The "Right" web hosting for data access pages??

R

Ron Ehrlich

My wife and I subscribed to what seemed a fairly robust web hosting service
for a monthly fee that was less than ten USD. They are very nice in terms of
help, but I just cannot get the Microsoft Access Data Access Pages thing to
operate. When I tried contacting microsoft about a good web hosting service
for data access pages, they referred me to about 6 companies that charge a
minimum of 300 USD per month, and I dont need hundreds of email accounts,
terabytes of disk space, nor any of the other fancinesses.
At any rate, here is my problemo:
We created an mdb Microsoft Access data base for our web site
which works successfully with an ASP program that we wrote.
So then we want to use the feature of Microsoft Access called "Data
Access Pages", which is functionality that automatically creates canned htm
pages
to update a MS Access mdb data base; we have nothing to do with the
formulation of these htm entities; they get spewed out automatically.
So what we did was this:
1. from scratch, using MS Access, we created a super simple data base
containing records with only two fields: name and phone number. this
data base was called db6.mdb.
2. We then told ms access to automatically create a "data access page"
from the db6.mdb and named it "Contacts.htm".
3. We then used MS Access to change the connection string in
Contacts.htm regarding the location of db6.mdb, so that the connection
string would point to the web host location
(C:\sites\Single6\dheconsl\database\db6.mdb)
4. We then uploaded contacts.htm to our web host webroot area and
db6.mdb to our web host data base area.
5. We then used our IE6 browser under XP-SP2 to attempt to have the
contacts.htm data access page work with the db6.mdb data base and this
failed, as follows: The page displays with an error message, "Microsoft
Office Web Components could not open the data base
C:\sites\Single6\dheconsl\database\db6.mdb".
6. I also tried this on Windows 2000-SP4 using IE6.0.2800.1106 and it
fails the same way as on XP.

So what we are saying is that we do not know how to get Microsoft Data
Access Pages which are automatically created by MS Access to function on
our web site. Please allow me to make it clear that we have
nothing to do with the programming of the data access pages, so we are
not asking for help with programming as such; what we
are asking, please and thank you, is to somehow have the web host
support MS Access Data Access Pages, or any other suggestion for
success.

There seems to be one advertised catch with Data Access Pages that seems
like a feeble arrangement, but of course, we never get to test its validity
because we cant get them to work from our own browser: the catch is this: it
seems that if a developer ever got the drat things working, that any users
would need to buy some .exe file from Microsoft, and that is something we do
not have the luxury of having every user of our proposed web data base
purchase.
The fairy tale solution to this enigma would be for some genius to concoct a
program that converts MS Access forms, queries and reports, into ASP
programs; because we know for sure that ASP programs on our website can
operate with mdb databases on our web site, but the tragic deal is that we
have about a dozen mdb databases with hundreds of forms and reports that we
do not have the funds (we are non-profit) to convert to ASP.
Your reactions, please.
 
R

Ron Ehrlich

--
Ron Ehrlich


Ron Ehrlich said:
My wife and I subscribed to what seemed a fairly robust web hosting service
for a monthly fee that was less than ten USD. They are very nice in terms of
help, but I just cannot get the Microsoft Access Data Access Pages thing to
operate. When I tried contacting microsoft about a good web hosting service
for data access pages, they referred me to about 6 companies that charge a
minimum of 300 USD per month, and I dont need hundreds of email accounts,
terabytes of disk space, nor any of the other fancinesses.
At any rate, here is my problemo:
We created an mdb Microsoft Access data base for our web site
which works successfully with an ASP program that we wrote.
So then we want to use the feature of Microsoft Access called "Data
Access Pages", which is functionality that automatically creates canned htm
pages
to update a MS Access mdb data base; we have nothing to do with the
formulation of these htm entities; they get spewed out automatically.
So what we did was this:
1. from scratch, using MS Access, we created a super simple data base
containing records with only two fields: name and phone number. this
data base was called db6.mdb.
2. We then told ms access to automatically create a "data access page"
from the db6.mdb and named it "Contacts.htm".
3. We then used MS Access to change the connection string in
Contacts.htm regarding the location of db6.mdb, so that the connection
string would point to the web host location
(C:\sites\Single6\dheconsl\database\db6.mdb)
4. We then uploaded contacts.htm to our web host webroot area and
db6.mdb to our web host data base area.
5. We then used our IE6 browser under XP-SP2 to attempt to have the
contacts.htm data access page work with the db6.mdb data base and this
failed, as follows: The page displays with an error message, "Microsoft
Office Web Components could not open the data base
C:\sites\Single6\dheconsl\database\db6.mdb".
6. I also tried this on Windows 2000-SP4 using IE6.0.2800.1106 and it
fails the same way as on XP.

