Database Connections
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Each ProcessMaker workspace maintains 3 MySQL databases to store internal information about processes, user permissions and reports. Nonetheless, ProcessMaker can also be configured to connect to external databases, allowing an organization to integrate ProcessMaker with other DBMS and business applications which utilize databases.
ProcessMaker uses Propel library to map between ProcessMaker's PHP classes and databases. Propel allows access to different DBMS, including MySql, Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL, and Oracle.
ProcessMaker automatically detects which database modules for PHP are installed on the server. For example if the php-pgsql module is installed on the ProcessMaker server, ProcessMaker will offer the option to connect to PostgreSQL databases.
Creating a New Database Connection
To create a new database connection, open a process and then go to ADMIN (formerly SETUP) > DATABASE CONNECTIONS. At the top of the list of existing database connections, click the "New" link to define a new database connection.
Fill in the following information:
- Engine: Select the type of database, which can be MySql, PostgreSQL, Microsoft SQL Server, or Oracle. ProcessMaker will only offer databases in the dropdown list which have PHP modules installed on your server.
If MySQL or PosgreSQL is selected in ProcessMaker version 1.2-2425 and later, the option Encode will appear below Engine to allow the character encoding of the database to be selected. Look up the encoding of your external database.
- Server: IP address or domain name where the database source is installed.
- Database Name: The name of the database to use.
- Username: The username to log into the external database.
- Password: The password to log into the external database.
- Warning: The password for the Database Connection is stored as normal text in the wf_<WORKSPACE>.DB_SOURCE.DBS_PASSWORD field in the MySQL database, so make sure to restrict access to your database.
- Port: The port used by the external database. If this field is left empty, the routine will use the default port, which is 3306 for MySQL, 5432 for PostgreSQL, 1521 for Oracle, and 1433 for SQL Server.
- Description: Add any additional information about the external database.
Once you have filled out this information, you need to test the connection by clicking on the Test Connection button. The test routine verifies hostname, port, service, the user access, and the existence of the database, as shown in this illustration:
If the test is successful, then click Create to set up the connection. After that the database connection will be available for the current process. It can be used in SQL SELECT statements in DynaForms fields and with the executeQuery() function in triggers.
MySQL
All the necessary modules should already be installed in order to use an external MySQL database, since those same modules are needed to use the internal databases used by ProcessMaker.
By default MySQL servers are set up to only receive local connections from the localhost. If ProcessMaker is trying to connect to a MySQL server on another machine, then that server will have to be configured to allow external connections. Edit the my.cnf file of the MySQL server and comment out the line:
# bind-address = 127.0.0.1
Then reload or restart the MySQL server. To check whether MySQL is listening for external connections, in Windows issue the command:
netstat -an
You should see a line such as:
TCP 127.0.0.1:3306 0.0.0.0:0 LISTENING
In Linux/UNIX, use the command:
netstat -tanp
You should see a line such as:
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:3306 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 2270/mysqld
When setting up a Database Connection to an external MySQL database, it is necessary to select the character encoding, such as Latin-1 and UTF-8. To find out the character encoding used by a MySQL database, log into MySQL and change to the database and issue the status command:
mysql -u root -p mysql> show databases; +--------------------+ | Database | +--------------------+ | information_schema | | mysql | | example_db | +--------------------+ 3 rows in set (0.00 sec) mysql> use example_db; Database changed mysql> status; -------------- mysql Ver 14.12 Distrib 5.0.51a, for debian-linux-gnu (i486) using readline 5.2 Connection id: 6054 Current database: example_db Current user: root@localhost SSL: Not in use Current pager: stdout Using outfile: Using delimiter: ; Server version: 5.0.51a-24 (Debian) Protocol version: 10 Connection: Localhost via UNIX socket Server characterset: latin1 Db characterset: utf8 Client characterset: latin1 Conn. characterset: latin1 UNIX socket: /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock Uptime: 12 days 3 hours 51 min 33 sec
Look for the "client characterset" which is the character set in which ProcessMaker will send queries to the MySQL database and the "Conn. characterset" which is the character set which MySQL will send information back to ProcessMaker.
