Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 177 views

    Connecting To An Access Database Using ASP

    Uploaded by

    k_sandosh
    This document provides instructions for connecting to an Access database using ASP and summarizes the steps to create a simple guestbook application. The key steps are: 1. Create a Microsoft Access database called "guestbook.mdb" with three fields - ID, Name, and Comments. 2. Create an ASP page that connects to the Access database using ADO, queries the database to retrieve records, and displays the records on the web page. 3. Create an HTML form to collect a visitor's name and comment which is submitted to an ASP page that adds the data to the Access database.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Connecting To An Access Database Using ASP

    Uploaded by

    k_sandosh
    177 views9 pages
    This document provides instructions for connecting to an Access database using ASP and summarizes the steps to create a simple guestbook application. The key steps are: 1. Create a Microsoft Access database called "guestbook.mdb" with three fields - ID, Name, and Comments. 2. Create an ASP page that connects to the Access database using ADO, queries the database to retrieve records, and displays the records on the web page. 3. Create an HTML form to collect a visitor's name and comment which is submitted to an ASP page that adds the data to the Access database.

    Original Title

    Connecting to an Access Database Using ASP

    Copyright

    © Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)

    Available Formats

    DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    This document provides instructions for connecting to an Access database using ASP and summarizes the steps to create a simple guestbook application. The key steps are: 1. Create a Microsoft Access database called "guestbook.mdb" with three fields - ID, Name, and Comments. 2. Create an ASP page that connects to the Access database using ADO, queries the database to retrieve records, and displays the records on the web page. 3. Create an HTML form to collect a visitor's name and comment which is submitted to an ASP page that adds the data to the Access database.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    177 views9 pages

    Connecting To An Access Database Using ASP

    Uploaded by

    k_sandosh
    This document provides instructions for connecting to an Access database using ASP and summarizes the steps to create a simple guestbook application. The key steps are: 1. Create a Microsoft Access database called "guestbook.mdb" with three fields - ID, Name, and Comments. 2. Create an ASP page that connects to the Access database using ADO, queries the database to retrieve records, and displays the records on the web page. 3. Create an HTML form to collect a visitor's name and comment which is submitted to an ASP page that adds the data to the Access database.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    of 9

    Connecting To An Access

    Database Using ASP


    Difficulty:

    Demo: Sample Guestbook

    Download: database_tutorials.zip

    If you are reading this page then I shall assume that you already know a little bit about ASP and running ASP
    applications.

    To make this tutorial more interesting and the following database tutorials on, Adding, Deleting, and Updating,
    data from a Microsoft Access database, we are going to use these tutorials to make a simple Guestbook
    application.

    Before we can connect to a database we need a database to connect too.

    Creating the Guestbook


    Database
    To create a database your first need to open Microsoft Access and choose 'Blank Access Database' from the
    starting menu. You will be prompted for a name for the database and where you want it saved. Call the database
    'guestbook.mdb' and save it in the same directory as the web page connecting to the database is going to be.

    You should now see the main Access dialog box, from here select 'Create table in design view'.

    You now need to create 3 fields for the database and select their data types.

    Field 1 needs to be called 'ID_no' and have the data type of 'AutoNumber'. Also set this field as the primary key.

    Field 2 needs to be called 'Name' and have the data type of text.

    Field 3 needs to be called 'Comments' and also has the data type of text, but this time you need to change the
    default field size of 50 to 100 characters under the 'General' tab in the 'Field Properties' box at the bottom of the
    screen.
    Once all the field's have been created and the data types and primary key set, save the table as 'tblComments'.

    Now the table has been created you need to enter some test data into the table. You can do this by double-
    clicking on the new table (tblComments) in the main dialog box. From here you can enter some test data. I would
    recommend entering at least 3 pieces of test data.

    If you are having trouble creating the database then you can download this tutorial containing the Access
    Database with test data already entered.

    Connecting to the Guestbook


    Database
    Now that the database is created and test data entered we can get on with creating the web page to display the
    data from the database.

    First we need to start web page, open up your favourite text editor and type the following HTML.

    <html>
    <head>
    <title>My First ASP Page</title>
    </head>
    <body bgcolor="white" text="black">

    Next we can begin writing the ASP to connect to the database. First we need to create the variables that we are
    going to use in the script.

    <%
    'Dimension variables
    Dim adoCon 'Holds the Database Connection Object
    Dim rsGuestbook 'Holds the recordset for the records in the database
    Dim strSQL 'Holds the SQL query to query the database

    Next we need to create a database connection object on the server using the ADO Database connection object.

    'Create an ADO connection object


    Set adoCon = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")

    Now we need to open a connection to the database. There are a couple of ways of doing this either by using a
    system DSN or a DSN-less connection. First I am going to show you how to make a DSN-less connection as this
    is faster and simpler to set up than a DSN connection.

