hi

would like to ask a question that might be silly but am still confused...
am trying to draw my system architecture, and am not sure how to provide database connectivity......

am developing a java web application, and i have setup my local web server using apache, php and mysql....

now php is a server scripting language that also can provide connection to mySQL database....what about ODBC, when should i use ODBC to provide connectivity, or is it not necessary if am using PHP.

am sorry for the question, i need to get clearer picture for drawing the architecture of the system....

thanks in advance

I'd suggest you use ODBC when there is no native driver for the db within the language, or if you are developing an application which could 'talk' to multiple data store types.

so it is not necessary to use any driver for the connectivity if am using 1 data store type......

using PHP only is fine?

it all depends on the build of PHP, what modules it has and so on.
I'd expect virtually all PHP builds to be able to connect to MySQL through either the old style native functions
PHP: MySQL - Manual
or the 'improved' extension
PHP: Mysqli - Manual
If I remember correctly all builds of PHP support SQLLite since version 5

a list of native extensions can be found here
PHP: Vendor Specific Database Extensions - Manual