Using FrontPage To Set Up a Database Connection
Many people use FrontPage to manage their hosted websites running on
Microsoft IIS servers. Often times ASP applications such as the ones I sell
at CJWSoft need a properly set up data
connection in order to run. This means a
System or DSN-Less connection
must be set up and that information must be entered into a connection string
that the application will use to communicate with the database. Often times
this also means that proper
permissions must be set on the directory the database will be in. This
is sometimes easier said than done because some web hosting companies can be
a real "Pain in the Ass !".
Luckily there is a trick you can do using FrontPage to set up your database
connection. Now, this trick does not always work as some hosts have altered
permissions and what not too much which can mess up the process, but a lot of times this will work
and its really a pretty easy thing to do.
Basically, your going to want to connect your site live with FrontPage. To do this open FrontPage
explorer and choose "file/open site". Now, for the site name enter the whole
url to your site including the "http://" info. Like so:
http://www.mysite.com. If FrontPage extensions
are installed in your site it will prompt you for credentials to log in to
your site so log in to your site.
Once your in you should see something similar to this.
Now, in folder view drag an MSAccess database
file from your system into a folder in your site. It really doe not matter
where because we will get the option to put it where we want it when
FrontPage processes it. So, for now just drag it into the root of your web
site. I am going to use a file called "aspprotect.mdb" which is used in the
ASPProtect
application that I sell.
As it imports the file into the web you should get this prompt.
Give the connection a name. Don't use spaces and keep it simple.
I called mine "aspprotect"
I recommended saying yes to this prompt and
storing any databases you set up in the same folder.
Now, when you do this FrontPage will edit your existing "global.asa" file or
create a new one in your web site.
The "global.asa" file is a file that runs when certain events happen.
More info on that is available
here.
In your "global.asa" it will add a bunch of crazy looking functions that it
uses to set up the database connection. That information needs to be there so do
not delete it. The part you are concerned with will look like this.
'==FrontPage Generated - startspan==
Dim FrontPage_UrlVars(1)
'--Project Data Connection
Application("aspprotect_ConnectionString")
= "DRIVER={Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb)};DBQ=URL=fpdb/aspprotect.mdb"
FrontPage_UrlVars(0) = "aspprotect_ConnectionString"
Application("aspprotect_ConnectionTimeout") = 15
Application("aspprotect_CommandTimeout") = 30
Application("aspprotect_CursorLocation") = 3
Application("aspprotect_RuntimeUserName") = ""
Application("aspprotect_RuntimePassword") = ""
'--
Application("FrontPage_UrlVars") = FrontPage_UrlVars
'==FrontPage Generated - endspan==
Your going to use the part in blue
as your connection string in your ASP application.
So, in the case of
ASPProtect the connecting string would usually look like this.
ConnectionString = "DBQ=C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\aspprotect\data\database\ASPProtect_access2002.mdb;Driver={Microsoft
Access Driver (*.mdb)};UID=Admin;Password=temp"
instead of that you would use this
ConnectionString =
Application("aspprotect_ConnectionString")
Bacially Frontpage did all the work for us. It
figured out the physical path to the database and set permissions for us.
Now, there is one problem with what we just did. The MSACCESS database used
for
ASPProtect is password protected with a default password. (You can
change it using MSACCESS but that is not the focus of this article)
In order for our Frontpage connection string to work we need to edit the "global.asa"
file and add the Username and Password.
'==FrontPage Generated - startspan==
Dim FrontPage_UrlVars(1)
'--Project Data Connection
Application("aspprotect_ConnectionString")
= "DRIVER={Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb)};DBQ=URL=fpdb/aspprotect.mdb;UID=Admin;Password=temp"
FrontPage_UrlVars(0) = "aspprotect_ConnectionString"
Application("aspprotect_ConnectionTimeout") = 15
Application("aspprotect_CommandTimeout") = 30
Application("aspprotect_CursorLocation") = 3
Application("aspprotect_RuntimeUserName") = "Admin"
Application("aspprotect_RuntimePassword") = "temp"
'--
Application("FrontPage_UrlVars") = FrontPage_UrlVars
'==FrontPage Generated - endspan==
Notice the parts highlighted in red with white
text that we added.
"Admin" is the default username when working with MSAccess and you do not
change that.
That is all there is to it. If your database does not use a password you do
not have to worry about that part. If your FrontPage connection string does
not work then you are one of the lucky few that has a hosting company that
messed up this default behavior.
The other nice thing about this is that FrontPage will give only the
permissions needed to the "FPDB" folder and it will also set the folder to
not allow files to be browsed. This is nice because even if someone knows
the URL location of your database they will not be able to download it by
typing it in via the web browser.
I learned this little trick because I do a lot of installation for my CJWSoft
customers and there were times when I had to do this in order to set up a
working data connection because the hosting company was not helpful in
setting permissions anywhere in the web.
On a side note:
I know a lot of people rag on FrontPage mostly because it creates a lot of
bloated html, but it really can be a nice tool
when working with IIS hosted websites that have the FrontPage extensions
installed. I do most of coding by hand or using other editors, but FrontPage
is my tool of choice when it comes to managing and connecting to my
websites. There is hands down no faster way to connect to and edit a page in
your site especially since most of the time you can just click on the "EDIT"
icon in internet explorer and be editing a page in your site live in a
matter of seconds. I seldom use FTP unless I am transferring a lot of file
or large files to and from my sites. FrontPage has really come a long way
over the years and connecting to a site using it is now a very rock solid
operation unlike in the past.
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