Many companies in the world choose the Internet as their preferred medium for commerce and information transfer as the Web has become an important information source and communication tool due to its global reach and outstanding ability to meet various business needs.

New challenges have swiftly emerged in the past years as an appropriate Web database-driven design turned out to be a method that unlocks the potential for virtually infinite expansion opportunities providing an important and powerful contribution to commercial success.

If you are considering the possibilities of launching a Web database you will hopefully find this white paper valuable as it answers some questions concerning common kinds of conversion problems you’ll likely experience when publishing a database on the Web. It also explains how to find the right solution for these problems.

Nowadays many companies decide to publish their information on the Internet striving to expand their business and make their data more accessible. The IT industry offers a wide range of powerful solutions for resolving data incompatibility problems that publishers inevitably face when exporting their data..

The importance and widespread use of the Internet has changed the information-processing world. Many enterprises in the world publish their information on-line as they need to access, process and exchange large amounts of information primarily through the World Wide Web.

Surely the way your data are presented to the audience as well as the data accessibility effect your company image, customer interest and your profitability as a consequence.

Database-driven design is supposed to be the most convenient manner to organize data on the WWW in a structured way so that you and your clients can access them with no troubles. Data are made available on-line with a web server as its front-end and a database server at its backend.

To streamline the process a variety of database management systems are developed. First, let us talk very briefly about the major database applications.

Benefits of data migrating from MS Access to MySQL
• Efficient deployment of data
• Multiple-user access
• Large Database Management
• Database consolidation and integration
• Hardware choices
• High level of Security

One of the most popular applications is Microsoft Office Access since it doesn’t require considerable computer knowledge and skills to deal with. Microsoft Access is a relational database management system (DBMS) that provides an effective set of tools that make organizing, accessing, and sharing information easier than ever. Along with actual strengths MS Access has storage management limitations so it is usually used as a personal or single-user application, mostly for managing limited quantity of data. Because of these limitations, many enterprises wishing to expand their business to facilitate more users and customers consider to migrate their information to a storage manager with greater capabilities retaining the MS Access interface.

One of the most powerful and widely used open source database application that handles large databases and can be accessed over the Web is MySQL database server. MySQL is a relational database management system that is fast, reliable, easy to use, with flexible and secure password system that allows host-based verification. It was originally developed to manage large databases at a much faster speed than the solutions that previously existed.

Using of MySQL as a storage manager for MS Access offers you several benefits. When your information resides in MySQL

you gain access to a number of extended possibilities therefore your data can be exploited more deeply, and by more people and your database becomes more accessible over the Web. MySQL can manage hundreds of megabytes of data clearing the way for your growing database consolidation. MySQL runs under either Windows, Linux, or Unix. For ensuring security MySQL Server uses SQL authentication or NT authentication to grant permissions to database objects so you needn’t to worry about your data safety.

Being acquainted with the most popular database applications, their abilities and the ways you can benefit from them we need to discuss a few crucial issues of data conversion.

Many people putting their database on the Web have an incomplete or inaccurate understanding of the data conversion process. It’s naturally as nowadays the same terms are used by different people to mean different things. These various meanings can lead to confusions so there is a necessity for clearing up some definitions.

Different operating systems have their own particular internal way of saving data. Often when data are moved from one system to another, some form of data conversion is required to transfer the data to a format the receiving system can interpret.

Choosing a tool for converting databases from MS Access to MySQL and vice versa is a rather complicated thing if you come to making your decision after careful consideration. There are several issues to be taken into account when making the decision.

Generally, data conversion means the process of converting data stored in one format to another format. In our case data conversion can be defined as making data in MDB file format used in Microsoft’s Access database package available on MySQL database server without loss of accuracy.

Naturally when exporting data from MS Access to MySQL and vice versa users might face a number of data incompatibility problems that inevitably arise with any interchange system.

In the case you don’t have enough time to learn database technology very well there are many publishing tools available that have made the life of database publisher easier. There are several factors that warrant careful consideration when choosing an appropriate conversion tool. When arrive to your decision, make sure of that all your crucial needs are met.

Two-way conversion

Simply said, the main purpose of every converter is to convert one database into another one. There is a sufficient number of conversion tools that can convert MS Access db to MySQL as this is the essential feature for a converter. When considering your choice of an effective application that will take the responsibility for your database conversion you would better find a tool that is

able to accomplish two-way data transfer not only from MS Access to MySQL but from MySQL to MS Access as well.

After exporting your MS Access database to MySQL you can face the necessity to bring it back to your personal computer since it was modified by users of your MySQL db through Web Interface. In this case a tool that presents bidirectional conversion from MS Access to MySQL and vice versa will give you an additional opportunity to gain more control over your MS Access and MySQL databases and will create favorable conditions for managing them.

Synchronization

In the case you need to keep your database fresh make sure that a conversion tool you’d like to purchase performs synchronization option that will allow your data to be mirrored and regularly synchronized across the Internet.

It is widespread enough for organizations to have similar or the same databases in many systems (e.g. MS Access and MySQL). The necessity to keep accurate and up-to-date information across a wide range of systems is an important issue for most of companies all over the world. Many organizations will surely explore and reap extra benefits of synchronized databases as these benefits

Database synchronization is not only a business necessity but also a competitive advantage as long as syncing makes it easier for your customers to do business with you delivering maximum convenience for optimal results. It allows you to handle interactions with the online community effectively keeping your MySQL database synchronized with the MS Access Database.

drive business activity and help in capturing market share.

Generally synchronization means the process of uploading and downloading information from two or more databases, so that each is identical. In view of MS Access to MySQL conversion synching can be defined as an operation that keeps distributed databases in agreement and normally refers to the routine updating of an MySQL database with information from an MS Access database and vice versa.

