Switching from ASP to PHP...Need Help connecting to Access Database

[cdogstu99]

So i built a website in ASP a while ago, and used connection strings to connect to a database in Microsoft Access.

 

My connection string looked like this in the page where i would display data from the table:

 

<%

' Name of the Accessdb being read

accessdb="database/pricelist2.mdb"

 

 

' Connect to the db with a DSN-less connection

cn="DRIVER={Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb)};"

cn=cn & "DBQ=" & server.mappath(accessdb)

 

' Create a server recordset object

Set rs = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Recordset")

 

' Select specific fields from the table the_bird

sql = "SELECT Coin1, Coin2, Coin3, Coin4, Coin5, Coin6, Coin7, Coin8, Coin9 FROM contact;"

 

' Execute the sql

rs.Open sql, cn

%>

 

But now i just need some help on how to connect to the Access database using PHP and Linux Based Hosting.

 

Can anyone help?

[trq]

Do you have odbc support on your server. Check the output of phpinfo to see.

 

Your probably better off moving your application to a proper database anyway, but yeah, odbc is what your looking for.

 

 

[cdogstu99]

Thanks!  So you are recommending using a mysql database?

[trq]

Over access? Definitely.

 

I used to be an asp developer, you've gotta let that stuff go

[premiso]

Thanks!  So you are recommending using a mysql database?

 

I would second Thorpe's suggestion. But if you are stuck on ASP stuff, SQLServer is way better then access as well. Access is just...well its own little demon. If you are switching to Linux / PHP, definitely switch to MySQL as well.

 

And yea, I used to develop in ASP / SQLServer / VB C# too. But my boss used SQLServer, which was way better then access. I still hated coding in VB when I had to though.

[cdogstu99]

Thanks guys, so i have decided to switch over to mysql based on your recommendations.  I created a simple table with two fields, coin and price.  But i'm trying to just connect to the database (using godaddy hosting) and nothing is showing up.  Maybe someone can help with my string or page to see if something looks off??

 

Here's my page:

 

<?php

//Connect To Database

$hostname='getliquid.db.4760604.hostedresource.com';

$username='getliquid';

$password='********';

$dbname='getliquid';

$usertable='contact';

$yourfield = 'coin';

 

mysql_connect($hostname,$username, $password) OR DIE ('Unable to connect to database! Please try again later.');

mysql_select_db($dbname);

 

$query = 'SELECT * FROM $usertable';

$result = mysql_query($query); 

if($result) {

    while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)){

        $name = $row['$yourfield'];

        echo 'Name: '.$name;

    }

}

?>

 

Here's the page  (As you can see nothing is showing up);

 

http://startuplab.net/wordpress/contact_test.php

 

Thanks in advance!

[mrMarcus]

$query = 'SELECT * FROM $usertable';

 

your $usertable variable (or any variable for that matter) will not parse when within single-quotes.  two options:

 

1. [concatenation]

$query = 'SELECT * FROM ' . $usertable;

 

2.

 (most common practice)

[code]$query = "SELECT * FROM $usertable";[/code]