ODBC connection problem

[btos]

I've been unable to get my Windows machine to access an .odb file I made from a spreadsheet for a product list that I wanted to put on a client's website. I was trying to make a database for a php connection page to the file in the newest version of Dreamweaver 5.5. I couldn't get Dreamweaver to recognize the database! I went into the admin for odbc and couldn't find a file suffix for .odb in there. Microsoft. Don't you love it? May be my last machine with them. I had found a driver download that supposedly would work-around the typical Microsoft proprietary stupidness but this did not work (mysql-connector-odbc-5.1.11-win32.msi)... I have spent days on this. Please help?

[dacm]

It's not Microsoft that's being proprietary in this case. A Base document is only accessible through internal methods and SDBC drivers available only within OOo/AOO/LO.

So, in your case, it's better to skip OOo/AOO/LO altogether and use PHP to access the spreadsheet in CSV format directly. Or perhaps host the spreadsheet data in MySQL online.

See: PHP Tutorials - Working with CSV files in PHP
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Soli Deo gloria
Tutorial: avoiding data loss with Base + Migrating 'Embedded databases'

[btos]

CSV wasn't what I was going for. Thanks for the suggestion. The database scenario was convenient (so I thought). Dreamweaver interprets the database files into tables that I can easily insert into a PHP page by drag n drop. Linux servers wouldn't have the Microsoft issues with connections in the remote environment. However, I'd wanted to make the job work on a testing server- my XP platform, where I interact with Dreamweaver, which easily creates the php that I cannot. Recommended drivers for OO were installed but not found by my system. Not sure if the recommended drivers were supposed to be for a Linux system only though. Instructions were foggy at best. What is perplexing is the absence of and seeming necessity for MS Access's presence in making a database from an Excel spreadsheet. I've done that before in ASP before but PHP is a mystery, as is OO. Dreamweaver can make bindings etc after the connection is simply discovered. However, there's no way for DW to find the .odb connection. I need that discovered connection. When I navigated from within the ODBC admin to ENABLE the Oracle drivers in my internal system...still nada. I still cannot find a driver scenario for the OO platform. I may NEVER buy into Microsoft again.

[Billyray]

DACM may be suggesting that you export your Excel spreadsheet into CSV so that you can import it into MySql. Then you have a database (either online or localhost) that perhaps DW will discover. No need for Access.
_________________
Billyray
using:
Linux distro: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, Lucid Lynx, OOo Base 3.3, connected to MySql database using Java jdbc (note: ONLY sun-java-6-1.6.0_22 jre works right), and converted from MS Access 2003.

[btos]

Seemed like a good idea. However, the fields have a lot of code (PayPal Buttons) so the results of the conversion were not presentable.

[btos]

I went back into MySql and selected the spreadsheet option to import. Excel did not work but produced fatal errors. However, just as I was going to give up, I tried to import the OO spreadsheet file and that worked. I got the data base connection. It was that simple. The next challenge is to figure out how to display images inside a database. I tried anchoring them into OO but so far I see nothing in there from my recordset...At least I made some progress.

[Billyray]

For photos, I have binary large object (blob) fields in MySql which work great in OOo Base. (That's also how I have them stored in Access 2003)
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Billyray
using:
Linux distro: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, Lucid Lynx, OOo Base 3.3, connected to MySql database using Java jdbc (note: ONLY sun-java-6-1.6.0_22 jre works right), and converted from MS Access 2003.

[btos]

I just read something about LARGEBINARY in another section of a forum but I have no idea in what context it was in...other than MySql and I didn't recognize that version (post was 2 years-old)... I had wanted to attempt images contained within a spreadsheet, since I got the spreadsheet to connect with Dreamweaver. Apache just released a new version of OO (May eighth) so I'm hopeful that there's an answer in the new version. After all, they make the server software so it should work much better I assume. I also found another connection extension for the database, which I never got to work on my current version. I had not been able to connect to the database- only with the spreadsheet. Weird huh? Anyway, my PayPal buttons all displayed perfectly, along with the descriptions for the products. I just have to have an image though...no other way to present it.

[btos]

Billyray,
I created a database easily in OOo but couldn't get images into the web page scenario with PHP - that would have been real nice and easy (I imported the spreadsheet into MySql easily but without images- as a test). I tried two image ideas- one url and one embedded in OOo calc and both returned NULL in MySql's import. I thought for sure I had the right stuff when the PayPal graphics loaded within the cells...but no...my images, which are local, did not load at all- That's when I began to study database forms...whew. You mentioned "blob" for your image solution. What is that and how do I get it into my PHP database connection within MySql? This is very confusing. I'm sure it's going to be a Eureka moment...I can only hope.... Right now I'm hopelessly switching between MySql and OOo for PHP connection into the database. I tried editing the spreadsheet in OOo and the changes did not go into the database, plus I can't edit the database and insert a key. I'm lost. My latest endeavor was to download the newest version of Apache's OOo. If that doesn't work then I got the new MySql Workbench (not yet installed). OOo's gui is awful.I had to give up on that program because of the interface mess. I can't get anything done with it. My head's gonna explode I think. I take it one day at a time. Any clues would be appreciated. I am baffled by the chaos and paralyzed with possiblites.

[Billyray]

I know you can use OOo Base form control to input a picture into a MySql blob field. Just right click on the control and "import graphic" I don't know about importing Calc sheets, or automated imports though. When you did the import from Calc; was the picture column being transferred to a MySql blob (field) column? I have seen PHP/Pearl on the internet (google) about taking pictures from MySql blobs to post on a web page. It must be possible.

I use "Access2MySql" to export my Access.mdb to my online MySql. My Access database already has blob fields containing Inventory pictures etc. I use "DBpix" to create the blob controls in Access 2003 (an add-in)
_________________
Billyray
using:
Linux distro: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, Lucid Lynx, OOo Base 3.3, connected to MySql database using Java jdbc (note: ONLY sun-java-6-1.6.0_22 jre works right), and converted from MS Access 2003.

[btos]

I used OO form interface for the first time yesterday - via a tutorial... The interface placed a grouped image holder and image placeholder for the table into the background- obscured by the other table element headings. I couldn't figure that one out. It just didn't mesh.

SO I went back to the MySql import spreadsheet method that had partially worked. I've been trying to disect the PayPal table/ form filed code that I'd inserted into the spreadsheet...hey, that displayed a image results- though it was through a PayPal form submission...some kind of coding method... I had hoped to be able to just import the database with links to my folder containing the images.

I'll google your input. Many thanks for new suggetions. Anything is helpful at this point. I'm at a stand-still... I seem to be going in several directions at once trying to find one end result...an image display in a database that would also hold code for the PayPal buttons in another cell. .I've done some asp before for Internet delivery- though Acces, which I no longer have due to a crash.. Php is alien to me, as is OO's so-called interface. What a mess. Hope Apache does a clean-up on that.