[Phpwm] Accessing an MS Access DB remotely.

[Jon Spriggs]

Hi Chris,

Well, it's just a suggestion, but how about using either PHP or VB.net
to query the database on the server at the customer side, and expose
those requests via SOAP, then process the data within your web app
using PHP and NuSOAP.

Mid-term though, I'd look into suggesting moving away from an Access
Based database to a MySQL or MS SQL based solution, as MS Access can
be unstable when being used by a large quantity of users at the same
time.

If they want to keep a thick or half-fat client, then you could build
something in VB.NET (express, if you don't want to stretch to the Pro
or Enterprise editions) to perform similar queries on any ODBC
database - including MySQL if they want to keep their database locally
to themselves, and you can then migrate the PDA access to the web
server within the customers' site, once it's got PHP on it.

Hope that helps

Jon

On 16/10/06, Chris Allen <pickledegg at hotmail.co.uk> wrote:
> I was wondering if anyone would be able to offer any pointers on this
> matter:
>
> A client has an internal system at his office, that is based on Microsoft
> Access 2002. This is used as a customer database, order processing etc.
>
> He wants an online portal to this database, whereby Engineers with PDA's can
> view outstanding jobs assigned to them, and interact in real time with the
> internal system.
>
> I have done something similar using PDA's with PHP in the past, but it
> involved an onsite webserver and middleware, in order to protect the
> internal database.
>
> This is what I want: The web portal will be hosted elsewhere, and the access
> DB will remain on the customers site. Is there a way of accessing this
> database from the outside world via PHP and performing SQL queries on it? I
> assume it will need some sort of server setting up onsite?
>
> Thanks.