Access to MySQL Tutorial

8/8/2019 Access to MySQL Tutorial

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121 Access to MySQL Tutorial

How to transfer data from Microsoft Access to the MySQL database providedby your ISP

Microsoft Access is a great database for use on your personal computer. It has a great data entryinterface but, unfortunately, it is not robust enough for most web development projects. Don't worry. If

you have a web hosting plan with a popular ISP, chances are that your plan includes a free MySQL

database. This article explains how you can upload your data from Microsoft Access to your MySQL

database space and thus enjoy the best of both worlds, data entry in Access and the scalability of

MySQL on the web server.

The article also comes with a small sample application, a database-driven reciprocal link directory foryour website. The application allows you to manage your outgoing links and is available in ASP for

Windows hosts and in PHP for those hosting their site on a Unix-based host such as Linux or FreeBSD.

The tutorial consists of the following parts:

l Getting started

l The sample web application

l Uploading your data

l Uploading your web application

Getting started

Required downloads

l 121 WAM! Client

During this article, we will use 121 WAM! Client. This handy utility is a special FTP client for

databases. It allows you to drag and drop tables from one database into another over theInternet. 121 WAM! also allows you to perform basic database management tasks such as

changing field types, previewing your data, and more. Additional information about 121 WAM! is

Page 1 of 18121 WAM! for ISP's - Offer database maintenance capability to your customers

5/24/2003http://www.121software.com/121wam/tutorial-access-mysql.asp


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available at www.121software.com/121wam. The 121 WAM! website also contains a free 30 day

trial version. Note that you will need to download the 121 WAM! Client only. 121 WAM! Server is

not required for the purpose of this tutorial.

l MyODBC database drivers

In order to connect to MySQL databases, you will also need to download the MySQL ODBCdatabase driver. Since we are going to use 121 WAM! Client in direct connection mode (without

121 WAM! Server), the MySQL ODBC drivers need to be installed on your PC. You can download

the drivers from www.mysql.com. Click on the 'download' link at the top of the MySQL websiteand download MyODBC version 3.51.

l Sample applicationFinally, you can download our sample link directory script here. The package includes all sample

files as well as the Microsoft Access database file. Both an ASP and a PHP version of the script

are available in the package.

What you need to know from your ISP

When you request your ISP to set up a MySQL database for you, they will provide these details:

l MySQL server address

l Database name

l User name

l Password

You will need to tell your ISP that you want to connect to the MySQL database directly from your PC. It

is important that you let the ISP know about this, because the database administrator needs to grant

you specific permission to connect to the database from outside of their local network.

If you are located behind a firewall (most corporate offices have firewalls), then you should also ask

your systems administrator to open port 3306 for you. This is the standard port used by MySQL for

database connections. If you use a direct modem or home DSL connection, this limitation will probably

not apply to you.

The sample application

A reciprocal links directory for your site




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For the purpose of demonstrating how to upload data from Access to MySQL, we have built a sample

application, a database-driven link directory. You can use this to manage reciprocal links that you

exchange with other sites.

The database only contains two tables: categories and links. The categories table contains topics such

as 'News', 'Business', 'Sport', etc. This allows you to break up your links directory into multiple pagesand limiting the number of links that appear on each. The links table contains the URL's and other

information about the sites that are listed in your directory. As you can see below, the links table

contains a field called categoryid. This is the foreign key that relates to the id field in the categories

table.

The screen shot below shows the database structure:

Editing data

Editing data is quite straightforward. Simply open the database file (linkdirectory.mdb) in Microsoft

Access. You can then see the two tables, as shown below.




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Double-click on categories in order to edit data in that table. Initially, the table is already populatedwith some sample data, as shown below. You can modify these categories or add your own. The table

contains two fields:

Field Description

id Record identifier. This can be any number. Each number must be unique, i.e. youcannot enter the same number twice.

categoryname This is the title of the category. You may create as many categories as you like.




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To edit the links that appear in your directory, double-click on the links table. Again, the table is pre-

populated with sample data.

Field Description

id Record identifier. This can be any number. Each number must be unique, i.e. you cannot

enter the same number twice.

categoryid This is the foreign key that relates to the id field in the categories table. For example, the'New York Times' link belongs to the news category because the value in the categoryid

field is 1. This matches the news record in the categories table because the id of thatrecord is 1.

title The link title.

url The l ink URL. This must always start with 'http://'.

description A brief description of the site. A maximum of 255 characters are allowed.




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Uploading your data

Opening your local database

To upload the database, we will use 121 WAM! Client. After you have downloaded and installed thisprogram, you will find a shortcut to it by clicking on the 'Start' button in the bottom left on your

screen. The shortcut is located under Programs | 121 WAM! Client.

