Converting ASP to PHP with Access

I have a web site written in ASP utilizing Access databases and I want to convert it to PHP. My web server is a Windows 2000 server using IIS 5, and I installed PHP 5.1.2.

Here is sample code from a page that reads data from one of the databases and displays it in a table. How can I convert this to PHP?

Code:

---

<%

        set myconn = server.createobject("adodb.connection")
        dbpath = server.mappath("databases/Stables.mdb")
        MyConn.Open "Driver={Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb)}; DBQ=" & dbpath & ";"
        set result = server.createobject("adodb.recordset")
        sql = "SELECT * FROM Stables ORDER BY Stable_Name"
        set result = myconn.execute(sql)
                response.write("<p>")
                response.write("<table border=0 width='40%' cellpadding=3 cellspacing=0 align=center class=tbl1bgColor>")
                response.write("<tr>")
                response.write("<td width='55%' class=searchRHeadings align=left nowrap>")
                response.write("<p align=center><strong>Stable</strong>")
                response.write("<td width='10%' class=searchRHeadings align=center nowrap>")
                response.write("<p align=center><strong>Silks</strong>")
                response.write("<td width='25%' class=searchRHeadings align=left nowrap>")
                response.write("<p align=center><strong>Country</strong>")
                response.write("</tr><tr>")
        z=1
        while not result.EOF
                if (z mod 2=0) then
                        className="tdResultsRow1 "
                else
                        className="tdResultsRow2 "
                end if

                If result("Web") then
                        response.write("<td width='55%' class='" & classname & "' align=left nowrap><a href=" & result("Site") & ">" & result("Stable_Name"))
                Else
                        response.write("<td width='55%' class='" & classname & "' align=left nowrap>" & result("Stable_Name"))
                End IF
                If result("Silks") then
                        response.write("<td width='10%' class='" & classname & "' align=right nowrap><img src='images/Silks/" & result("Stable_ID") & ".gif'>")
                Else
                        response.write("<td width='10%' class='" & classname & "' align=right nowrap>")
                End if
                response.write("<td width='25%' class='" & classname & "' align=left nowrap>" & result("Location"))
                response.write("</td>")
                result.movenext()
                response.write("</tr>")
        z=z+1
        wend       
        response.write("</table>")
 
%>

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I can make this code work in php using MySQL, but I can't wrap my head around how to get PHP to talk to the Access database.

to use Access with PHP, you'll need to use the ODBC functions. to get started, I'd check out odbc_connect() or the list of ODBC functions.

I've looked those over but they didn't help very much. Isn't there somewhere a simple tutorial on how to connect PHP5 to an Access Database on a Windows system without using DSN? I've been searching all over the web without luck.

well, Access is not really supported much with PHP except using the ODBC functions. with limited searching, I found no real tutorials. I have -very- little experience dealing with connection strings, databases in any BASIC languages, and I've never needed to use ODBC in PHP. these are two examples I found in the comments of odbc_connect() that seem to mimic the way that you're connecting in the ASP script:

PHP Code:

---

<?php
  //using odbc_connect
  $connection = odbc_connect("Driver={Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb)}; DBQ=$database", "ADODB.Connection", $password, SQL_CUR_USE_ODBC);
?>

<?php
//not using odbc_connect
$db_connection = new COM("ADODB.Connection");

$db_connstr = "DRIVER={Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb)}; DBQ=". realpath("../databases/database.mdb") ." ;DefaultDir=". realpath("../databases");
$db_connection->open($db_connstr);
$rs = $db_connection->execute("SELECT * FROM Table");
$rs_fld0 = $rs->Fields(0);
$rs_fld1 = $rs->Fields(1);
while (!$rs->EOF) {
  print "$rs_fld0->value $rs_fld1->value\n";
  $rs->MoveNext(); /* updates fields! */
}
$rs->Close();
$db_connection->Close();
?>

---

I would not recommend the use of Access as a back end to a web site. There are certain limitations which can slow things down, corrupt the databse or cuase the site to stop functioning.

Off the top of my head these are:

• Poor handling of simultanious connections.
• 2GB size limit on database files.
• Limited sotred procedure and no trnasaction support.

If you must continue then you will need to use ODBC. I would recommend the PDO_ODBC Driver.

http://php.oregonstate.edu/manual/en/ref.pdo-odbc.php