13 Using Databases on Your BLUEHILL.com NT Solution
One of the most powerful and useful add-ons available with all BLUEHILL.com NT Advantage accounts is the ability to create databases whose contents can be accessed and displayed through dynamically created Web pages.
This chapter discusses basic database concepts and includes information about accessing databases through ODBC and DSN-less connections. This chapter also relies heavily on the understanding of chapter 5, which covers the use of Active Server Pages (ASP) on your NT server.
13.1 Uploading Database Files
You will need an FTP client program to upload your scripts and database files to the server. If you do not yet have an FTP program, you can download one for free at the following URL:
Once you obtain an FTP client, you should install and configure it according to its documentation.
After you logon to the server through FTP, upload your database file into the /odbc/ directory. Underneath that directory you can then designate it to any folder. Once you have uploaded your database file, you can request an ODBC connection to that database. ODBC allows you to interact with your database.
13.2 ODBC – Open Database Connectivity
Microsoft’s Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) protocol is a widely used and accepted API for database interaction. ODBC uses Structured Query Language (SQL) as its database access language. Most Windows-based products that use databases support ODBC.
Through ODBC, applications such as Cold Fusion, FrontPage, or Active Server Pages can interact with several database systems at once.
Unlike some of our competitors, we give our clients the use of any amount of Database Connections. Whether you have the BLUEHILL.com NT Advantage or the BLUEHILL.com NT Advantage Plus, you will be given the same database connectivity.
13.3 Connecting through ODBC
Before you can use ODBC, you must request an ODBC connection.
The ODBC drivers on the server implement the specific configurations for interacting with the database system and therefore act as interpreters between an application and a database. An ODBC connection establishes a link between your database, the ODBC drivers, and your application.
ODBC drivers allow various applications to interact with your database using some standard commands. Therefore, your application doesn’t even need to know what type of database you’ll be using – it just needs to know that it will connect to it through ODBC.
13.3.1 Choosing a Database Type
We currently support Microsoft Access driver, Microsoft dBase driver, Microsoft Excel driver, Microsoft FoxPro driver, Microsoft ODBC for Oracle, Microsoft Paradox driver, and SQL Server. Because of its ease of use and strong integration with the Microsoft Office family of products, most customers request the Microsoft Access driver. We also offer the SQL Server for customers who are comfortable developing their own tools to use it.
13.3.2 Requesting an ODBC Connection
You first have to upload your database into the /odbc directory or a sub-directory underneath /odbc before requesting an ODBC connection. If you have not yet uploaded your database into the /odbc/ directory or sub-directory underneath /odbc/, please do so according to the instructions in section 18.1.
After you have chosen which ODBC driver you would like to use, contact support via Atlas to request that our NT Support Team set up an ODBC connection. Please include the
name of the database, for example, database.mdb. We will then assign you a Data Source Name (DSN) or you can request a specific name, which you will use in your scripts to access your database.
Once you have an ODBC connection to your database, you will need a text editor so you can write your scripts and save them as text files with the .asp (Active Server Page) or .cfm (Cold Fusion) extension.
