[ingresman]

If you have an intranet then yes you will have a web server running.
Can I just clear somne things up for you.
The web server will have to be running Windows, Linux can't get to access files.
You don't need the access product at all to get to access files. The ODBC driver does it all for you. If you start a CMD prompt and run odbcad32.exe you will see the drivers, the access one has access in its name. I can't vouch for vista/2003/2008 but they are there in XP.
Create a system data source using this driver and access it via the ODBC library in PHP.

 

[jpadie]

not certain here but i'm pretty sure that odbc drivers for ms access and linux are available for access connectivity. See here

@OP
you need to install php on your intranet server. the clients will only need their browser - they do not need php installed.
php installation consists primarily of putting files in the right directory BUT you also need to 'attach' php to the web server. the method of doing this depends on which webserver you use. instructions are provided in the install.txt file in the php distros.

@IPGuru
I'm a lawyer by trade, and work for myself. I also work alone so tek-tips is like a trip to the water-cooler for me. and i'm often thirsty!

 

[malibu65k]

Could I just use my machine to create the pages and code and place them in their web server's root directory? Does their web server have to have PHP installed on it still just to be able to display the pages?

Thanks for all your replies, they are really helpful.

 

[spamjim]

Another option is to run PHP/MySQL on your server and then have MS Access connect to the MySQL tables so that you can use the visual query and reporting tools in Access. An ODBC can also be used by Access to connect to a MySQL database.

But all this database talk seems to be premature.

If you are just starting out with a scripting language and your only use is to interact with an existing investment in Microsoft Office products, you may want to look at .Net options instead and the tools Microsoft offers to aid development.

So PHP has to be installed on their computer to run the code or can I create it on my machine, being I have PHP installed and just transfer the files to their machine to run. Will that work?

With no offense, the questions you are asking are pretty basic. I am certain that you are not as dumb as me but when I asked a question like that when I was starting with PHP, I was months away from pulling off a proper database connection with PHP and Access. PHP is not drag and drop. I am sure there is some sort of Microsoft tool that can help make a browser-based front-end for MS Access via .Net.

 

[spamjim]

...and in answer to your basic question - - yes, PHP must be installed on the server to function. PHP is a server-side language. It is not like Javascript, the common client-side language used in web pages.

 

[malibu65k]

I think what they are wanting is browser-based front-end for MS Access. I used Oracle before and did Client/Server development but like I said, the goverment is really making it hard for us programmers to be creative. They want powerful and dynamic programs but don't want to give us the tools to create it. Mostly because of security issues.

Any other options for a browser-based front-end before I go and explain to them what they may need to do before I can proceed?

Thanks again for the inputs.

 

[jpadie]

are you intending to have a separate access database for each client computer? or just one central version? if the latter, just install php, webserver plus the access database and odbc drivers on ONE computer that all the others can talk to via http. then control how the users interact with the database through a HTML UI with a php middle-layer.

 

[vicvirk]

use IIS and ASP.

If it's small enough then why go through all the hassel of doing it through PHP? ASP (Vbscript)/ IIS have all the tools necessary to connect to an Access DB - no additional work will be required, except to learn a bit of syntax.



TIP: trying googling the answer before posting, you'll find that more times than not someone else somewhere has had the same request and posted an answer online.
----
I have recently been semi-converted to ensuring all my code (well most of it) works in both javascript and non-javascript enabled browsers

 

[malibu65k]

The database is on their intranet. I'm not sure if they even have PHP installed yet, I sent an email last week to ask and I heaven't heard back yet. I'm not sure why they really need a web based front end.

I'm not familiar with ASP or VBScript. Does this require anything additional to be installed?

 

[jpadie]

I'm not sure why they really need a web based front end.

for one thing, it would save them buying MS Access for each user. I also recollect that JET is not network optimised so it's possible the big sections of the database would transfer back and forward to the clients. a web based solution means that multiple (non-windows) devices can access the data layer and their interaction can be controlled evenly across potential clients.

 

[malibu65k]

All users already have MS Access. Its a government facility so that's standard to have on all computers. Anything else has to be approved. If they don't have PHP installed already then they are out of luck, the government won't approve PHP for only 1 department especially for such a small project. They will tell us to utilize what we already have.

Thanks for all your replies.

 

[spamjim]

They will tell us to utilize what we already have.

You don't yet seem to be familiar with either ASP or PHP (and you don't seem to know what is already installed on your intranet server) so I wonder why you are seeking to do this in PHP.

Find out what you have on the server and let that guide your next step. If an email goes unanswered for a week, try the phone. A web developer can also check the headers of a web page to determine some server capabilities.

 

[ingresman]

JPAdir,

I had a look at

http://www.easysoft.com/products/data_access/index-b.html

And they use the word Access a lot but only to say you can access other databases !. There is not a direct driver. You could use the products to connect to a remote windows machine which can access the access.
I'd be really interested if someone has cracked the access file format (each version is different) I'd be very impressed.
The OP hasn't told us what platform his server is running on so it's hard to make a recomendation on a windows specific product.
Your also correct if on how ineffiecnt the database format is. Because it has no server component all the work goes on on the local PC so potentialy vast amounts of data can be shuffled accross a lan for no good reason.
I think spamjinm has a valid point that the OP doesn't seem to have a great deal of knowledge of PHP or ASP so helping out can be a bit difficult.

 

[jpadie]

@ingresman

oh dear. that was sloppy of me! but there exists odbc/jdbc drivers for access/JET on linux anyway (i'm nearly 100% sure of this).

 

[ingresman]

Yes, I found this.

http://dba.openoffice.org/drivers/mdb/index.html

looks primitive but promising