In the configuration of ProcessMaker's Database Connection, set Encode to the character set used by "Client characterset and "Conn. characterset". ProcessMaker expects the Client and Connection character set to be the same. If they aren't the same, change them to be the same. You can change them temporarily with:
SET NAMES <character-set>;
To change them permanently, add the following lines to my.cnf:
character_set_client = <character-set> character_set_results = <character-set> character_set_connection = <character-set>
Then reload or restart the MySQL server.
PostgreSQL
In order for ProcessMaker to connect to a PostgreSQL database, the PostgreSQL client software and the PHP module "pgsql" has to be installed on the same machine as the ProcessMaker server. If the PosgreSQL database does not use the UTF-8 character set and it contains non-ASCII characters, then see this bug.
If the PostgreSQL database is located on a different server than the ProcessMaker server, remember to configure PostgreSQL to allow for connections from the ProcessMaker server.
Windows
Download the pgInstaller for Windows and install the PostgreSQL client software (and the server as well if you plan on running PostgreSQL server from the same machine as the ProcessMaker server).
Then go to the directory where you installed PHP and verify that you have the dynamic link libraries php_pgsql.dll and php_pdo_pgsql.dll located in the ext directory. If you used the ProcessMaker Windows Installer, these files can be found at: C:\Program Files\ProcessMaker\php\ext\
Then enable PHP's PostgreSQL modules, by opening the PHP configuration file php.ini with a plain text editor. If you used the ProcessMaker Windows Installer, it will be located at: <INSTALL-DIRECTORY>\php\php.ini
Look for the "Windows Extensions" section and uncomment the PostgreSQL modules by removing the semicolon (;) from the beginning of the following lines:
extension=php_pdo_pgsql.dll extension=php_pgsql.dll
Then restart the Apache server to use the new PHP configuration, by either rebooting or by going to the command line (located at Start > All Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt) and issuing the command:
httpd -k restart
To verify that PHP is now using the PostgreSQL modules, create a file named info.php with a bare text editor containing:
<?php phpinfo(); ?>
and save it to your workflow\public_html\ directory, which generally will be found at: C:\Program Files\ProcessMaker\apps\processmaker\htdocs\workflow\public_html\
Then, open your web browser and direct it to http://localhost/info.php to verify that the pdo_pgsql and pgsql extensions are enabled in PHP.
Then, open ProcessMaker and go to Processes. Open a process and go to DATABASE CONNECTIONS and click on the New link. PostgreSQL should now be an available option under the Engine dropdown box.
GNU/Linux or UNIX
It is best to install the PostgreSQL client and PostgreSQL's PHP module using the repositories of your distribution.
Red Hat/Cent OS/Fedora:
Login as root and issue the commands:
yum install postgresql php-pgsql /etc/init.d/httpd restart
Debian/Ubuntu:
Login as root and issue the commands:
su or sudo -s apt-get install postgresql-client php5-pgsql /etc/init.d/apache2 restart
SUSE/openSUSE:
Login as root and issue the commands:
su or sudo -s zypper install postgresql php5-pgsql rcapache2 restart
After installing, verify that the pgsql and pdo_pgsql modules are enabled in PHP with the command:
php -m
Then, open ProcessMaker in a web browser. Go to PROCESSES and open a process. Then, go to DATABASE CONNECTIONS and click on the New link. PostgreSQL should now be an available option in the Engine dropdown box.
Microsoft SQL Server
To connect ProcessMaker to SQL Server databases, either install MS SQL Client Tools on Windows machines or install FreeTDS on GNU/Linux or UNIX machines. If the SQL Server database does not use the UTF-8 character set and it contains non-ASCII characters, then see this bug.
Windows
If Microsoft SQL Server is installed on the same machine as ProcessMaker, then ProcessMaker should automatically detect it and it should be listed as an available option under Database Connections. Otherwise, install the SQL Client Tools which can be found on the Microsoft SQL Server CD. Configuration of the client will require installation of all the tools. If the SQL Server CD isn't available, make a copy of SQL Server's dynamic link library found at \winnt\system32\ntwdblib.dll on a machine which has SQL Server or SQL Client Tools installed. Then copy the ntwdblib.dll file into the \winnt\system32 directory of your ProcessMaker server.
