Using PHP to talk to AS/400

I'm a complete n00b to AS/400.

My company has an AS/400 database that I'm trying to figure out the best way to read data from for publication on the web. I can get the information out and put it in an Access Database, then import it into MySQL, but that's time consuming and full of steps.

Is there a way, or has anyone tried, connecting to the AS/400 with something similar to a mysql_connect, but for the AS/400. I don't really need to write to it (since that will be done at a worker's terminal. I just need to read the data like I would a MySQL db for publication on the web.

Thanks in advance!

Eric

http://www.easycom-aura.com/us/php.asp seems to offer what you want, but it doesn't look like it's free...

Forgive me if I'm way off, I'm not very familiar with IBM's stuff, but from what I think I know about it, AS/400 is a series label equivalent to the iSeries servers, and the database manager you want to connect to is probably DB2. Is that right, possibly? If so, you're in luck because DB2 works fine with PHPs ODBC implementation and there are a ton of promising looking google results for "php db2" to get you started.

Forgive me if I'm way off, I'm not very familiar with IBM's stuff, but from what I think I know about it, AS/400 is a series label equivalent to the iSeries servers, and the database manager you want to connect to is probably DB2. Is that right, possibly? If so, you're in luck because DB2 works fine with PHPs ODBC implementation and there are a ton of promising looking google results for "php db2" to get you started.

Hi Ralph,

I think you're onto something there. I know IBM recently gave its blessing to support for PHP on iSeries servers. However, I wasn't sure what to search for and my googling was getting me nowhere.

I'm going to check out the php db2 query, because there's some things on there I hadn't yet seen. I'll post back if it works, thanks!