Dreamweaver CS4 Resources

Create a connection using a local DSN

Note: This section assumes you have set up an ASP application. It also assumes a database is set up on your local computer or on a system to which you have network or FTP access.

You can use a data source name (DSN) to create an ODBC connection between your web application and your database. A DSN is a name containing all the parameters needed to connect to a specific database using an ODBC driver.

Because you can only specify an ODBC driver in a DSN, you must use a connection string if you want to use an OLE DB provider.

You can use a locally defined DSN to create a database connection in Dreamweaver.

Define a DSN on the Windows computer running Dreamweaver.
For instructions, see the following articles on the Microsoft website:
- If the computer runs Windows 2000, see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 300596 at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;300596
- If the computer runs Windows XP, see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 305599 at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;305599
Open an ASP page in Dreamweaver, and then open the Databases panel (Window > Databases).
Click the Plus (+) button on the panel and select Data Source Name (DSN) from the menu.
Enter a name for the new connection, without spaces or special characters.
Select the Using Local DSN option and choose the DSN you want to use from the Data Source Name (DSN) menu.
If you want to use a local DSN but haven’t defined one yet, click Define to open the Windows ODBC Data Source Administrator.
Complete the User Name and Password boxes.
You can restrict the number of database items Dreamweaver retrieves at design time by clicking Advanced, and entering a schema or catalog name.
Note: You cannot create a schema or catalog in Microsoft Access.
Click Test to connect to the database, and then click OK. If the connection fails, double‑check the connection string or check the settings for the test folder Dreamweaver uses to process dynamic pages.