Converting ASP to PHP with Access

[Aelanna]

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?

<%

	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>")
 
%>

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.

[kows]

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.

[Aelanna]

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.

[kows]

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
  //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();
?>

[visualAd]

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