Posted by NC on 05/11/06 08:28

Michael Vilain wrote:
>
> Thanks for the pointers. However, if you look at these sites, they only
> run on Windows. Using ODBC to access MySQL would require the ISP
> hosting the MySQL database to allow remote connections.

You wouldn't be using ODBC to connect to MySQL. ODBC is only necessary
to connect to QuickBooks. Web site data, on the other hand, could be
made available via a Web service or a simple CSV download via HTTPS.

What you need is a distributed data interchange application that
consists of two modules.

Module A resides next to QuickBooks and it capable of two things: (1)
write access to QuickBooks data (via ODBC or otherwise), and (2)
downloading documents served by Module B via HTTPS. There is no reason
why Module A cannot be a command-line PHP script.

Module B resides on the Web server and is a script accessible via
HTTPS. Let's say the script is called as follows:

https://website.org/path/mB.php?user=XXX&password=YYY&year=2006&month=4

When called, the script checks authentication information, and, if the
request is authenticated, outputs sales records for April 2006 in CSV
format.

So about once a month (via Windows Scheduler or manually), Module A
could start, read sales data by accessing Module B via HTTPS, and write
the data into QuickBooks via ODBC with no user input.

> I think the middle ground here is to find a design house that can help
> with the pretty part of the site and help me architect a better approach
> with open-source tools. The hard part is allowing the non-technical
> office people to make updates to the site. If we go to a templating
> system, that should be pretty easy.

Exactly. And interchange with QuickBooks can be a totally separate
(and automated) subsystem...

Cheers,
NC

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