Newbie Web service in php - need help

[paritycheck]

Hi Guys,

I'm working on a portal which is data intensive. We have a couple of clients who would be interested in querying our database for a fee. The idea is that the clients would like to be able to access the database and run certain queries on it as they see fit and retrieve results in the form of xml results.We however would like to impose limitation on the nature of the queries passed so that the don't run a SELECT * FROM TABLE query and also maintain a log of how many queries were passed etc. This sounds pretty much like a web service to me, as this service will only be available to select authenticated users. The thing is that how do I pull it off, I've a fair idea of xml and the concept of web services but I haven't much experience in working with them. Im working in a php mysql evnironment and the version we're stuck on is at the moment php 4.

Any tutorials or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. ;D

[.josh]

if you want to limit the queries to the db, the easiest method would be to make a dropdown or checkbox or radio button system where they enter in their keyword and select from your pre-approved list of tables/columns/whatever. 

to keep a log of how many queries are done..just have a column in a table somewhere that gets incremented everytime the script is run.

other than that, you're speaking in general terms here, so there isn't a whole lot of help we can offer.  Once you get started on your project and are having trouble with making a specific piece of code work, that's really where we come in. 

My only other suggestion beyond that, is to try to post your project in the freelance forum, for someone to actually join your project.