Can a Linux-based web host provide an ODBC connection to an MS Access database?

I run a website that is hosted on a Windows server. I am hoping to shift to a Linux-based server (probably something that runs the cPanel setup, as I am familiar with it).





The biggest issue is that the current website has a static database that is used to serve up information to the visitors. It's the most popular feature of the website, so I want to make sure the transition is right.





This database is an MS Access file. I have a simple ODBC connection to that file, and then I have PHP code that peeks into the file and lets visitors do queries.





My concern is that if I move to Linux / LAMP, I will not be able to make this simple ODBC connection to the MS Access file, and I will need to convert the DB into MySQL. I would like to avoid doing this, as the database comes to me from someone else who operates in MS Access. (I am aware of the possibility of converting to MySQL every time, I just would like to avoid doing so.)
Can a Linux-based web host provide an ODBC connection to an MS Access database?
If you can afford to have two systems, one Linux box and another one Windows box, then you can do what you want.





Host your MSAccess file on windows machine and use ODBC to access it.





but what I guess is this will cost you more as compared to one time investment, convert your data from MSAccess to MySql and use it.





I do not know, but there will be a way, you can check source forge for any project if somebody has developed a MS Access support on linux, then your problem will be solved.





i hope this resolve your problem.


http://www.paijwar.com for more help
Can a Linux-based web host provide an ODBC connection to an MS Access database?
Yes, you can use PHP to make ODBC links.





http://uk2.php.net/odbc
Reply:I think you have a couple of options for keeping the data in MS Access.





You could set up the Linux box to host the static content (and any additional dynamic content you develop that does not use Access as a data source) and use the Windows server as an application server. You could do that in several ways - the easiest would be to just host the Access based web application on a different host name, e.g. have linuxbox.mydomain.com and windowsbox.mydomain.com. When someone clicks the login link for the Access application, they're taken to the Windows box.





If you really really need ODBC access to the Windows machine from the Linux box, you can get various ODBC bridging products that are out there. Essentially they forward ODBC API calls over the network from one machine (Linux, in this case) to a Windows machine and make local ODBC calls there (to talk to Access, in this case). I haven't seen a good free ODBC bridge.





Either way you end up needing to care for two OSes instead of one, so think about ways you could make it all work on Windows before taking on long term support for two boxes if one would suffice. Lots of Linux software is also available for Windows.