DSNless Connection Quandry

[scorniglia]

Hi All,
I just signed up with a CF host that allows me to use Paradox tables (my preferred database format), only through a DSNless connection. I currently have CF4 on my computer to develop with, but I understand that only CF5 supports DSNless connections, not CF4 or MX. I can't find a version of CF5 trial anywhere. How can I get this or otherwise use DSNless connections on my development machine for testing purposes?

Also does anyone know the connection string for a DSNless connection to a Paradox table? I have seen examples for Access but don't know if there are any differences with what I have to do, and can't test it due to the problems above.

The CF host tells me that a DSNless connection should be faster than a DSN. Has this been peoples experience?

All help appreciated.

Regards,
Roy F.

 

[SidianConsulting]

Actually, a DSNless connection might be faster when you are solely working with a database, but add users and a DSN is mandatory, since a DSNless connection will not bear hardly any load at all.

As to your question about getting CF 5 -- I don't think you can get it any more. You might be able to buy it, or buy CF Studio 5.0 from a retailer that still has some in stock and get the single user developer version of CF 5 Server with it.

CF 5 was the only version to support DSNless connections. CFMX does not provide this feature any longer since it is now integrated with Java and JDBC, making the DSNless connection string obsolete, if you will.

If your host supports ASP, you could open an ADODB connection via the cfobject tag to your database file, but this defeats the purpose of CF's ease-of-use.

-Tek

 

[scorniglia]

Thanks Tek,

"Actually, a DSNless connection might be faster when you are solely working with a database, but add users and a DSN is mandatory, since a DSNless connection will not bear hardly any load at all."

The site is for internal use only, and the max total users will be around 45. I'm not sure how many might be on at one time. Would a low volume site such as this be acceptable with a DSNless connection or is my CF Host giving me a line of bull?

Regards,
Roy F.

 

[SidianConsulting]

I can't give you an exact number of users that would cause a problem with a DSNless connection, but I would guess that 45 users, if they are hitting the application quite a bit, would cause a few slowdowns at least. As far as a DSNless connection being better than using a DSN, in my opinion it isn't in any case -- any peformance gain you MIGHT get will be outweighed by the resources needed to keep serving data from the database and the potential timeouts and slowdowns that will occur.

With DSNs, you can use features such as connection pooling, which means a database connection doesn't have to be opened every time your application needs to retrieve or write data.

The best way is to simply test it out, though. See if you can get a DSN set up and then try out both methods to prove it to yourself.

-Tek