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Natively Connect to FTP Data in PHP


The CData ODBC driver for FTP enables you to create PHP applications with connectivity to FTP data. Leverage the native support for ODBC in PHP.

Drop the CData ODBC Driver for FTP into your LAMP or WAMP stack to build FTP-connected Web applications. This article shows how to use PHP's ODBC built-in functions to connect to FTP data, execute queries, and output the results.

Configure a DSN

If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.

To connect to FTP or SFTP servers, specify at least RemoteHost and FileProtocol. Specify the port with RemotePort.

Set User and Password to perform Basic authentication. Set SSHAuthMode to use SSH authentication. See the Getting Started section of the data provider help documentation for more information on authenticating via SSH.

Set SSLMode and SSLServerCert to secure connections with SSL.

The data provider lists the tables based on the available folders in your FTP server. Set the following connection properties to control the relational view of the file system:

  • RemotePath: Set this to the current working directory.
  • TableDepth: Set this to control the depth of folders to list as views.
  • FileRetrievalDepth: Set this to retrieve and list files recursively from the root table.

Stored Procedures are available to download files, upload files, and send protocol commands. See the Data Model chapter of the FTP data provider documentation for more information.

Establish a Connection

Open the connection to FTP by calling the odbc_connect or odbc_pconnect methods. To close connections, use odbc_close or odbc_close_all.

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC FTP Source","user","password");

Connections opened with odbc_connect are closed when the script ends. Connections opened with the odbc_pconnect method are still open after the script ends. This enables other scripts to share that connection when they connect with the same credentials. By sharing connections among your scripts, you can save system resources, and queries execute faster.

$conn = odbc_pconnect("CData ODBC FTP Source","user","password"); ... odbc_close($conn); //persistent connection must be closed explicitly

Create Prepared Statements

Create prepared statements and parameterized queries with the odbc_prepare function.

$query = odbc_prepare($conn, "SELECT * FROM MyDirectory WHERE FilePath = ?");

Execute Queries

Execute prepared statements with odbc_execute.

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC FTP Source","user","password"); $query = odbc_prepare($conn, "SELECT * FROM MyDirectory WHERE FilePath = ?"); $success = odbc_execute($query, array('/documents/doc.txt'));

Execute nonparameterized queries with odbc_exec.

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC FTP Source","user","password"); $query = odbc_exec($conn, "SELECT Filesize, Filename FROM MyDirectory");

Process Results

Access a row in the result set as an array with the odbc_fetch_array function.

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC FTP data Source","user","password"); $query = odbc_exec($conn, "SELECT Filesize, Filename FROM MyDirectory"); while($row = odbc_fetch_array($query)){ echo $row["Filesize"] . "\n"; }

Display the result set in an HTML table with the odbc_result_all function.

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC FTP data Source","user","password"); $query = odbc_prepare($conn, "SELECT * FROM MyDirectory WHERE FilePath = ?"); $success = odbc_execute($query, array('/documents/doc.txt')); if($success) odbc_result_all($query);

More Example Queries

You will find complete information on the driver's supported SQL in the help documentation. The code examples above are FTP-specific adaptations of the PHP community documentation for all ODBC functions.

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FTP Icon FTP ODBC Driver

The FTP ODBC Driver is a powerful tool that allows you to connect with live data from remote files and directories, directly from any applications that support ODBC connectivity.

Access remote data like you would a database through a standard ODBC Driver interface.

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