On 3/5/2011 4:30 AM, Richard Quadling wrote: > On 4 March 2011 23:48, Ken Watkins <kwat@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: >> Hi All. >> >> I have a Windows desktop app that I created using Visual Foxpro (a database app). >> I want to write a PHP script that I will call from my desktop app. The script will simply >> query a MySQL database on my web server and return the recordset to the desktop app. >> >> My question is simply this: What is the preferred method for passing this recordset back >> to the desktop app? I'm assuming that there's no reasonable way to send a recordset back >> without converting it to an array or XML or an object or something? How do I return the >> data in the recordset to the desktop app? >> >> Thanks for your advice. >> Ken Watkins > In general terms, the output of a PHP script is going to be text > (html, xml, csv, etc.) or binary (images). > > Getting a PHP script to communicate natively with FoxPro is not going > to be trivial task. It MAY be able to be done, but hopefully FoxPro > has the capability of running a PHP script via the command line ... > > C:\PHP5\php.exe -f script.php -- script_arg1 script_arg2 > > PHP can either output the result set (in an appropriate form) directly > and FoxPro could read it from STDIN (if it has that support) or PHP > can write the answer to a file and FoxPro can use normal file and > string functions to read the data. > > If FoxPro has XML support, then use it. It will be much cleaner in the > long run if the data changes. If not, then a tab separated data file > (rather than a CSV file). This assumes that your data does not contain > tabs. If so, choose another separator. > > Richard. Richard, Foxpro does have XML support, so you answered that part of my question, thanks. And it is capable of calling any other executable on the local machine through the local OS shell - which seems to be what you are advocating. But I'm not sure how I would do that over the internet. I just discussed this issue with Larry, and I assume that I would use HTTP? Or is there a way to call a command line script on a remote web server without using HTTP? Sorry if this is a stupid question. Thanks for your help! Ken -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php