The Include Function in PHP5

The include function takes a file name and simply inserts that file's contents into the script that calls used the include function.

Well, first of all, this means that you can type up a common header or menu file that you want all your web pages to include. When you add a new page to your site, instead of having to update the links on several web pages, you can simply change the Menu file.

 include('header.php');

The include command simply takes all the text that exists in the specified file and copies
it into the file that uses the include function.  Include is quite useful when you want
to include the same PHP, HTML, or text segment on multiple pages of a website.  The include
function is used widely by PHP web developers.

What is ODBC?

Open DataBase Connectivity is an Application Programming Interface (API) that allows a programmer to abstract a program from a database. When writing code to interact with a database, you have to add code that talks to a particular database using a proprietary API. If you want your program to talk to an Access, FoxPro and Oracle databases you have to code your program with three different database API's. This can be quite the daunting task causing much grief. Now, enter ODBC...

When programming to interact with ODBC you only need to use the ODBC API (a combination of ODBC extension function calls and the SQL language) to talk to different database products. The ODBC Manager will figure out how to contend with the type of database you are targeting. Regardless of the database type you are using, all of your calls will be to the ODBC API. All that you need to do is have installed an ODBC driver that is specific to the type of database you will be using.

PHP Database ODBC Connection

ODBC is an Application Programming Interface (API) that allows you to connect to a data source (e.g. an MS Access database).

Create an ODBC Connection

With an ODBC connection, you can connect to any database, on any computer in your network, as long as an ODBC connection is available.

Here is how to create an ODBC connection to a MS Access Database:

1. Open the Administrative Tools icon in your Control Panel.
2. Double-click on the Data Sources (ODBC) icon inside.
3. Choose the System DSN tab.
4. Click on Add in the System DSN tab.
5. Select the Microsoft Access Driver. Click Finish.
6. In the next screen, click Select to locate the database.
7. Give the database a Data Source Name (DSN).
8. Click OK.