[plug] database query

[Dennis Plester]

John wrote:

"Certainly they can, but (correct me if I'm  wrong) not with the Access 
database as-is.  They'll need to convert it to another format and probably
to 
write a bit of code to access it  from the web server."

and Jamie:

"I have an acquaintance with a database writen in Access that they want on
 the web. Can they do this on a linux box and if so what considerations are
 required?"

There are third party converters to turn Access databases into both
postresql and mysql databases. You will need to convert it if you are going
to run it on a Linux box. The mysql ones work reasonably well, but you can
get a better result if you take the time to learn mysql datatypes thoroughly
and convert it by hand, as you can get considerable gains in speed and
storage space. Mysql readily imports data stored as plain text, so you just
dump your tables as plain text in Access, define them in mysql, and then
import the data. If you have queries in Access, print them out as SQL, or
copy the SQL text, then code these in mysql as well. Once you have
familiarised yourself with mysql, it's fairly painless. I'm sure postresql
would be the same.

Your acquaintance will need to do some coding at the web page level, but
this would be necessary even with Access in a Microsoft environment anyway.
PHP suits this purpose really well. It is possible to do all this with the
Access database directly and place it on the web, but only in a Microsoft
environment as far as I know, with the associated costs.

Hope this helps.

Dennis.