XCVII. Sybase functions

To store an image file into Sybase try this :

$data = bin2hex(fread(fopen($image,"r"), filesize($image)));
//don't forget the 0x before the hex data.
if(! sybase_query("INSERT INTO test_image (image) VALUES
(0x".$data.")")) die ("Unable to store the
image.");

To retrieve it just do a select and use a hex2bin function (this one has
been submitted by [email protected] and is the fastest) :

function hex2bin($data) {
     $len = strlen($data);
      return pack("H" . $len, $data);
}

PS : use CT-lib rather than DB-lib (Sybase doesn't work on it anymore!)

Poor documentation on sybase support!! Here's how I made it work... First
get the linux ASE from sybase (maybe the ctlibs provided at php.net will
do fine, too) Install the ASE rpm. (some distributions don't have system
libs etc in the rpm database so you might get some dependency errors. If
your systems fits the requirements install with "ignore
dependencies") Recompile php with option
--with-sybase-ct=/dirtoyoursybasehome. Then you need to set the env
variable for (at least)your apache user by export
SYBASE=/dirtoyoursybasehome. Now you need to set up your servers (like
DSNs for ODBC). Edit the file $SYBASE/interfaces and add your server
entries:

SERVERNAME
  query tcp ether 172.16.1.4 4100
  master tcp ether 172.16.1.4 4100

(change IP/FQHN and port to your setup) Now you can check your config by
using 
$SYBASE/bin/isql -S SERVERNAME -U DBUSER -P PASSWD
If you get a prompt you have connected to your sybase! Hurray! Now you can
try with php
$db=sybase_connect("SERVERNAME","DBUSER","DBPASSWD");
And... Voila!

I struggled to get this to work for a week. Here's a tip. Log on to your
system using the same login as your web server, probably
"nobody". Using this account, make sure you can get isql to
work. In my case, I had to change the permissions on the /opt/sybase
folder, as well as chmod the /opt/sybase/interfaces file to 644. (It was
600 by default, and did not allow anyone but root to read it.) Once I did
this, things started to happen...

If you get a segfault with sybase-ct, add a en_US entry to your 
$SYBASE/locales/locales.dat file: 
<PRE>
[linux]
	locale = en_US, us_english, iso_1
	...
</PRE>

Amigos, pay attention: sybase_get_last_message() is gone! Read logs or set
track_errors=On and use $php_errormsg instead.

I would STRONGLY recommend using the ct library over the db library when
compiling sybase support with php4+. I ran into strange http child seg
faults when trying to issue multiple sql statements in one php page. 
Using ct-library there is no problem.

about sybase-ct library 

You can download the file from php.net but the samples in the tar (and
php) maybe not compile I have this problem in some systems (but not in
others with old librarys and old gcc).

Try freetds from www.freetds.org that is ok!

System wthout trouble
Debian 2.1 gcc (2.7.2.3) libc-2.0.7.so
System With trouble
Debian 2.2 gcc (2.95.2) libc-2.1.3.so
RedHat 6.2 gcc [egcs] (2.91.66) libc-2.1.3.so

Please refer to mssql if you try to connect to MS SQL Server!!!

The best place to get Sybase's RPMs:

A bit more about blobs:

If you want to retrieve blobs without them getting truncated, do a 'set
textsize value' query first.

This should make the image/blob subject rather complete:
PHP 3 seems to have a bug with image columns in sybase. Apache gets a
segmentation fault when trying to retrieve an image column with more than
a certain amount of characters (even when using set textsize).
The work around is to use text columns instead. They have the same
capacity, only you need to convert the data to ASCII (e.g. Hex, see
examples in earlier contributions, bin2hex). Remember to put the data in
quotes, too, when INSERTing.

After weeks of work, I have succeeded in getting PHP4 to talk with ASA 7.0
on Redhat Linux 7.0.

Here's my very incomplete not so beautiful FAQ.



Let me know if this helps you.

**** NEWS FLASH ****

ATTENTION ALL STRUGGLING TO SETUP SYBASE!

There is finally a complete howto on Sybase/Apache/PHP/Linux here:



Hope it helps.

******* ANOTHER NEWS FLASH :) *******
Hi, the Apache-PHP-Sybase mini howto is now available at 
Enjoy.

It's important to note that sybase_ct connect or pconnect were causing
GPF.
If you experienced this problem, just update PHP to 4.0.6.

The best place to get Sybase for Debian : 

maybe it can help.
my database is ASE

this is my script....

<?
$cnn =
sybase_connect("db_server","sa","password");
$result = sybase_query("Select itemno,stockno from
your_db..your_table");
$i = 0;
while ($r = sybase_fetch_array($result)) {
$i++;
$itemno = $r["itemno"];
$stockno = $r["stockno"];
echo "$i    $stockno   $itemno 
";
}
?>

note that I did not use the
sybase_select_db("db") function because ASE had a default
database.
thx...

If you use IIS and sybase-ct library, be sure to use PHP 4.0.6 or higher,
since older version caused crashes.

If you have a Linux machine with Sybase ASE 11.9.2, Php 4.0.6, Apache and
Sybase-ct library, don't upgrade to Sybase ASE 12.5 yet, or Apache will
stop working.
Since 12.5 is newer than 4.0.6, I guess this will be fixed soon.

For those, who might want to use SyBase client not only under Linux, you
may try to use open-source FreeTDS library -  

Also there's how-to for FreeTDS and PHP:

PhpSybaseAdmin

Freetds 5.2 bugs!!

For those who use Freetds 5.2 running under linux connect to
sqlserver2000, there is a bugs in selecting NVARCHAR field that data will
either duplicated or truncated. To avoid this problem, please use CAST or
CONVERT function in sql statement such as:
$query="select CAST(fieldname as nchar(1000)) as fieldname from
table"

Feel free to contact us at 
[email protected]
or
[email protected]

German Chu & Eagle Lee

Compiling PHP with Sybase ASE 12.5 on Linux.

Assuming that you have installed the Sybase ASE 12.5 client in linux, and
you have the SYBASE env variable set, you can compile PHP >= 4.0.6 with
Sybase ASE 12.5.
Just use:

  --with-sybase-ct=$SYBASE/OCS
instead of
  --with-sybase-ct=$SYBASE

The way to use Sybase Adaptive Server Anywhere+PHP+Apache on Unix