client to retrive data from a remote mysql-server

hi,

im developing a form of backup client-side application software (no web on the client). And from everywhere i've searched, i cant find any good way of actually getting a few things from
mysql which is on a linux fileserver. As there are so many potential risks of
opening the entire database for remote access, i need some other
way to get my data. I've though about soap, but i cant find any good resource for apache+soap+mysql. One way could've been making a small php script that logins into the sqlserver and generate the data i need, and then parse the data on the client side, but it seems a waste of time if there are any other way todo this.

so does anyone have a good idea of the best way to retrive mysql data remotely? (could open for one ip or two, but the application will be used by alot of people)