Most pages I have found on the web talk about accessing an ODBC database via scripting languages, e.g., PHP or ASP. What I really wanted to accomplish was to, as John Lim puts it, providing access to a database as a Web Service. A web host I am using only allows localhost access to MySQL databases. However, I would like to be able to access the data in the database using products such as Microsoft Word to do mail merges, or to use Microsoft Access to do reporting or some limited database administration. What it will probably involve is some sort of data transfer over HTTP and a customized ODBC driver. I originally wanted to just make a dynamic csv using PHP and link to that using Microsoft Word. It gave hints of wanting to work, but just never did. Oh I have to say that a simple solution (though sub-optimal) is to get the client to download results from a query - but then each time they run the mail merge they have to get a fresh copy...
Posted by torque at January 21, 2004 11:04 AM | TrackBack