I have a vision... (1 Viewer)

[MikeFabro]

Alright, I've got this vision in my head, and I think its possible, but I'm having trouble getting it off the ground.

I have a database that needs to be populated by users from around the world. The users that are to populate the database will do so from an online form. I would like to be able to send a link to each specific user that will take them to a standard data entry form that will have their personal information already in the appropriate fields so they do not have to fill it out again.

Currently, my Access 2000 DB is published on the web via a Data Access Page. This allows users to input information, but they have to complete all of the fields and it is very impersonal. I've noticed that there really isn't a lot of support literature out there for DAPs, so I've tried to look into other methods of making my vision come true. ASP seems like it might be the way to go, but I don't have access to an IIS compliant server, so that's a no go.

Are there any suggestions on how I might be able to fulfill all of my requirements with Data Access Pages? And if not, or if that sounds ridiculous, is there a specific protocol/language/scripting tool that might work?

Thanks very much!

 

[Kodo]

DAP's are ASP pages really. If you're running them on the web then you I believe you still need IIS to run them. It would make sense then that you are using IIS..no?

 

[AccessKurzo]

There are sites out there that will give free accounts that support Access 2000 and ASP.

Check out www.brinkster.com - they used to have free accounts - or a paid monthly account is fairly reasonably priced. They have lots of code snipits, too.

For ASP code tutorials/snipits - go to www.aspin.com

 

[Kodo]

bunch of other great sites
www.asp101.com
www.4guysfromrolla.com
www.haneng.com

I started off with ASP before moving to VBA so I can probably answer most of your ASP related questions.

 

[MikeFabro]

horray for help

DAP's are ASP pages really. If you're running them on the web then you I believe you still need IIS to run them. It would make sense then that you are using IIS..no?

Good point, and I thought that myself... but when I spoke with our Tech dude (our webspace is hosted by the University of Waterloo) - he said that there were only 2 IIS enabled servers and I wouldn't have access to them... What would be a simple way to test if the server we're using can support ASP? I wrote an ASP, but I think my connection code is all munged up - and I'm not entirely clear how I would go about writing it.

Right now, I'm uploading files into some filespace under an email account that has a folder entitled Public_html - from here, whenever anyone types in the appropriate URL, it accesses the files in this folder... I don't know if this is a "normal" way of publishing a website or not, but it works great for HTML pages. The database that I'm using is located in a shared folder on my PC.

 

[Kodo]

it's so simple it's scary.
ready?

make a page with an ASP extension type the following


<%="hello world"%>

put the page on the server. Try to call the page. If you see ' hello world ' then your server supports ASP.

You should also note that IIS 4.0 supports ASP 2 by default
IIS5 (win2k), II5.1(WinXP) and IIS6(windows server 2003) support ASP 3 by default.

Though you should note that you cannot connect to an access db remotely. Well, that's up for argument. I've never seen it work. For example. The Access db MUST reside on the server and not your local machine or it won't work.

Additionally, you should know that access isn't the best performer for heavy hits. I'd say 20 concurrent connections..tops.

 

[MikeFabro]

Wow - okay, I created a file named test.asp, and in it there is only one line -- the line from the post above. When I go to access the page, the only thing on the screen is <%="hello world"%> just as it is written in the file... almost like it were am HTML file and that were the text... ??

Also, I can access my DB remotely using the DAP that I've already set up!

 

[Kodo]

Wow - okay, I created a file named test.asp, and in it there is only one line -- the line from the post above. When I go to access the page, the only thing on the screen is <%="hello world"%> just as it is written in the file... almost like it were am HTML file and that were the text... ??

Also, I can access my DB remotely using the DAP that I've already set up!

If all you see is <%="hello world"%> then ASP is either not running or is not supported.

DAP's won't work outside of IIS as separate ASP pages. They'll work in Access though just fine. But in order to process ASP you need to have IIS that is running ASP support. To save some confusion. IIS supports ASP by default, but you can turn off scripting support so that is why I said it is either unsupported or not running.

When you say you are accessing them remotely, are you opening your DAP's from with in access? or via Internet Explorer or some other browser

 

[MikeFabro]

I'm using IE 6.0 to look at the DAP

 

[Kodo]

where do you have the pages stored?

 

[MikeFabro]

where do you have the pages stored?

Each student account (in this case email account is not student designated) has some space on a file server that can be accessed through the Universities FTP protocol that they have developed. Basically, I upload pages to the appropriate folder, and when I go to the designated webspace-- in this case http://www.ahs.uwaterloo.ca/~hlthpriv the pages can be viewdeq

 

[Kodo]

well, I just took a more close look at DAP code that is generated. It looks to be client side script and that would be the reason why I was confuzzled.

here's something else you should know. You can't use DAP across domains unless you lower IE's security settings to allow data across domains.

I would agree ASP would be a good solution for you but you'd need to hook up with a server that is running IIS. If you're running a win2k or XP(pro) box then you can install IIS through add/remove components in the control panel.
The limitation of IIS on the PRO WORKSTATIONS is that it only allows 10 connections (as in HTTP connections) to the server.

I guess you could pretty up the DAP pages a bit more with some custom code but it looks all cluttered with CSS spewed all over the place.

 

[MikeFabro]

Okay, thanks for clearing up the confusion.

Well the disadvantages of using DAPs seem to be coming damn near close to the benefits that they provide... Can you think of any other solutions that might work aside from using ASPs (ie. solutions that wouldn't require me to put up a fuss to get an IIS capable server)? The reason for not pursuing another site to host is due to the fact that my site needs to look very professional- I don't think a free or even pay site would do the trick, but I'll check with my boss and look into it.

 

[MikeFabro]

The reason for not pursuing another site to host is due to the fact that my site needs to look very professional- I don't think a free or even pay site would do the trick, but I'll check with my boss and look into it.

I'm dumb- I should have looked into Brinkster first-- they let you use your own domain

 

[MikeFabro]

Okay, I think I'm going to try to push for ASP - my boss will go for it.

Do you know how to parse info from the actual URL - I know you can store arguments in the URL itself by preceeding them with '?', but I don't know how to access them - is there an ASP tag that'll allow me to do that? if not... any ideas?

 

[Kodo]

Okay, I think I'm going to try to push for ASP - my boss will go for it.

Do you know how to parse info from the actual URL - I know you can store arguments in the URL itself by preceeding them with '?', but I don't know how to access them - is there an ASP tag that'll allow me to do that? if not... any ideas?

easy as pie.. using the request collection


example url (note elements are case sensitive, ID is not the same as id)
http://www.myurl.com?npage=1&blah=2

--------asp page--------

<%
mypage=request.querystring("npage")
myblah=request.querystring("blah")

you can also use request("varname"). This is used when you have say a form variable that might be passed and you also pass the same variable from another link to the same page via a URL. So long as the varname is the same it will scan all the request collection for matches. This is a little bit (miniscule) slower but it can save coding when you need to check if a value exits. example:

if request.querystring("npage")="" then
npage=request.form("npage")
end if

kind of long to check for.. so instead we just do

request("npage")

and it will pick the matching collection. I forget which one has precedence over the other though just incase you're passing the same value in a form and a querystring(which is redundant and is bad practice).

 

[chewy]

Kodo, what part of Syracuse do you live in?

 

[Kodo]

Kodo, what part of Syracuse do you live in?

Actually, I live in CLAY.. but I say 'cuse because others don't have a clue where clay is.