Adobe Dreamweaver CC 2015 - Manual (Page 553)

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Dynamic sites, pages and web forms
Last updated 6/3/2015
You can use a data source name (DSN) or a connection string to connect to the database. You must use a connection
string if you’re connecting through an OLE DB provider or an ODBC driver not installed on a Windows system.
A DSN is a one-word identifier, such as myConnection, that points to the database and contains all the information
needed to connect to it. You define a DSN in Windows. You can use a DSN if you’re connecting through an ODBC
driver installed on a Windows system.
A connection string is a hand-coded expression that identifies the database and lists the information needed to connect
to it, as shown in the following example:
Driver={SQL Server};Server=Socrates;Database=AcmeMktg;
UID=wiley;PWD=roadrunner
Note: You can also use a connection string if you’re connecting through an ODBC driver installed on a Windows system,
but using a DSN is easier.
About OLE DB connections
You can use an OLE DB provider to communicate with your database (OLE DB is available only on Windows NT, 2000,
or XP). Creating a direct database-specific OLE DB connection can improve the speed of your connection by
eliminating the ODBC layer between your web application and the database.
If you don’t specify an OLE DB provider for your database, ASP uses the default OLE DB provider for ODBC drivers
to communicate with an ODBC driver, which in turn communicates with the database.
Different OLE DB providers exist for different databases. You can obtain OLE DB providers for Microsoft Access and
SQL Server by downloading and installing the Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) 2.5 and 2.7 packages on
the Windows computer running IIS. You can download the MDAC packages for free from the Microsoft website at
http://msdn.microsoft.com/data/mdac/downloads/ .
Note: Make sure you install MDAC 2.5 before installing MDAC 2.7.
You can download OLE DB providers for Oracle databases from the Oracle website at
www.oracle.com/technology/software/tech/windows/ole_db/index.html (registration is required).
In Dreamweaver, you create an OLE DB connection by including a Provider parameter in a connection string. For
example, here are parameters for common OLE DB providers for Access, SQL Server, and Oracle databases,
respectively:
Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;...
Provider=SQLOLEDB;...
Provider=OraOLEDB;...
For the parameter value of your OLE DB provider, see your provider vendor’s documentation, or consult your system
administrator.
Database Database driver
Microsoft Access Microsoft Access Driver (ODBC)
Microsoft Jet Provider for Access (OLE DB)
Microsoft SQL Server Microsoft SQL Server Driver (ODBC)
Microsoft SQL Server Provider (OLE DB)
Oracle Microsoft Oracle Driver (ODBC)
Oracle Provider for OLE DB