[ale] DBF data to web

[Christopher Bergeron]

If you could send a snippet of the file so I (we) can take at it.  If it's
straightforward, someone might even post a quick perl solution (perl is
really easy when working with text,and data).  The perl program could easily
be called from within Apache and you would have a browser based solution
(available to clients anywhere, anytime).  I think the browser as an
application wrapper is en vogue and will be the next thing anyway.  If your
buddy hates Linux, why not build 2 solutions and show him how Linux will
outperform the MS Access box.  If hours / days are the timeframe, I'm
assuming the data isn't ultra time-intensive, but it would be a fun thing to
do to demonstrate Linux's performance (especially compared to Access).

Cheers,
Christopher




-----Original Message-----
From: Tom Younker [mailto:twins at atlnet.com]
To: ale at ale.org
Sent: Friday, January 05, 2001 2:13 PM
To: christopher at bergeron.com
Cc: ale at ale.org
Subject: Re: [ale] DBF data to web


Christopher, Jeff, Terzo, John, Wandered, Lathe, et al

ALE is quick to respond !  Perhaps I should have stated, these are dBASE
format
files from a Clipper application that I've maintained since 1993, and can
freely make changes to.  The other consultant thinks Access running on the
Win
box will do the job.  If that's a total solution, OK, but methinks he's
attempting to remove the eServer/Tarantella box from the proposal for an all
M$
solution.  Basic idea --- let customers view their own data, accurate within
a
few hours or at least a day.

I'm hoping for something like a Perl solution, though I've never written a
line
of Perl.  That is, freely available and allowing me to point to the files
and
let a user browse the data.  I can provide files with the desired fields in
the
desired order, even filtered by customer.

I've wanted to learn PHP, and think that it directly supports DBF files in
read-only, but we're in a time crunch here, therefore the search for a
canned
solution

BTW my original message never came to me, but I saw dupes of several of the
replies...

Thanks much,
Tom


Christopher Bergeron wrote:

> Duh, I'm not sure why this didn't occur to me earlier, but it might be
real
> easy to import the DBF file into M$ ACCESS and then export it as plain
text
> (or even HTML TABLES, i think?).  it would be trivial to put the exported
> file (ala Samba) onto a linux/apache web server.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-ale at ale.org [mailto:owner-ale at ale.org]On Behalf Of
> Christopher Bergeron
> Sent: Thursday, January 04, 2001 5:38 PM
> To: Tom Younker
> Cc: ale at ale.org
> Subject: RE: [ale] DBF data to web
>
> Do you want the file formatted or just displayed?  are DBF files just flat
> text?  if so, you can just make it readable by apache and it will be web
> accessible.  if you want to format it, your best bet would be to use PERL
> and parse it out to a webpage.  using perl: input the DBF file, format it
> (with html tags, etc) and make it a .cgi program.  should be relatively
> straight forward.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-ale at ale.org [mailto:owner-ale at ale.org]On Behalf Of Tom
> Younker
> Sent: Saturday, December 30, 2000 7:40 PM
> To: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts
> Subject: [ale] DBF data to web
>
> All:
>
> Need a quick way to take DOS-based .DBF file data and make it accessable
> from a web server.  The Micro$oft-brained consultant naturally thinks to
> suck it into Access and somehow make it browseable.
>
> Without writing the app in, say PHP, can't I just use some existing
> program to do the same thing in Apache ?
>
> Thanks,
> Tom
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