MS-ACCESS AND INTERNET ~ LEARN MS-ACCESS TIPS AND TRICKS

Courtesy: All Articles on Microsoft Access and Internet are indebted to Susan Sales Harkins and Martin W.P.Reid

The following article with examples illustrates how to use Microsoft Access Database on the internet. The example ASP Codes (or your Project for Internet) can be tried out on the Local machine itself after installing a Personal Web Server (Windows 98) or Internet Information Services (Windows 2000) on your PC.

Install the local server

The first step is to install Personal Web Server or Internet Information Services, so skip to the next page if a server is already installed. PWS is a desktop Web server that allows you to connect to a network and share data. The example ASP files will use your system's server (PWS or IIS) to simulate downloading data from the internet, but that data will really be on your local system.

To install PWS on Windows 98:

Insert your Windows 98 install disc in your CD-ROM drive.
Click the Start button on the taskbar and choose Run.
Enter the statement x:\add-on\pws\setup.exe
where x represents your CD-ROM drive letter. Click OK.
Click Next after reading the welcoming message.
Click the Add/Remove button.
Make sure the following items are checked:
- Common Program Files, FrontPage 98,
- Server Extensions,
- Microsoft Data Access Components 1.5,
- Personal Web Server (PWS),
- and Transaction Server.
Then click Next.
When prompted, click Finish to complete the installation. Then restart your computer.

To install IIS on Windows 2000:

Insert your Windows 2000 install disc in your CD-ROM drive.
Click Install Add-on Components.
Check the Internet Information Services(IIS) item and click Next. You can expect to wait a few minutes while Windows completes the process.
When Windows displays the Windows Components Wizard dialog box, click Finish.
Select Exit in the Microsoft Windows 2000 CD dialog box.

After installing PWS or IIS, open Windows Explorer and locate a new folder named inetpub on your local drive. C:\inetpub is the most likely location. Open this folder to find the wwwroot subfolder, otherwise known as the Web root. All subfolders and the files within wwwroot will be accessible via the Web. Initially, there will be only two files in this folder, default.asp and global.asp, but this article doesn't deal with them.

A known bug installing PWS

You may encounter an error when installing the Transaction Server on Windows 95 and 98 systems. For complete information, read the Knowledge Base Article at Microsoft's site or follow these instructions:

Create a temporary folder named \Temp on your local hard drive.
Insert your Windows 98 install CD and copy the complete contents of x:add-ons\pws\ to \Temp.
Download mtssetup.exe from the knowledge Base page.
Execute mtssetup.exe by double-clicking it, extract Mtssetup.dll to \Temp, and confirm the overwrite process.
In \Temp, double-click setup.exe to begin the installation process. Follow the PWS instructions above.

After installing PWS or IIS, you should create a new folder to store the database and ASP files that you'll execute in order to retrieve data from that database. Create the new folder in \inetpub\wwwroot and name it sample. Then copy the Northwinds sample database that comes with Access into this new folder. You'll find the Northwind.mdb file in \Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\Samples. If you can't locate Northwind.mdb., use the Windows Find feature or insert your Office CD and install it.

By default, a folder won't share files. So after you've created the sample folder, right-click its icon in Windows Explorer, select Properties, then click the Web Sharing tab. Select the Share This Folder option and click OK. Now Windows will allow you to share the files within this folder on a network.

Click Next for example .asp files.