MySQL output print software

I am about to join a project that uses MySQL for its database. The database is for membership information of a large group of realtors. From the database records, the group would like to be able to print a directory onto paper.

Being totally new to MySQL I could use some ideas on the best way to complete this task. I have tried to search for a software package that would enable this output, but really have no idea what I am looking for!

Each page would need to have a header and footer.

Thanks for any assistance that is offered.

Mysql shouldn't be the source of your problems in this case -- the problem'll be figuring out what sort of output to produce. HTML, for example, often doesn't print well across systems, so you might consider using PDF, which is somewhat more involved than HTML.

Before anybody can really provide any more help, more info's needed. For example, is your database already built and you just need to know how to access it or are you having to design and build the database? Have you decided on a language for interfacing with the database or is that up for grabs?

For my money, PHP and mysql are a winning combination. There are free database connectivity classes and PDF generation classes available for this type of setup.

Thanks for the answer. I knew I wasn't giving much info but wasn't sure what was needed.


The MySQL database is up and running great. Right now we are using CGI/Perl for HTML output of one member per page, mainly because the database creator doesn't know much about PHP (neither do I, but we are both quick learners) and he said he couldn't easily create an output script in PHP.

So what's the problem? It sounds like you've got your database set up and some output code in place. Might as well go with the existing code base and just change the format of the output, which is just a matter of screwing with your queries, printing different subsets of the data in different formats, etc.