What should I learn to create a database connection?

[kevpho]

OK I'm new at web page design. I have a little background in HTML and Java, but my recent project has been to connect a database system to a web site (etc. to add & delete records, view records, search for records from any computer in the Intranet).

Having absolutely no idea how to do this, I decided to use Microsoft Frontpage's "Database Connection Wizard" to perform the task. However, for some reason it won't do it properly. Frontpage's webbot code is atrocious, I can't even begin to understand it if I wanted to (there are no books about it). Another thing about it is you can't edit it at all or else it doesn't work.

Anyhow, my question is what exactly do I need to learn in order to connect my database? I do believe I need to learn SQL and ASP ... but is there anything else?

If anyone has suggestions or can lead me in the right direction, that would be greatly appreciated. It's so hard to begin when you don't know where to start.

Kevin

 

[skiflyer]

Do you get to choose to your database, or are you being given a database to work with?

You've said you need a web page... so you can learn any of the following (there're likely more, but it's a good start)
PHP, JSP, ColdFusion, ASP

You'll need to learn SQL with any of them. Some are easier to learn than others, some are easier to setup than others, some are more portable than others.

You need to choose a database. (mySQL, Access, and a whole host of others, but those two are probably you're easiest bets)

Hopefully that's something to go on for research. My personal suggestion would be to learn PHP and setup a mySQL database.

-Rob

 

[kevpho]

I do get to choose my own database. I've created it in Access for the time-being, since it's a fairly simple database program to use and already installed with Microsoft Office 2000. The database consists of a few tables for the time being.

I think I will go with ASP since I just basically need to learn a bit of code to add to the HTML page (at least to my current knowledge)? I'm confused on what actually connects to the database. Is it the ASP code that does it and SQL that allows me to work with the database? If so, will it be difficult to incorporate this into an HTML template I have already created?

I don't think I was clear enough before about this, so just for clarification: the database is going to be stored on the main server, and all the computers connected to the server should be able to open up this web page (accessible only within the intranet) to add records/delete records to the database.

Thanks for your help Rob. I'm such a newbie with all this

Kevin

 

[svanels]

Maybe the following like is of some help

Publishing Access Data on the Web

http://databases.about.com/library/weekly/aa010801a.htm

Best regards

Steven van Els
SAvanEls@cq-link.sr

 

[appi]

Hi,
One good working solution will be MySQL Database and PHP. That works fine and you'll put a few lines for MySQL into HTML-Code with PHP.

rgds
Uwe

 

[skiflyer]

Upside to your solution... if you're working on a windows machine and you've already setup IIS to serve web pages, you do just have to put a few lines your HTML.

Downside... if
a) you're not on a windows machine
b) ever want to publish to a site which doesn't use IIS
c) you discover how much better apache is and decide to run it

your code won't work without some serious work

That said, I don't have my asp -> access code around anymore I'm afraid so I can't say much other than to try forum333

-Rob

 

[kevpho]

Downside... if
a) you're not on a windows machine
b) ever want to publish to a site which doesn't use IIS
c) you discover how much better apache is and decide to run it

Rob


The good thing is that the building is running on windows, will be using IIS, and I don't plan on learning apache (hehe.. too many things to learn as it is). I'll take a look at the other forum to see if I can find more information on the subject.

Just one more question though ... or a bit of a concern if anyone could just help clarify things for me. I'm building this site from a workstation and not the server computer. I save everything on an account that's linked to the server. When I go to
Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Data Sources (ODBC)
and try to make a System DSN connection to my database, I get an error which I assume is because I don't have the rights. As well, when I go to
Control Panel -> Add/Remove Programs -> Windows Components
the Internet Information Services option isn't checked.

Does this mean that any coding or what-not I do is inevitably futile since I don't have the proper software installed? If so, I need to talk to the server administrator because he told me earlier that I should have all the rights and software to do what I need to do. I'm not sure if it matters because I'm not on the server computer anyhow and maybe that has IIS installed. This whole intranet thing has got me confused beyond belief.

Thanks for everyone's help and suggestions !! I really appreciate it. Once I gain more knowledge on these subjects I hope I can answer other people's questions as well ... but for now I'm still going to rack my brain over these simple concepts.

Kevin

 

[harebrain]

Does this mean that any coding or what-not I do is inevitably futile since I don't have the proper software installed?

No. IIS and Access are installed on the server for the production environment. Your job will be easier if your development machine:

-- has a copy (or sample) of the Access database
-- has IIS (or PWS) installed for you to test with

After your ASP pages are developed, copy them to the directory on the server that is linked to IIS's virtual directory for your project (and give them one last test.)

You should also avoid ODBC (one less thing to administer.) You can use a DSN-less ADO connection to access your Access database; you just supply properties to the ADO connection object to let it know where to find the database.