RE: PHP and mySQL startup

Tim,

Thanks for the information. This whole thing is fast becoming bigger and
bigger and bigger. I thought thia would be relatively simple, but I'm
biting off more than I can currently chew, I think.

To recap how this whole thing came to be for me last week, it went like
this:

1) Had a senior mgt meeting during which we discussed at length having a
product search on our website.

2) After the meeting, I visited GoDaddy (hosts our website) to see what the
capabilities were. The answer was "PHP" and "mySQL". I got tingles on the
back of my neck <g> because I was registered for a webinar that very
afternoon regarding PHP and mySQL on the i. The word serendipity comes to
mind.

3) The webinar did not disappoint. It was possible to create a mySQL table
with a DB2 storage engine that would also be available as a standard DB2
table to RPG. This was just what I was looking for! The table and the PHP
could be developed on the i (Zend Studio) by someone who knew how, then
uploaded to the website. At the same time, it could remain on the i so I
could tinker and learn. Serendipity on steroids.


Alas, all is not that easy. Reality time: The learning curve is steep.
The funds for formal training are not available now. The DB2 storage engine
for mySQL isn't even released yet. And the version of mySQL that was
installed with Zend isn't new enough anyway.

I don't have a problem with taking a DB2 table, exporting it to a .csv file,
then importing it into a mySQL table, and getting it to the website. It
doesn't have to get there via FTP either, it just needs to get there.

--
Jeff Crosby
UniPro FoodService/Dilgard
P.O. Box 13369
Ft. Wayne, IN 46868-3369
260-422-7531
www.dilgardfoods.com

The opinions expressed are my own and not necessarily the opinion of my
company.  Unless I say so.

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:midrange-l-
bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Timothy P Clark
Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2009 12:13 PM
To: midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: PHP and mySQL startup

Hi Jeff,

I'm one of the developers of the storage engine. I noticed this thread
about using MySQL and PHP and wanted to clarify a few things about the
storage engine.

First, the storage engine is not yet generally available. We're working
with MySQL to get it out the door as soon as possible, but I can't give a
precise date. This also means that the Redbook is not available either.
The URL that you found is where it *will* be. When we wrote the magazine
article, schedules were still being solidified, and we figured it would be
best to reference the URL in case it had gone live by publication time.

Second, you may be able to achieve what you want without needing the
storage engine at all. If your goal is to take an existing DB2 table and
make it available to a PHP program, there are a couple of good solutions
already available. The first is to connect directly to DB2 on your i by
using the ibm_db2 PHP extension. Michael Sandberg has a helpful article on
this at
http://www.ibmsystemsmag.com/ibmi/october07/developer/18368p1.aspx. The
other technique, which provides the more static updates that you've
described, is to use CPYTOIMPF to dump the DB2 table into a CSV file, ftp
that file up to your website, and use the mysqlimport program
(http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/mysqlimport.html) to pull the data
into a MySQL table.

In short, the storage engine is designed to get your MySQL data *into*
DB2. The solutions described above allow you to go the other direction
(DB2 into MySQL), which sounds like what you're really after.

Hope that helps!

Tim Clark