Connecting to a Database

The topics in this section take you through the two basic steps required for connecting to a database from an ASP page: creating a connection string, and opening a database connection. This section also explains how to use FrontPage database features with Sun Chili!Soft ASP. It also explains how to migrate a Microsoft Access database running on a Windows-based computer to a dBASE database running on a UNIX or Linux system.

A connection string provides information required by the Sun Chili!Soft ASP Server to establish the connection. Within a connection string, you can use one of three ways to specify information about a database, as described later in this section: a system DSN, a DSN-less connection string, and a file DSN.

You open a database connection by using the ADO Connection object included with Sun Chili!Soft ASP. You can then use other ADO objects to display and manipulate data on the ASP page. For more information about using ADO objects, see "ADO Component Reference" in "Chapter 5: Developer's Reference."

If you are going to pass data exceeding 64,000 bytes to a database, your system administrator should increase the maxLongFieldLength parameter for ADO, as described in "Editing the Chili!Soft Configuration File" in "Chapter 3: Managing Sun Chili!Soft ASP."

In this section:

· Creating Connection Strings

· Opening the Database Connection

· Using FrontPage Database Features

· Migrating a Microsoft Access Database to dBASE