Remote Wizard

The Remote Connection Wizard is a feature of our premium data services. It allows premium users to integrate heterogeneous external data sources directly into their WordPress back-end and front-end. Two types of remote data sources are supported:

• Remote Database Connections
• Remote Data Files (No programming skills or database knowledge required)

Remote Database Connections

Remote database connections are supported for the following database management systems:

• MariaDB | MySQL
• Microsoft SQL Server
• PostgreSQL
• Oracle
• Microsoft Access (handled as a remote data file)

The remote database must be accessible from our data server. Data is neither cached nor replicated on our server (except for Microsoft Access files).

Remote Data Files

The following file types are supported:

• Microsoft Access MDB
• Microsoft Access ACCDB
• CSV file
• JSON file
• XML file

Remote data files must be accessible via a public URL. The file is loaded (cached) onto our data server and imported into our database. A database table is created automatically with zero configuration required. You can define a refresh interval for each file, which will automatically reload the data and update the table.

Setup

To use the Remote Connection Wizard, you must first enable our premium data service on your WordPress server.

Please follow these instructions to get started.

Usage

Plugin tools

Tables created from a remote database connection or data file are available in all WP Data Access tools. Simply select your remote table to create a publication, project, or chart, just as you would with a local WordPress database table.

Custom PHP code

You can also access these tables from your custom PHP code. Here is a template:

<?php

	function heterogeneous_connection_example() {
		$wpdadb = WPDataAccess\Connection\WPDADB::get_db_connection( 'rdb:wpdafree.youniquedata.com' );
		$rows   = $wpdadb->get_results( 'select * from my_table' );
		foreach ( $rows as $row ) {
			// Process table row...
		}
	}

	add_action('plugins_loaded', 'heterogeneous_connection_example');

?>

The code example above connects to the remote database rdb:wpdafree.youniquedata.com. The WPDADB class is a subclass of the WordPress wpdb class. If you are familiar with wpdb, you can use its methods—such as query, get_results, insert, update, and delete — to access your remote data.