ERROR: could not find driver - Using PDO with MS Access database - php

Question

Background:
I've got a fully working Microsoft Access DB. I've made a database connection class and just a simple page that includes the class and fires off a simple SQL code. I know the code is right as it was working fine a few weeks ago. However, in between then and now I installed PHP, MySQL, set up my IIS and installed PHPMyAdmin. (We were having problems with our servers so tried going localhost but it was resolved before I fully used PHPMyAdmin).
So now I've got my connection class and simple php page onto the server (using FTP). However, when I run the same query I used a few weeks ago i'm now getting the error message:
ERROR:could not find driver. Warning: file_put_contents(connection.errors.txt) [function.file-put-contents]: failed to open stream: Permission denied in E:\kunden\blah\blah\blah\www\simpleTest.php on line 31
The Code
connectionClass.php:
class connection{
public $con;
private $dbName;
function __construct(){
$this->dbName = $_SERVER["DOCUMENT_ROOT"] . "../database/db.mdb";
}
function connect(){
$this->con = new PDO("odbc:DRIVER={Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb)}; DBQ=$this->dbName; Uid=Admin; Pwd=;");
$this->con->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE,PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION);
return $this->con;
}
}
simpleTest.php
if (!ini_get('display_errors')) {
ini_set('display_errors', '1');
}
try{
include_once 'classes/connectionClass.php';
//get the DB connection
$con = new connection();
$pdoConnection = $con->connect();
//query the DB
$sql = $pdoConnection->prepare("SELECT * FROM celebs");
$result = $sql->execute();
while ($row = $sql->fetch(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC)) {
echo $row['firstname'];
echo $row['surname'];
}
} catch (Exception $e){
echo 'ERROR:'.$e->getMessage();
file_put_contents('connection.errors.txt', $e->getMessage().PHP_EOL,FILE_APPEND);
}
I've not changed the code and was wondering if setting up PHP, MySQL, IIS and PHPMyAdmin has done something to prevent me from my code working? I've looked in phpinfo(); but i'm not really sure what to be looking for.
Any help is MUCH appreciated, thank you.
EDIT: In addition, after some de-bugging - i'm fairly certain the error revolves around the code in simpleTest.php after trying to make a new connection...

Answer 1

Manipulating an Access database from PHP via ODBC has some serious limitations that affect both PDO and the older odbc_exec methods. If you are using a Windows server and you absolutely must use an Access database back-end (which is strongly discouraged) I would recommend that you use ADO under com_dotnet like this:
<?php
// this code requires the following php.ini directive:
//
// extension=php_com_dotnet.dll
$con = new COM("ADODB.Connection");
$con->Open(
"Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;" .
"Data Source=C:\\Users\\Public\\mdbTest.mdb");
$rst = new COM("ADODB.Recordset");
$rst->Open("SELECT * FROM celebs", $con, 1, 3); // adOpenKeyset, adLockOptimistic
while (!$rst->EOF) {
echo $rst["firstname"]->Value . " " . $rst["surname"]->Value . "<br/>";
$rst->MoveNext;
}
$rst->Close();
$con->Close();
This is especially true if you ever need full Unicode character support or expect to be manipulating binary objects.