[thelist] mysql to ms word for merge letter

[Joe Crawford]

on 4/18/01 2:49 AM, Adrian Fischer at adrian at logo-logic.com wrote:

> Thanks Joe...does it matter that my db is hosted somewhere else?

To connect to a remote database you generally need:
    hostname
    username
    password
And the remote database needs to be able to accept outbound connections.


> *Theoretically* are you saying I can use the ODBC to dynamically link my
> word document on my win_pc to my db on the internet (I have  permanent cable
> connection) or was that just wishful thinking on my part?

Maybe not a permanent connection, but one you can log into as you see fit.

Be aware that there are security issues whenever you're putting db traffic
over the net.

>  Or are you saying
> I can create a CSV file on the server then link to that...am I sounded as
> though I don't know what I'm talking about (for very good reason)? If so
> would there be any chance of taking a peek at he php you used?

I just made a page to dynamically create a CSV (well, tab delimited) file I
can use. The code below is really ugly. But it has the steps. I create a
little function to echo either data and a tab, or if a field is blank, just
a tab.

Then my query.

Then my connection to the database.

Then I print the first line in the CSV file.

Then I iterate through the data.

In the end, this produces a page you can save as *.csv for import.

Ugly code, but it works for me. :-) I'd be open to criticism and better ways
to what I'm doing here. This was for a tool my wife and I use to keep track
of addresses, and a great example of code-as-you-go. Messy but fun.

Something like:
<?
function csv_td($foo) {
    if ($foo!='')
        {echo "$foo\t"; }
    else
        { echo "\t"; }; };

$query = "select
          last,
          first,
          address,
          city,
          state,
          zip,
from      my_table";
RSVP_connect() // This is my custom connection function
               // Use one of your own. :-)
    or die ("Cannot connect to server.");
echo "<pre>"; // this bit just makes some headers
            csv_td("first");
            csv_td("last");
            csv_td("address");
            csv_td("city");
            csv_td("state");
            csv_td("zip");
while ($row = mysql_fetch_row ($result))
    {
    for  ($i = 0; $i < mysql_num_fields ($result); $i=$i+7)
        {
            csv_td($row[$i+2]);  //first
            csv_td($row[$i+1]);  //last
            csv_td($row[$i+3]);  //address
            csv_td($row[$i+4]);  //city
            csv_td($row[$i+5]);  //state
            csv_td($row[$i+6]);  //zip
            echo "\n";
        }
    };
echo "</pre>";
mysql_free_result ($result);
?>

Hope you're not disappointed. :-)

    - Joe <http://artlung.com/>

--
Joe Crawford ||||||||||||||       mailto:jcrawford at avencom.com
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