Make sure that the version of ntwdblib.dll matches the version of SQL Server. For instance, the dynamic link library for SQL Server 2003 will not work to connect to SQL Server 2005.
Then edit the php.ini file, that is generally located at C:\Program Files\ProcessMaker\php\php.ini, to enable the mssql extension:
extension=mssql.dll
Then restart the Apache server to use the new PHP configuration, by going to the command line (located at Start > All Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt) and issuing the command:
httpd -k restart
To verify that PHP is now using the mssql extension, create a file named info.php with a bare text editor containing:
<?php phpinfo(); ?>
and save it to your workflow\public_html\ directory, which generally will be found at: C:\Program Files\ProcessMaker\apps\processmaker\htdocs\workflow\public_html\
Then, open your web browser and direct it to http://localhost/info.php to verify that the pdo_mssql and mssql extensions are enabled in PHP.
Then, open ProcessMaker and go to Processes. Open a process and go to DATABASE CONNECTIONS and click on the New link. PostgreSQL should now be an available option under the Engine dropdown box.
GNU/Linux or UNIX
ProcessMaker servers running on GNU/Linux or UNIX can access Microsoft SQL Server or Sybase databases by installing FreeTDS. Most distributions provide FreeTDS and a PHP extension package for SQL Server or Sybase. If your distribution doesn't provide a package for FreeTDS, see these instructions to compile FreeTDS from the source code.
If planning on executing stored procedures on the SQL Server database, edit the FreeTDS configuration file, which is generally found at /etc/freetds/freetds.conf
Edit the following lines to specify the IP address and port of server where SQL Server is installed and the TDS version number:
host = xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx port = 1433 tds version = 8.0
Red Hat/CentOS/Fedora
Install FreeTDS and the php-mssql package using yum:
yum install freetds php-mssql
Then, edit the /etc/php.ini file to enable the mssql extension:
extension=mssql.so
Finally, restart Apache:
/etc/init.d/httpd restart
For older versions of Red Hat/CentOS which don't contain a php-mssql package, see these instructions to manually compile FreeTDS and PHP's mssql extension.
Debian/Ubuntu
If using Debian 6 (Squeeze) or Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) or later, login as root (or use sudo) to install FreeTDS and the php5-sybase package (which will work for MS SQL Server as well). Then, restart apache:
apt-get install freetds-bin php5-sybase /etc/init.d/apache2 restart
If using Debian 5 (Lenny), install the freetds-common package instead:
apt-get install freetds-common php5-sybase /etc/init.d/apache2 restart
For older versions of Debian and Ubuntu, compile FreeTDS from source.
SUSE/openSUSE
SUSE/openSUSE does not provide a PHP package to access MS SQL Servers, so freeTDS and the mssql PHP extension will have to be compiled from source.
First, install the unixOBDC package and the tools for compiling:
zypper install unixOBDC gcc make
Then, download the source code for the latest stable version of freeTDS. Then, decompress the code and configure and compile it:
tar xzf freetds-stable.tgz cd freetds-0.82/ ./configure -with-unixODBC=/usr/lib make make install
Then, install the php5-devel package (which contains the phpize command):
zypper install php5-devel
Next, check which version of PHP you are using:
php -i
Then, download the source code for your version of PHP to a local directory. Decompress the code. Then, switch to the ext/mssql directory and compile the mssql extension. Note that the following commands will only compile the mssql extension and insert it into your existing installation of PHP without altering anything else:
tar xzf php-5.3.3.tar.gz cd php-5.3.3/ext/mssql phpize ./configure make make install
Then, configure PHP to use the new extension by editing the PHP configuration files:
vi /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini vi /etc/php5/cli/php.ini
In both files, add the line:
extension=mssql.so
Finally, restart Apache to be able to use the new mssql.so extension:
rcapache2 restart
Oracle
In order to connect to an Oracle database, Oracle's client software must be installed on the same server running ProcessMaker. If the Oracle database does not use the UTF-8 character set and it contains non-ASCII characters, then see this bug.
