MS Access 2003 and vBulletin

[StoneyBud008]

Before buying vBulletin, I want to make sure I can extract the posting data to an MS Access 2003 database and use it in that program.

Can this be done and how is it done, (briefly).

Thanks,

Stoney

[Steve Machol]

Sorry, I'm not sure what you are asking. vBulletin uses MySQL and is not compatible with MS Access.

[KewlKat007]

I think I understand your request. Firstly, why do you want to export the data? In addition, I am not intimately familiar with vBulletin, however, based on my experience with other forum systems as well as MySQL, here's what you can do:

1.) Use phpMyAdmin to export the vBulletin database to an SQL file.
2.) Use a program such as MySQL2Access (http://www.fonlow.com/dbconverters/mysql2access.html) to convert the MySQL database to an Access database.

From there, you can use whatever programming language you like or the MS Access system to build your program that can read and filter out all of the information from your Access database.

Just to let you know, I have never used the MySQL2Access program nor have I ever converted to or from an Access database. The only databases I have dealt with are MySQL. I found that program by doing a Google search for "convert MySQL to MS Access"

[StoneyBud008]

Thank you Steve and KewlKat.

Steve, I'm a VBA programmer and I want to create a few addons to vBulletin via MS Access.

I was unaware that vBulletins database is a SQL database. I'll have no problem linking the two.

Thanks for the info about the SQL2Access program KewlKat. I've heard of it, but have never tried it out. This may be my chance.

There is a ODBC dB linking feature in Access that I may be able to use.

Thanks again.

Edit: I just found this post on another site:

You can convert your database with MySQL ODBC tools (free download at MySql Web).

Use Import function of MS Access or Table Link (Add table choose link and use ODBC DSN to connect...) syntax.

[KewlKat007]

Steve, I'm a VBA programmer and I want to create a few addons to vBulletin via MS Access.

When you say addons, do you mean mods? If so, how will you do this with MS Access? I thought mods had to be made in PHP, the base language vBulletin is written in.

[jason|xoxide]

When you say addons, do you mean mods? If so, how will you do this with MS Access? I thought mods had to be made in PHP, the base language vBulletin is written in.

... not to mention that MS Access performance is horrid.

[RyPIN1]

Before buying vBulletin, I want to make sure I can extract the posting data to an Access 2007 database and use it in that program.

Can this be done and how is it done, (briefly).

[jason|xoxide]

Before buying vBulletin, I want to make sure I can extract the posting data to an Access 2007 database and use it in that program.

Can this be done and how is it done, (briefly).

To cut down on piracy, this board has an unwritten rule against providing specific support in the pre-sales forum, so I'm not going to go into specifics.

The answer to your question though is "yes", the data can be exported to Access through several means. If you know what you're doing it can be done directly, if not, indirectly.

That said, vBulletin cannot connect to an Access DB so I still don't know what this would get you unless you're trying to calculate some kind of statistics (which would, again, be much faster to calculate just using MySQL).

If you want to know more from me then you would have to buy a license and then post the question again in one of the support forums.

[Reeve of Shinra]

I believe access has a 2 gig file limit -- if you are running a large forum, its possible that your database could eventually reach and suprass that point.

What are you trying to accomplish - there are probably easier ways of doing it.

[feldon23]

Really it would be much better to write add-on scripts in PHP. There are Data Managers that allow you to shuffle data into and out of vBulletin in a controlled format.

If you want access to the actual database, then you will want to write MySQL queries to get you that information. It's very easy to write add-ons for vBulletin using the Plugin system.