I've recently been given a MS Access .mdb database file and asked to make it usable in a Linux system. What I'm looking for is a way to convert the Access database to an open-source database such as MySQL or PostGres.
I don't have MS Office, and it's a one-time project for a volunteer organization so I don't want to spend money if it's avoidable. I'm running Vista x64, and have a Linux virtualbox, so something usable in either one will be good.
Forunately you don't need MS Access to get data out of an Access database. While there are tools like MDBTools that will read .mdb files on Linux, I've found them to be unstable for larger, more complicated databases. The best way is to use ADO or ODBC on Windows to export the data from the .mdb database into a format you can import somewhere else (like csv).
I've had good luck using DBI with Ruby, or using ADO in a Ruby script.
Following links may be useful for you.
MySQL:
access migrate
read.php?65,27115,27115
PostgreSQL:
Microsoft Access to PostgreSQL Conversion
Converting from other Databases to PostgreSQL
I used the MySQL Migration Toolkit and it worked very well for tables, even creating a reusable script. It is free and simple to use.
This toolkit is now EOL and the MySQL Workbench 5.2 replaces it.
Unfortunately, it falls over with "A problem caused the program to stop working correctly" when I try it with MS Access on my system. At the last step, of course. (Jan 16 2013)
Either MySQL or Postgres will work fine as a replacement data store for your access data. If your Access database contains Forms or Reports there really isn't a direct replacement in Open Source, and you'll either need to retain the Access front end and access the data using ODBC drivers, or code a new series of Forms or Reports in PHP or your favorite web scripting language.
I had the same problem now, and found this freeware to be exactly what I needed: http://www.bullzip.com/products/a2m/info.php
It extracted everything from the MDB file generated an SQL file I imported directly into my MySQL server.
There are two parts to the process
1) convert from Access database to scripts, there are some good options although you may need Access and potentially Sql Server too, to do this
2) Pick your target database - MySql would seem like a good fit, run it up on Linux or Windows and run the ddl and data in from the scripts.
Not sure how you can do this without Access though, do you have any idea what the schema looks like? If you do run into probs I could help out with step 1, but I don't have a Linux install at the moment.
i beg to differ: there is no need to use external tools or costly middleware. the simplest, cleanest, cheapest, fastest, safest (did i say BEST?) solution is using ODBC and integrating fully.
Related
I am using MySQL DB for my android application. I have installed phpmyadmin on my Ubuntu LAMP server and using it to access my DB. Is there any possibilities to access the DB using MS access 2010, as I need to do perform modifications on a regular basis to my DB
If the aim is to change the data and not the structure, using MS access is a good solution, as you can edit anything in linked tables very efficiently with litlle setup efforts.
To achieve this, first you need to download and install the MySQL ODBC driver.
In order to avoid issues, I advise you to install the 32 bit driver, even if you're on a 64 bit system. The 32bit will work flawesly, which is not always the case of the 64 bit.
Once installed, open the ODBC control panel and add an entry pointing to your MySQL database
Then in Access you can add linked tables using this ODBC entry
Once the table are linked, they will behave as if they are MS access tables and you can open them and edit data, and much more.
You can use Microsoft Access as a front-end to your MySQL database.
Refer: MySQL Documentation
But for your case, directly accessing database is wrong. I suggest better you have a view page with php to update DB with proper required validations.
The answer by Thomas G does an excellent job of describing WHAT we need to do, and even provides some good links.
What we need now is a good, step-by-step description of HOW to accomplish all the steps Thomas G describes.
I've been looking for this for a long time, and still no luck. However, I'm possibly on the track of getting that answer, and if I find it, I'll come back here and post it.
I currently have a database in MySQL, which I'd like to import in MS Access.
Is it possible to do this while keeping all relationships intact (i.e. without exporting to .csv, or by using ODBC)?
I'm a noob in this area so any help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
You need to solve two different problems:
Creating an empty MS Access database with a structure that matches the MySQL database structure.
Extracting the data from MySQL and loading it into MS Access.
This is not easy because different SQL databases offer different structural features, different datatypes, and so on. The more complex your use of MySQL is the more likely you'll run into some show-stopper during the conversion (for instance, Access doesn't support triggers at all). Conversely if you're using MySQL as a simple data store you may find the conversion fairly easy.
To get an MS Access database with the same structure as your MySQL database, your best bet is to find a database definition / diagramming tool that offers reverse engineering and supports both MySQL and MS Access. Use it to reverse engineer your MySQL database into a database diagram, then change the underlying database to MS Access and use the tool to generate a database.
Check out Dezign For Databases which (on paper, anyway) offers the features you would need to do this.
To pump the data across, there are any number of tools. This kind of operation is generically referred to as ETL (Extract, Translate, Load).
Do you mean SQL Server? A good starting point might be to check out SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS), which can be used for transferring data around like that.
Google will also be helpful, check out the first result:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/237980
By the way, you said ".sql" in your question: a .SQL file is a script file, which could do anything from create a database, insert data, drop table, delete data, or given the right permissions, call system procedures and reboot a machine, format a drive, send an email.. Just for ref, .SQL files aren't the storage format used by SQL Server.