It would be better if you can update only the tables that have changed since the last sync without converting the whole database in order to minimize the amount of data that will have to go over the network.

Automation of the process

It’s a very useful feature to have your conversion program run un-attended on a schedule to keep a MySQL database and an MS Access database current with each other. Scheduling function, if available, gives you an opportunity to run the conversion process on a user defined schedule that means that you can run a program without user input at a time that is most convenient for you.

Comprehensive scheduling functionality (creating a

scheduled task to run one time only as well as daily, weekly, monthly, or at certain times e.g. when a user logs on, modifying the schedule and customizing how a task will run at a scheduled time) is supposed to bring extra flexibility to your business. Having your conversion process automated you gain relief from constant necessity of being worried about the control of the conversion process sharing your responsibility with a reliable tool.

Getting round the access limitations

Having put your data in MS Access you can find out that it is not possible to update the data in MySQL base as you have no direct access to it. To gain access to a MySQL base you usually need to obtain the permission for connection from your Web hosting provider. Database administrator can deny your access being concerned in protecting the information and avoiding insecure connections (for example in the case you use dialup internet connection your MySQL server administration can reject giving you a direct access to db as your IP is not static and changes each time you get online). In this situation saving data of MS Access database in a dump file comes into play. Thus ability to store data into a dump file is the best way to present deferred conversion, gain more control over the conversion process

You can benefit from an ability to save data to а dump file (e.g. PHP Script) that enable you to get through the limitations of the direct access to your MySQL database if any.

When choosing a conversion tool, inquire if there is a possibility to upgrade to newer versions after the older ones become obsolete without wasting money for buying new conversion tools again. It would not be also out of place to make sure that pre- and post-purchase technical support for the data conversion application you’d like to buy is of a high quality and speedy.

and resolve the access problem. The contents of the source database will be stored into a local dump file instead of sending it to MySQL server directly. This file will be delivered to the server where the work with particular MySQL database is executed and using this dump file MySQL server administrator will add data to your MySQL base.

The speed of data export is much faster as if MS Access databases would be copied to MySQL database directly because of fact that the copying to MySQL database is executed with utilization of the server where the particular dump file is used.

Upgradeability and Support

You also need to be sure the application you choose for converting your databases is easy to maintain and upgrade. This is no trivial matter as information technology industry is in continual growth. It is no wonder that upgradeability is an important factor in the overall value of an application for many people because having a tool that is easily upgradeable provides you with maximum flexibility. Upgradeability means you never have to worry about the compatibility of your conversion tool with newer MS Access and MySQL versions as they are released.

When picking a conversion tool, inquire if you will be able to replace this application after it becomes obsolete and upgrade to a newer version that is better in terms of capacity, performance, or some other combination of characteristics without resorting to the expense of buying new conversion tools again and again.

Besides upgradeability you need to take into account the support conditions since the support staff proficiency, its level of knowledge and expertise with the software can play the key role in further utilization of the tool. When making your choice of a conversion tool it’s very important to inquire in advance if you can find efficient solutions to your problems by addressing to support team for resolving any issues you are experiencing with the software including download and installation issues, fixing crashes or unexpected behavior. If you don’t pay attention to this at the time you purchase, you may regret it later on.

DMSoft Technologies has plenty of practical experience in data conversion industry and presents Access2MySQL product line that performs twoway conversion (MS Access to MySQL and visa versa) with synchronizing and scheduling functions. if any.

Conclusion

Now that you’re more familiar with problem, what’s the solution? That isn’t always a simple answer. Among various tools developed to streamline database conversion process you have to choose the one that meets all your crucial needs. Just keep in mind that you have to cautiously consider all the factors that affect the choosing a conversion tool that will serve your business in long term period.

In the case you consider using specialized data conversion software such as Access2MySQL applications you gain a good chance to combine your computer’s ability to gather and sort vast amounts of data — and the Internet’s ability to distribute it globally.

Access2MySQL product line due to its user-friendly intuitive design and top-notch technology presents beneficial complex solution enabling you to accomplish scheduled conversion and synchronization with maximum simplicity and convenience. Access2MySQL products are easy to maintain and upgrade.

Besides scheduled conversion with synchronization Access2MySQL product line performs a great number of additional features such as:

• Data conversion to PHP Script for export to MySQL database

• Ability to select ISAM, MYISAM, HEAP, InnoDB, BDB table types

• Ability to replace symbols in names of tables and fields (which are required not to be used as they are reserved symbols for MySQL internal purposes) with a substitute symbol - just to name a few.

Access2MySQL Support Team provides pre-purchase consulting, acquisition assistance and further maintenance from general support inquiries handling (questions concerning installation and functionality of the software) to special incident tracking and resolution. The total number of inquiries per licence is unlimited. Qualified support is given via e-mail, ICQ, MSN.

Regularly benchmark tests show that Access2mySQL products obviously stand out from the crowd of similar data conversion tools with its unique synchronization feature and improved general functionality along with high speed of conversion and stability of the software.

Features		Access2MySQL Sync	Access2MySQL Pro
Convert .mdb (MS Access) databases to MySQL and visa versa
Support of all MS Access data types and attributes
Work using command line
Support for MS Access Work Groups
Ability to select the tables to be processed
Database synchronization
Saving data to local dump file
Saving data to PHP script file
Select table type: MyISAM, HEAP, BDB, InnoDB or ISAM
Built-in Scheduler

This white paper attempts to set out guidelines for data conversion process. It reviews the crucial issues to be taken into account when choosing a conversion tool that will manage your data in the best way proper for your company’s need. The basics of the conversion from MS Access to MySQL are presented in this document allowing you to exploit the latest technologies to their full potential.