Launch 121 WAM! Client and then select 'Direct Connection' from the 'Database Mode' button in the

toolbar. 121 WAM! Client has three connection modes:

l File connection - This allows you to upload files and folders to any standard FTP server.

l Data connection (121 WAM! Server Connection) - Connect to databases through 121 WAM!

Server. This option can only be used if your ISP has 121 WAM! Server installed.

l Data connection (direct connection) - Connect to databases directly, using the database driversinstalled on your ISP. This can be used to connect to any supported database without the need

for 121 WAM! Server.

Because your ISP may not have 121 WAM! Server installed, we will be using direct connection mode.To establish your connection, click on the 'Data Mode' button in the toolbar and select 'Direct




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Connection'.

When 121 WAM! Client is in database mode, expand the 'Microsoft Access File' node and click on 'Add

New File', as shown below:




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A dialog window will now appear, allowing you to select the location of the Access file you would like to

open.

After opening the file, the database is added to the tree below 'Microsoft Access Files'. You can expand

it to see the table structure as shown below.




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Opening the remote MySQL database

Open the MySQL Servers tree in the right pane of 121 WAM!. Then double-click on 'Add New MySQL

Server'.




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Enter the MySQL connection details that were given to you by your ISP and then click on 'OK'. The

'Using TCP/IP connection' checkbox must be ticked if you want to connect to a database over the

Internet.

Note: If 121 WAM! cannot detect the MySQL drivers, you will need to download and install them. Visit

www.mysql.com and download MyODBC version 3.51.

The connection now appears in the right pane below 'MySQL Servers'. In the screen shot below, theconnection is called 'localhost'. In your case, the name may be different.




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Transferring data from Access to MySQL

Now that the local and the remote databases have been opened, you can upload tables by dragging

them from the left pane onto the database in the right pane (called 'localhost' in the example below).

Alternatively, you can one or more tables in the left pane, select the destination database on the right

and then click on the 'Send ==>' button. Other options such as append and synchronisation are alsoavailable. The data transfer process is very simple and intuitive.




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The graphic below shows 121 WAM! after the tables have been transferred.




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Uploading your web application

Configuring the sample w eb application

Our sample application, a reciprocal links directory script, consists of a single file called links.asp or

links.php. You only need one of these files. It is most likely that you have a Unix/Linux web hosting




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plan. In this case you will need the PHP version (links.php). On the other hand, if your ISP uses

Windows servers, you will need to use the ASP version (links.asp). You can delete the unused file.

Open the relevant file (either links.asp or links.php) using a text editor such as Notepad. The database

connection information is contained at the top of the file. The information for the ASP and PHP versions

are slightly different, examples are shown below:

Database connection information in the ASP file:

Database connection information in the PHP file:

As you can see, tags have been inserted as placeholders. You will need to replace these with the

database connection information provided by your ISP.

connectionString = "Driver={mySQL ODBC 3.51 Driver};" & _

"Server=;" & _

"Port=3306;" & _

"Option=131072;" & _

"Stmt=;" & _

"Database=;" & _

"Uid=;" & _

"Pwd="

$dbhost = "";

$dbname = "";

$dbuser = "";

$dbpw = "";

Tag Replace w ith:

Replace with the domain name (without http://) or the IP address of

your MySQL server, e.g. 'www.acme.com' or '165.32.46.172'.

Replace with the database name as assigned to you by your ISP, e.g.

'acme'.

Replace with the database user name as assigned by your ISP, e.g.

'acme_admin'.




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After replacing the placeholder tags, your connection string may look as follows:

ASP version:

PHP version:

After making these changes, save the file on your hard disk.

Uploading your web application

In file mode, 121 WAM! Client acts as a normal FTP client that can be used to connect to any standardFTP server. This is how we will upload our web application.

Click on the file mode button in the 121 WAM! Client toolbar to switch to file mode.

Replace with your database password.

connectionString = "Driver={mySQL ODBC 3.51 Driver};" & _

"Server=165.32.46.172;" & _

"Port=3306;" & _

"Option=131072;" & _

"Stmt=;" & _

"Database=acme;" & _

"Uid=acme_admin;" & _

"Pwd=XXXXX"

$dbhost = "165.32.46.172";

$dbname = "acme";

$dbuser = "acme_admin";

$dbpw = "XXXXX";




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A dialogue window will now open. Click on 'Add New' and enter your FTP details. Then click on'Connect' to connect to your FTP server. Note that you will need to enter the FTP details only the firsttime. Thereafter, the details will be saved and you can select it from the profile list on the left.




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After 121 WAM! has successfully connected to your FTP server, it shows the folders and files contained

on the server in the right pane. Open the folder that connects your web application in the left pane, as

shown below. Then select the files you wish to upload, click on the folder you want to put them in and

click on send. The files will now be uploaded.




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After the file has been uploaded, you should be able to access it through a web browser, e.g. pointyour browser to http://www.acme.com/links.php (replace 'acme.com' with your domain name).



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