Windows
Install Oracle InstantClient, Client or Server on the same server running ProcessMaker. Oracle InstantClient can be downloaded for free at:
Install the version of Oracle InstantClient or Client which corresponds to your version of Oracle Server.
Oracle 8-10
After installing Oracle's software on the same server running ProcessMaker, enable PHP's OCI8 extension to connect to Oracle. The DLL file to use Oracle version 8 through 10, should already be included by default in PHP. Verify that your installation includes the file <INSTALL-DIRECTORY>\php\ext\php_oci8.dll. If not, see Installing OCI8 on Windows.
Next, edit <INSTALL-DIRECTORY>\php\php.ini with a plain text editor (like Notepad or Notepad++) and add the following line:
extension=php_oci8.dll
If this line already exists with a ";" (semicolon) in front, remove the semicolon to uncomment the line.
Oracle 11g
To use Oracle 11g, PHP will have to be upgraded to PHP 5.3. After upgrading PHP and installing Oracle's software on the same server running ProcessMaker, enable PHP's OCI8 extension for Oracle 11g, which generally isn't include by default in PHP. See Installing OCI8 on Windows. The file <INSTALL-DIRECTORY>\php\ext\php_oci8_11g.dll needs to be added.
Next, edit <INSTALL-DIRECTORY>\php\php.ini with a plain text editor (like Notepad or Notepad++) and add the following line:
extension=php_oci8_11g.dll
If this line already exists with a ";" (semicolon) in front, remove the semicolon to uncomment the line.
Note: Either the php_oci8.dll or php_oci8_11g.dll can be enabled, but not both at the same time.
Restarting to Enable
After installing the Oracle software and modifying php.ini, Windows must be restarted to enable the Oracle software and enable the Oracle extension in PHP. Then, "Oracle" should appear as one of the available options when creating a Database Connection inside ProcessMaker.
GNU/Linux
Red Hat/Cent OS/Fedora/SUSE
Oracle provides official rpm packages to install its InstantClient in 32-bit Red Hat/CentOS, which can be downloaded for free at:
For ProcessMaker servers using 64bits or a different server, download the ZIP file of InstantClient.
To install and configure InstantClient in GNU/Linux, see Oracle's instructions at:
If installing InstantClient in Red Hat, Fedora or SuSE, the links in this page may be helpful.
Debian/Ubuntu
Oracle provides a repository for Debian (and Ubuntu), which can be accessed by adding the following line to the file /etc/apt/sources.list:
deb http://oss.oracle.com/debian unstable main non-free
See these instructions or this blog article to enable the repository and install InstantClient.
Other Types of Databases
If using another type of database that ProcessMaker does not support, then it is possible to connect to that database using PHP's database extensions inside a trigger. Many types of databases have their own specialized functions such as oci_connect() or mysql_connect(), but almost all databases and spreadsheets also support the Open Database Connectivity (OBDC) protocol.
Unfortunately, database connections created in triggers can not be used like normal Database Connections in ProcessMaker. In order to be queried like a normal database, using the SQL Connection and SQL properties in DynaForm fields, first the results of the database query will have to be stored as an associative array of associative arrays in the $_SESSION superglobal variable, so they can be accessed by DynaForm fields. See the example for populating a dropdown box.
OBDC
The specialized PHP functions for each type of database are generally easier to use, but PHP's OBDC functions offer a standardized way to connect to any data source.
Installing ODBC
Before trying to use ODBC in PHP, make sure that the obdc module is installed in PHP, by going to the command line and issuing the command:
php -m
If "obdc" doesn't appear in the list of modules, then it will need to be installed:
Debian/Ubuntu:
apt-get install unixodbc php5-odbc
Red Hat/CentOS/Fedora:
yum install unixODBC unixODBC-devel php-odbc
SUSE/OpenSUSE:
yast2 -i php5-odbc
Windows:
The OBDC module should be installed by default in PHP.