While you can script your database's schema into script files via something like SQLyog, you will find that the syntax varies enough from database to database (MySQL to Access, in your case) that you can't directly apply the scripts.
With much effort a conversion script could be created by editing the script (perhaps automated with a program, depending on the resulting script size). I think you would be better served using ODBC to copy the tables (and data) and then extracting and re-applying the relationships from the generated script by hand. Time consuming, but also a one time operation I would hope.
When both systems are the same database, there are tools that can do the comparison and script generation (TOAD for MySQL and RedGate Compare for Microsoft SQL), but they don't do cross database work (at least not the ones I am aware of).
If you create a ODBC DSN, you can use TransferDatabase to import from your MySQL database. You can do it manually with the GET EXTERNAL DATA command (or whatever it is in A2007/A2010) and see how well it works. It won't get all data types exactly right, but you could do some massaging and likely get it closer to what will work best.
Is there some reason you can't just link to the MySQL tables and use them directly? That is, why do you need to import into Access at all?
Access: run query. Just make sure to adapt the SQL code since every RDMS has its own sintaxis (despite SQL being an ANSI standard).
Is there any program (preferably official) for Windows that can be used to manipulate MySQL data dumps?
For example, easily importing a MySQL text dump and create the database for all kinds of manipulations (you know, common data operations such as select, update, insert, delete, export into CSV, etc.) via a GUI interface. Much like what you can do with MS Excel and MS Access.
I know only phpMyAdmin which requires a local web server environment which might a little too much for what I need.
I thought http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/mysql/ was what I needed and installed to find out that it's not.
Any such tools exist? I ask this is actually because these MySQL dumps are for my users who know nothing about SQL or anything technical. This is for them, not me. After they downloaded the SQL I provided, they ask me: "How can I open it?"
I tried to provide them CSV, but CSV generated by this approach: http://www.kavoir.com/2010/11/mysql-export-table-to-csv-text-files-for-excel.html would contain stuff like \" if the original data contains ". When you open the CSV in Excel, \" are all over the place.
http://www.webyog.com/en/
I used to use SQLyog at my last job. It's a pretty decent GUI tool for interacting with MySQL, either local or remote. It'll cost you $99 at the cheapest, but you can try it for 30 days. If you like it and it makes life easier, it could be worth the $99, as well.
Running a local server is actually pretty easy. I use xampp which was really easy to install and came set up and ready to use phpMyAdmin. It's also really easy to shut the whole server (or just parts of it) down when it's not in use to conserve system resources.
I want to create a desktop version of my mysql installation without having to setup a server on my machine.
I want to make use of MS Access' query designer so I can produce complicated queries.
I know I can produce an SQL file but I've no idea how to create an MS Access database from it ?
I'm not going to jump on the "Access sucks" bandwagon, though it can be very frustrating at times.
Worst case, You can start with a blank Access database (mdb file, since you specified pre-2007). Open the query designer & go to SQL view. Paste in one complete SQL statement (CREATE TABLE...), and run it. Fix any incompatibility errors, paste in the next (replacing the first), rinse, repeat. Be sure to do this in such order that any dependency "sources" get created before the dependents.
There may be a batch process available, but I don't know what it is offhand.
Moving from MySQL to something like Access is heading in the wrong direction.
If you need a server-less SQL installation or package as part of your distribution (which is a pretty common requirement these days since admins don't like users to install database servers on their machines), consider SQL Server Compact Edition (CE) or SQL Lite. They're both fully SQL compliant (unlike Access) and will cause you far fewer headaches than Access (which sucks). (Did I mention that Access sucks? Big time?)
SQL CE is a .NET assembly that runs in-process with your app, and is very easy to work with. Also, db objects you create will be upwards-compatibile with the full-blown SQL Server. It also works very, very well with Entity Framework if you're into ORMs.
I've heard praise for SQLite, but haven't worked with it. If you're not on .NET, this should be a good way to go.
Links:
SQL CE
SQLite
I don't know if this is a viable option, but if you can set up a DSN to point to your MySQL server, you can then use FILE | GET EXTERNAL DATA | IMPORT to import your MySQL tables into a blank MDB/ACCDB. It's a one-time operation, but I don't know that there's any other option here. You should get the option to import the table schema only and not schema+data. You may have to tweak data types in the resulting tables, since the MySQL data types won't necessarily map directly to Jet/ACE data types.
Then you can carry the MDB/ACCDB file anywhere you want.
I have a database (mdb file) that I am currently busy with. I would like to know if it is possible to generate MySQL code that would be used to create this database?
There are a couple of tools you can look at to try to do the conversion.
DataPump
Microsoft DTS (Nos Called SQL Server Integration Services)
Other option might be generate MySQL code from Access' DB MetaData you can access from JDBC, ODBC, ADO.NET or any other database access technology with metadata support. For this option you need to generate a piece of code (script). So it will only make sense if your access DataBase has a lot of table with a lot of columns or if you are planning to do this task several times.
Of course, using one of the mentioned tools will be faster if it works.
You can certainly write DDL to create and populate a MySQL database from the work that you've already done on Microsoft Access. Just put it in a text file that you execute using MySQL batch and you're all set.
If you intend to keep going with developing both, you'll want to think about how you'll keep the two in synch.