    To create a DSN-less connection to an Access database we need tell the connection object we created above to
    open the database by telling the connection object to use the 'Microsoft Access Driver' to open the database
    'guestbook.mdb'.

    You'll notice the ASP method 'Server.MapPath' in font of the name of the database. This is used as we need to
    get the physical path to the database. Server.MapPath returns the physical path to the script, e.g. 'c:\website\',
    as long as the database is in the same folder as the script it now has the physical path to the database and the
    database name.

    'Set an active connection to the Connection object using a DSN-less connection


    adoCon.Open "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0; Data Source=" & Server.MapPath("guestbook.mdb")

    If on the other hand you want to use a slower DSN connection to the database then you will need to replace the
    line above with the one below. Also if you don't know how to setup a system DSN you will need to read my
    tutorial on, Setting up a System DSN.

    'Set an active connection to the Connection object using DSN connection


    adoCon.Open "DSN=guestbook"

    Next create an ADO recordset object which will hold the records from the database.

    'Create an ADO recordset object


    Set rsGuestbook = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Recordset")

    To query a database we need to use SQL (Structured Query Language). In the next line we initialise the variable
    'strSQL' with an SQL query to read in the fields 'Name' and 'Comments' form the 'tblComments' table.

    'Initialise the strSQL variable with an SQL statement to query the database
    strSQL = "SELECT tblComments.Name, tblComments.Comments FROM tblComments;"

    Now we can open the recordset and run the SQL query on the database returning the results of the query to the
    recordset.

    'Open the recordset with the SQL query


    rsGuestbook.Open strSQL, adoCon

    Using a 'Do While' loop we can loop through the recordset returned by the database while the recordset is not at
    the end of file (EOF). The 'Response.Write' method is used to output the recordset to the web page. The
    'MoveNext' method of the recordset object is used to move to the next record in the recordset before looping
    back round to display the next record.

    'Loop through the recordset


    Do While not rsGuestbook.EOF

    'Write the HTML to display the current record in the recordset


    Response.Write ("<br>")
    Response.Write (rsGuestbook("Name"))
    Response.Write ("<br>")
    Response.Write (rsGuestbook("Comments"))
    Response.Write ("<br>")

    'Move to the next record in the recordset


    rsGuestbook.MoveNext
    Loop

    And finally we need to close the recordset, reset the server objects, close the server side scripting tag, and close
    the html tags.

    'Reset server objects


    rsGuestbook.Close
    Set rsGuestbook = Nothing
    Set adoCon = Nothing
    %>

    </body>
    </html>

    Now call the file you have created 'guestbook.asp' and save it in the same directory folder as the database, don't
    forget the '.asp' extension.

    And that's about it, you have now created a connection to a database and displayed you Guestbook in a web
    page, now to find out how add comments to the Guestbook through a web form read the next tuorial on, Adding
    Data to an Access Database.

    If you find that you are getting errors connecting to the database then please read through the Access Database
    Errors FAQ's, practically make sure you have the correct 'ODBC Drivers' installed on your system and if you are
    using the, 'NTFS file system', make sure the permissions are correct for the database and the directory the
    database in.

    Adding Data to An Access


    Database Using ASP
    Difficulty:

    Author: -borg-

    Demo: Adding Data to Database An Access Database

    Download: database_tutorials.zip

    In this tutorial we are going to be adding data to the Guestbook database made in the tutorial Part: 1 Connecting
    to an Access Database.

    To make the Microsoft Access database tutorials on Connecting, Adding, Deleting, and Updating, more interesting
    we are going to use these tutorials to make a simple Guestbook.

    In the first database tutorial, Part: 1 Connecting to an Access Database, we learned how to connect to a database
    and display the contents of a database table in a web page.

    In this tutorial we use an HTML form to take a site visitors name and comments and add these to the database.
    We will then use the page 'guestbook.asp' made in the first database tutorial to display the contents of the
    database (don't worry if you didn't do the first database tutorial, the 'Guestbook database' and the
    'guestbook.asp' page are included in the zip file for this tutorial).

    Creating an HTML Page to take


    User Input
    First we need to quickly create an HTML page with a form on it to take the input from the user.

    In this page we will have two text boxes, one called 'name' and the other called, 'comments', we will then use the
    post method to send the page to the file, 'add_to_guestbook.asp' that we are going to be creating later in this
    tutorial, which will add the user input into the database.
    <html>
    <head>
    <title>Guestbook Form</title>
    </head>
    <body bgcolor="white" text="black">
    <!-- Begin form code -->
    <form name="form" method="post" action="add_to_guestbook.asp">
    Name: <input type="text" name="name" maxlength="20">
    <br>
    Comments: <input type="text" name="comments" maxlength="50">
    <input type="submit" name="Submit" value="Submit">
    </form>
    <!-- End form code -->
    </body>
    </html>

    Save the page as 'guestbook_form.htm' in the same folder as the Guestbook database.