Using OBDC in Triggers
First, establish a connection to the database with the obdc_connect() (or obdc_pconnect() for a persistent connection):
resource odbc_connect( string $dsn, string $user, string $password [, int $cursor_type])
The first parameter is the data source name, which contains the custom parameters needed to connect to different types of databases. It might contain something like:
- "Driver={DRIVER-NAME};Server=SERVER-URL;Database=DB-NAME;"
but it varies widely. See this list of connection strings.
Populating a Textbox
To set the value of a DynaForm textbox, fire trigger before the DynaForm which queries the database using ODBC and then sets the value of the case variable for the textbox.
For example, to query a Visual FoxPro database and set the value of a textbox named "ClientName": <source lang="php"> $dns = "Driver={Microsoft Visual FoxPro Driver};SourceType=DBC;SourceDB=c:\somepath\contacts.dbc;Exclusive=No"; $con = obdc_connect($dns, "", ""); if ($con !== false) {
$res = odbc_exec($con, "SELECT FIRSTNAME, LASTNAME FROM CLIENTS WHERE CLIENT_ID='ARG29'");
if ($row = odbc_fetch_array($res))
@@ClientName = $row['FIRSTNAME'] . ' ' . $row['LASTNAME'];
} </source>
Populating a Dropdown Box
To populate the list of options in a dropdown box, create an associative array of associative arrays, which can be queried like a normal table.
For example, this trigger uses OBDC to connect to an Excel spreadsheet and populate a dropdown box: <source lang="php"> $aClients = array(); $cnt = 1; $dns = "Driver={Microsoft Excel Driver (*.xls)};DriverId=790;Dbq=c:\somepath\Clients.xls;DefaultDir=c:\somepath"; $con = obdc_connect($dns, "", ""); if ($con !== false) {
$res = odbc_exec($con, "SELECT CLIENT_ID, CLIENT_NAME from CLIENT_LIST");
while ($row = (odbc_fetch_array($res)))
$aClients[$cnt++] = $row;
} else {
G::SendMessageText("Unable to access Excel file 'c:\somepath\Clients.xls'.", "ERROR");
}
- Make $aClients available to be queried in the DynaForm like a table from a database:
global $_DBArray; $_DBArray['CLIENTS_LIST'] = $aClients; $_SESSION['_DBArray'] = $_DBArray; </source> Then in the DynaForm create a dropdown box with the sqlconnection="dbarray" property in the XML definition. To populate the list of options, use an SQL query to access the CLIENTS_LIST array: <source lang="sql"> SELECT CLIENT_ID, CLIENT_NAME FROM CLIENTS_LIST </source> Where CLIENT_ID will become the value for each option and CLIENT_NAME will become the label for each option in the dropdown box. The complete XML definition for the dropdown box would be: <source lang="xml"> <SelectClient type="dropdown" required="0" readonly="0" savelabel="0"
mode="edit" options="Array" sqlconnection="dbarray"> SELECT CLIENT_ID, CLIENT_NAME FROM CLIENTS_LIST <en>Select Client</en>
</SelectClient> </source>
Populating a Grid
To populate a DynaForm grid, create an associative array of associative arrays and assign it to the case variable for the grid. The keys in the associative arrays must be the same as the names of the grid fields, so use AS in the SQL query to rename the fields from the table if they don't match the field names in the grid.
For example, this trigger uses OBDC to connect to an Access database and populate a DynaForm grid named "ProductsGrid" which has the fields "serialNo", "productTitle", "description" and "listPrice": <source lang="php"> $dns = "Driver={Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb)};Dbq=c:\somepath\Products.mbd"; $con = obdc_connect($dns, "someuser", "p4sSw0rd"); if ($con !== false) {
$aProducts = array();
$cnt = 1;
$sql = "SELECT SERIAL AS serialNo, TITLE AS productTitle, DESC AS description,
PRICE AS listPrice FROM PRODUCTS WHERE CATEGORY='current'";
$res = odbc_exec($con, $sql);
while ($row = (odbc_fetch_array($res)))
$aProducts[$cnt++] = $row;
@@ProductsGrid = $aProducts;
} else {
G::SendMessageText("Unable to connect to Access database!", "ERROR");
} </source>
