Sending form data to a database outside of WSS

I hope you get some good answers on this - I haven't tried it yet, but the correct way to go is supposedly Infopath. I've looked at some books on it and it looks pretty straight forward. If it does what it says it will, it should pull/update data from external SQL Servers without coding.

If you do have to code it, it would have to be done in VB.NET or ASP.NET using ADO.NET. I've done a couple projects, and the real PIA seems to be just getting the SQL db hooked to the code. Once you have the pipes set up, it's pretty easy after that, you can write Stored Procedures in Enterprise manager and then execute them from your VB.NET app, which I really like because they give me a repository for business rules that I can pull up on the screen and show the calcs to the managers and execute reliably every time, or you can code directly to the tables, something I just don't think the net is ready for.

Thanks for the info. I don't know much about infopath, so i'll do a little reading on that. I've already got the frontpage to recognize the external databases allready (yes this was a pain) so my task is to get the submission forms to insert data into those tables outside of sharepoint. I'll also try stored procedures because i know how to handle that better....I'll keep you posted.

Supposedly, Infopath pretty much gives you the advanced form design tools you get in Access, but in a form you can embed on a web page. Supposedly you link the thing to your SQL db using a URL, and then the tables and views in your SQL db should appear, and then it is drag and drop after that.

wow, that sounds fairly straightforward. thanks for the scoop.