    Adding Data to the Guestbook


    Database
    Now we've got the form, to input the data through, out of the way we can make the the page that does all the
    work, adding the data to the database.

    This page contains no HTML so we can start writing the asp straight away, still don't forget the server side script
    tags, <% .... %>.

    First we need to dimension the variables used in the script, so open your favourite text editor and enter the
    following code.

    <%
    'Dimension variables
    Dim adoCon 'Holds the Database Connection Object
    Dim rsAddComments 'Holds the recordset for the new record to be added
    Dim strSQL 'Holds the SQL query to query the database

    Next we need to create a database connection object on the server using the ADO Database connection object.

    'Create an ADO connection object


    Set adoCon = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")

    Now we need to open a connection to the database. There are a couple of ways of doing this either by using a
    system DSN or a DSN-less connection. First I am going to show you how to make a DSN-less connection as this
    is faster and simpler to set up than a DSN connection.

    To create a DSN-less connection to an Access database we need tell the connection object we created above to
    open the database by telling the connection object to use the 'Microsoft Access Driver' to open the database
    'guestbook.mdb'.

    You'll notice the ASP method 'Server.MapPath' in font of the name of the database. This is used as we need to
    get the physical path to the database. Server.MapPath returns the physical path to the script, e.g. 'c:\website\',
    as long as the database is in the same folder as the script it now has the physical path to the database and the
    database name.

    'Set an active connection to the Connection object using a DSN-less connection


    adoCon.Open "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0; Data Source=" & Server.MapPath("guestbook.mdb")

    If on the other hand you want to use a slower DSN connection to the database then you will need to replace the
    line above with the one below. Also if you don't know how to setup a system DSN you will need to read my
    tutorial on, Setting up a System DSN.
    'Set an active connection to the Connection object using DSN connection
    adoCon.Open "DSN=guestbook"

    Next create an ADO recordset object which will hold the records from the database and the new record to be
    added to the database.

    'Create an ADO recordset object


    Set rsAddComments = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Recordset")

    To query a database we need to use SQL (Structured Query Language). In the next line we initialise the variable
    'strSQL' with an SQL query to read in the fields 'Name' and 'Comments' form the 'tblComments' table.

    'Initialise the strSQL variable with an SQL statement to query the database
    strSQL = "SELECT tblComments.Name, tblComments.Comments FROM tblComments;"

    Set the cursor type we are using to 'adLockOptomistic' so we can move through the recrord set. The integer
    value for this is 2.

    'Set the cursor type we are using so we can navigate through the recordset
    rsAddComments.CursorType = 2

    Because we are going to be saving an updated recordset back to the database we need to set the LockType of
    the recordset to 'adoLockOptimistic' so that the recordset is locked, but only when it is updated. The integer
    value for this lock type is 3.

    'Set the lock type so that the record is locked by ADO when it is updated
    rsAddComments.LockType = 3

    Now we can open the recordset and run the SQL query on the database returning the results of the query to the
    recordset.

    'Open the recordset with the SQL query


    rsAddComments.Open strSQL, adoCon

    Once the recordset is open we can add a new record onto the end of the recordset. In the next line we let the
    recordset know we are adding a new record to it.

    'Tell the recordset we are adding a new record to it


    rsAddComments.AddNew

    Now we can add a new record to the recordset. The details taken from the form we created at the start of this
    tutorial are entered into there relevant fields in the recordset. To get the data entered by the user from the form
    we use the 'Form' method of the ASP 'Request' object to request the data entered into the text boxes, 'name' and
    'comments'.

    'Add a new record to the recordset


    rsAddComments.Fields("Name") = Request.Form("name")
    rsAddComments.Fields("Comments") = Request.Form("comments")

    The data has been entered into the recordset we can save the recordset to the database using the 'Update'
    method of the recordset object.

    'Write the updated recordset to the database


    rsAddComments.Update

    We have finished using the database in this script so we can now close the recordset and reset the server
    objects.

    'Reset server objects


    rsAddComments.Close
    Set rsAddComments = Nothing
    Set adoCon = Nothing

    Now that the database is updated we are going to use the 'Redirect' method of the ASP response object to
    redirect to the 'guestbook.asp' page we created in the first database tutorial, Connecting to an Access Database,
    so we can display the updated database. Note that if you are going to use the 'Response.Redirect' method you
    must remember to redirect before any HTML is written.

    'Redirect to the guestbook.asp page


    Response.Redirect "guestbook.asp"
    %>

    Now call the file 'add_to_guestbook.asp' and save it to the same directory as the database and the
    'guestbook.asp' page, don't forget the '.asp' extension.

