>Hi all,
>
>I'm currently developing an application that uses nice local vfp tables for storage. However, I'd like to build a function that will submit all the data in those tables to a webserver, where it's stored in a MySQL database. There are some limitations and requirements for what I want to do, which I'll make as clear as possible.
>
>Limitations:
>It's a personal application which I'll distribute for free to others. I plan to host the site commercially, but with no big budget or anything, which means that my host will probably be limited in some ways.
>
>I think it's fair to say that I:
>Cannot install or use any server side objects
>Cannot gain direct remote access to the MySQL database
>
>The serverside code will be written in PHP, and as said before will use a MySQL database.
>
>Requirements:
>Not really a requirement, but what I'd like is to submit one large XML file that's processed on the server side.
>
>I've so far come up with two solutions, and a third that I don't know (and couldn't find) the answer to:
>
>Submit each record individually to a PHP file with the fields and values in the URL (ie. additem.php?desc=test&date=2005-11-28&user=me)
>Use ftp to get the xml file on the server, and then call a php file on the server which processes the xml file.
>
>The first solution will not really work, as it can go into the thousands of records to be submitted. I've tried it, and it takes about half an hour to submit 600 records.
>
>The second would work, but creates a dependance on using the ftp service, which can be blocked.
>
>What I've heard but cannot figure out is that I could mimic the use of a html form post. In other words, replicate the submit of a form with a file input box.
>
>But I may have missed something essential which would make this job much easier. So I hope for your help!
>
>Thanks in advance for reading (and hopefully replying),
>
>Johan

Johan, I'm not sure about the html stuff but it sounds to me like you are able to control the data on both ends (client and server). If that’s so then I would strongly advise against using XML. XML can expand the size of a data file many times over the size of a tab delimited file. As for updating the server, I found that sending a tab delimited file using FTP and then using LOAD DATA INFILE in MySQL can speed up the process by 50 times or more over single record input. In one test the time for the exact same data set went from four hours to two minutes using ODBC verses FTP!! You should be able to find a host service that will allow FTP and MySQL. I am just getting started with all this stuff myself so my knowledge is limited but this is what I have found so far.

Good luck with your project.
John.