synchronise Microsoft Access database with Silverstripe website database

Question

My client has got an existing site with membership details, member portfolios and directories which are largely done manually in php associated with Silverstripe CMS platform which works well. Also their admin person has got an offline member data system - Microsoft Access, and they have been double adding membership details to MS Access according to the membership details on the website.

My first thought was to ditch the MS Access and keep all database online, but they have been working on MS Access for years even before the site was built, so we are thinking of keeping the MS Access as well as the site database.

This is the first time I am experiencing MS Access, and both database structures are set up differently. I am just wondering is it possible to synchronise MS Access and the website database? Eg the MS Access member data gets automatically updated when the membership is updated online.

How would I achieve it? Which programming languages would be used? Any secuirity issues to synchronise an offline MS Access and online website? Any steps, links or learning links would be great help. Thanks.

Answer 1

A solution could be to use the CsvBulkLoader class, export regularly the Access db and importing it into SilverStripe via a custom CsvBulkLoader. http://doc.silverstripe.org/framework/en/howto/csv-import

Or create a custom BuildTask that fetches the Access database and update SS with the new data. This would probably give you the most flexibility and this can be run as a CRON job so you don't have to do it manually. http://api.silverstripe.org/3.1/class-BuildTask.html

Answer 2

Possible solution: Create a web service on the web site that returns the membership data. Create a script that calls that web service then updates the local MS Access database.