Accessing remote database

[bcwhittle]

I am just beginning to look at OOo to handle some interesting situations. First on my list is having a database of members of my organization on our webserver, accessable by any of the Board of Directors from their own computers. Is this possible? I can set up a MYSQL database on my server, but is there a way to access it in OOo, then save back to the server? Or am I forced to download then upload when done via FTP?

Thanks,
Brian

[audionuma]

hello,
you can use OOo as a frontend (or client) to a MySql database.
All the data remains on the server.
_________________
OOo 2.3 / Mac OS PPC X.4.11

[bcwhittle]

I'm glad to hear that! Now . . . how do I point OOo to the database on my server? Whenever I open Base, I do not have anything "registered" to browse. Is there a tutorial or guide covering this aspect?

Thanks,
Brian

[robert_pdx]

You can set up an ODBC connection. Search for and download the mySQL ODBC driver for your platform. In Windows XP, following the driver install, it's configured in Control Panel | Administrative Tools | Data Sources (ODBC). Input your server location, username and password for connection to the mySQL database, etc.

This traffic is not secure, so your username/password is transferred in clear text. To avoid this, you could connect to your network with a VPN, or if you have ssh running as a service on the network, use Putty to create a tunnel, so the ODBC connection is pointed to localhost, and Putty forwards this traffic to the remote host through your ssh connection.

Once you have your connection running, then open Base and create a new database, connect to existing database, and there you will see the resource you created in the ODBC setup.

Missing detail here of course, but this should get you started. Start Googling.
Here's a page on using ssh for a secure tunnel:
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/windows-and-ssh.html