    And that's about it, you have now created a simple Guestbook for your web site, to find out how to delete any of
    the comments from the Guestbook database read the next tutorial on, Deleting Data from an Access Database.

    If you find that you are getting errors connecting to the database then please read through the Access Database
    Errors FAQ's, practically make sure you have the correct 'ODBC Drivers' installed on your system and if you are
    using the, 'NTFS file system', make sure the permissions are correct for the database and the directory the
    database in.

    ASP Source Code:


    <%
    Dim DataConn, cmdDC, rsDC
    Dim Item
    Dim iFieldCount, iLoopVar
    Dim strLTorGT, iCriteria, strSortBy, strOrder

    ' Retrieve QueryString Variables and convert them to a usable form


    strLTorGT = Request.QueryString("LTorGT")
    Select Case strLTorGT
    Case "LT"
    strLTorGT = "<"
    Case "GT"
    strLTorGT = ">"
    Case Else
    strLTorGT = "<>"
    End Select

    iCriteria = Request.QueryString("criteria")
    If IsNumeric(iCriteria) Then
    iCriteria = CLng(iCriteria)
    Else
    iCriteria = 0
    End If

    strSortBy = Request.QueryString("sortby")
    Select Case LCase(strSortBy)
    Case "id", "last_name", "first_name", "sales"
    strSortBy = LCase(strSortBy)
    Case Else
    strSortBy = "last_name"
    End Select
    strOrder = Request.QueryString("order")
    If strOrder <> " DESC" Then strOrder = ""
    ' Finally we've got all our info, now to the cool stuff

    ' Create and establish data connection


    Set DataConn = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")
    DataConn.ConnectionTimeout = 15
    DataConn.CommandTimeout = 30

    'Access connection code


    'DataConn.Open "DBQ=" & Server.MapPath("database.mdb") &
    ";Driver={Microsoft Access Driver
    (*.mdb)};DriverId=25;MaxBufferSize=8192;Threads=20;", "username",
    "password"

    'Our SQL Server code - use above line to use sample on your server
    DataConn.Open "Provider=SQLOLEDB;Data Source=10.2.2.133;" _
    & "Initial Catalog=samples;User Id=samples;Password=password;" _
    & "Connect Timeout=15;Network Library=dbmssocn;"

    ' Create and link command object to data connection then set attributes
    and SQL query
    Set cmdDC = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Command")
    cmdDC.ActiveConnection = DataConn
    cmdDC.CommandText = "SELECT * FROM sample WHERE (sales " & strLTorGT &
    " " & iCriteria & ") ORDER BY " & strSortBy & strOrder & ";"
    cmdDC.CommandType = 1

    ' Create recordset and retrieve values using command object


    Set rsDC = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Recordset")
    ' Opening record set with a forward-only cursor (the 0) and in read-
    only mode (the 1)
    rsDC.Open cmdDC, , 0, 1
    %>

    <p><strong>Results of <%= cmdDC.CommandText %></strong></p>

    <table border="1">
    <thead>
    <tr>
    <% For Each Item in rsDC.Fields %>
    <th><%= Item.Name %></th>
    <% Next %>
    </tr>
    </thead>
    <%
    ' Loop through recordset and display results
    If Not rsDC.EOF Then rsDC.MoveFirst

    ' Get the number of fields and subtract one so our loops start at 0
    iFieldCount = rsDC.Fields.Count - 1

    ' Continue till we get to the end, and while in each <TR> loop through
    fields
    Do While Not rsDC.EOF
    %> <tr>
    <% For iLoopVar = 0 to iFieldCount %>
    <td><%= rsDC.Fields(iLoopVar) %></td>
    <% Next %>
    </tr>
    <%
    rsDC.MoveNext
    Loop
    %>
    </table>

    <%
    ' Close Data Access Objects and free DB variables
    rsDC.Close
    Set rsDC = Nothing
    ' can't do a "cmdDC.Close" !
    Set cmdDC = Nothing
    DataConn.Close
    Set DataConn = Nothing
    %>

    <br />

    <strong>Build your own query:</strong>


    <form action="<%= Request.ServerVariables("URL") %>" method="get">
    Sales:
    <input type="radio" name="LTorGT" value="LT" checked />Less Than
    <input type="radio" name="LTorGT" value="GT" />Greater Than
    <input type="text" name="criteria" value="4500" size="10" />
    <br />
    Sort By:
    <select name="sortby">
    <option value="id">ID</option>
    <option value="last_name">Last Name</option>
    <option value="first_name">First Name</option>
    <option value="sales">Sales</option>
    </select>
    <select name="order">
    <option value="">Ascending
    <option value=" DESC">Descending
    </select>
    <br />
    <input type="submit" value="Run Query" />
    </form>

    You might also like