Any way to use OBDC in SAP to access MySQL DB and retrieve data

Question

I'd like to logon to an external MySQL DB (can de done easily enough with PHP)   but I'd like to do it with ABAP if possible.
Connecting via OBDC I should be able to retreive the data from the DB  and then use it in my SAP application.
Some databases will allow connection via
EXEC SQL.
connect to :dbsid
  ENDEXEC.
EXEC SQL.
    set connection :dbsid
  ENDEXEC.
EXEC SQL.
  open xxxxxxx for
  select
...... data from external DB
from tablespace in external db
ENDEXEC.
do.
  EXEC SQL.
    fetch next XXXXXX into
           :db_table_field, .... etc
             ENDEXEC.
  if sy-subrc ne 0.
    exit.
  endif.
  insert table int_sap_table.
enddo.
EXEC SQL.
  close XXXXXX
ENDEXEC.
If you can make this type of stuff work for a MySQL DB i'd appreciate the answer.
Using PHP has a drawback as you need to have it installed on the front end PC and run in Foreground.
The EXEC SQL commands run in batch which is what you need if you are talking about 100,000's of records from an external DB.
Cheers
jimbo

Answer 1

Hi Graham
Currently it doesn't seem to support MySQL.
Now that SAP has taken over again the development of MAXDB I can't see it providing  direct MySQL to SAP functionality.
MAXDB is available but that would mean changing the entire architecture and we don't want to do that.
I think probably the best route to go would be to create a BAPI which is capable of performing a logon to the remote  MySQL DB server, get the data and either send it back as  IDOCS, an external flat file, or as an internal table depending on the volume of data to be retrieved.
The good thing about MySQL is that the command line interface makes logging on and retrieving data quite simple.
This data is actually wanted in a BI  / BW system to provide for a number of business proces analyses.
I did think abut using "Web Services"  but the data retrieval will essentially be done offline.
There is no requirement currently for transferring data FROM SAP back to the MySQL database ( although if you've ever dealt with top level management you know how quickly developments can change).
PHP for all it's drawbacks is the really easy way - but we'll have a problem doing this in background from the SAP servers. For foreground tasks it's a real doddle if you have php on your front end.
for example
<?php
$username = "pee_wee";
$password = "let_me_in";
$hostname = "localhost";        */* IP address of remote DB server */*
$dbh = mysql_connect($hostname, $username, $password)
or die("Unable to connect to MySQL");
print "Connected to MySQL<br>";
// you're going to do lots more here soon
mysql_close($dbh);
?>
Batch mode also seems OK  also from the documentation
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/batch-mode.html
so running an ABAP which can issue system commands (readily available) should work in theory provided the SAP server can connect to the remote MySQL server machine.
Thanks for your suggestions however
Cheers
jimbo