So what we are saying is that we do not know how to get Microsoft Data
Access Pages which are automatically created by MS Access to function on
our web site. Please allow me to make it clear that we have
nothing to do with the programming of the data access pages, so we are
not asking for help with programming as such; what we
are asking, please and thank you, is to somehow have the web host
support MS Access Data Access Pages, or any other suggestion for
success.

There seems to be one advertised catch with Data Access Pages that seems
like a feeble arrangement, but of course, we never get to test its validity
because we cant get them to work from our own browser: the catch is this: it
seems that if a developer ever got the drat things working, that any users
would need to buy some .exe file from Microsoft, and that is something we do
not have the luxury of having every user of our proposed web data base
purchase. (The .exe is called "Office Web Components").
The fairy tale solution to this enigma would be for some genius to concoct a
program that converts MS Access forms, queries and reports, into ASP
programs; because we know for sure that ASP programs on our website can
operate with mdb databases on our web site, but the tragic deal is that we
have about a dozen mdb databases with hundreds of forms and reports that we
do not have the funds (we are non-profit) to convert to ASP.
Your reactions, please.
 
B

Brendan Reynolds

DAPs are something of a specialized area, Ron. If you can get newsgroup
access using a newsreader program such as Outlook Express, you could try
asking the question in the microsoft.public.access.dataaccess.pages
newsgroup, where you may be more likely to find someone with experience in
this area. The general consensus seems to be, though, that DAPs are best
confined to internal intranets, and not really suitable for the public
Internet.
 
G

George Dansen

Just read down below regarding simular issue, this might help... read s:
Subject: save access 2003 on the web
 
G

George Dansen

I was ready to give up looking for someone else with the same problem. I'm
also trying to launch a db driven website for my HOA. Access seems to be the
most cost effective tool but I have the same problem. My pages point back to
my home computer and not the server? Sorry I don't have an answer but I
wanted to let you know I was in the same boat. I will keep watching for
additional info.
 
R

Ron Ehrlich

Two questions:
1. I have MS Outlook but have no experience using newsgroups. What is the
way to contact the newsgroup "microsoft.public.access.dataaccess.pages" with
Outlook, please?
2. If DAP's are best used as you say "confined to internal intranets, and
not really suitable for the public Internet", what is a good cheap package,
similar to what I am used to with MS Access, that automagically generates
forms and reports and queries that could be used on a web-site-resident data
base?? Please don't tell me to set up my own web server and spend thousands
on IIS, etc. There has to be sumpin simpler then that??
Thanks, Ron E.
 
D

Douglas J. Steele

I've heard there's an add-in for Outlook to allow you to contact newsgroups,
but I have no experience with it at all. (I use Outlook Express as a news
reader.) What you want to do is create an account that accesses the server
msnews.microsoft.com, with no authentication required.

As to your second question, I'm not sure there is such a beast. I know many
people who use ASP pages to go against Jet databases, but there's no way of
using Access forms or reports that way.
 
B

Brendan Reynolds

1) Assuming Outlook 2003 - details may differ in other versions ...

First, you'll need to customize the Outlook menu to add the 'News' command.
Right-click the Outlook menu bar, and choose 'Customize'. In the 'Customize'
dialog, select the 'Commands' tab. In the 'Categories' list, select 'Go'. In
the 'Commands' list, scroll down until you find the 'News' command. Now drag
the 'News' command to one of the menus on your main menu bar - the 'Go' menu
seems the logical choice.

Now when you click the 'News' command on Outlook's 'Go' menu, Outlook will
fire up something that it calls 'Microsoft Outlook Newsreader' but is in
reality Outlook Express with some of its features disabled. (You're not
missing anything, the disabled features are features that are already
available in Outlook).

To access newsgroups, you must first set up a news server account. Select
'Accounts' from the 'Tools' menu. In the 'Internet Accounts' dialog, select
the 'News' tab. Click 'Add', then 'News'. In the first, 'Your Name' page of
the wizard, enter the name you want displayed when you post. In the second,
'Internet News E-mail Address' page, enter the e-mail address you want
associated with your posts. I don't advise using a real e-mail address here.
If you want people to be able to send you e-mail, you can use a 'munged' or
disguised version, e.g. (e-mail address removed). And finally, in
the third, 'Internet News Server Name' page, enter the news server name
news.microsoft.com. Leave the 'requires me to log in' check box un-checked.

Now that your account is set up, you'll see it in the 'Folders' list down
the left side of the Outlook Express (a.k.a. 'Microsoft Outlook Newsreader')
screen. Click on it, and you'll be prompted to download the list of
newsgroups. This is a long list, and will take quite some time to download
the first time. You only have to download the whole list once, though. When
the list has downloaded, you'll be able to choose which newsgroups you want
to subscribe to. If you need more help at that stage, it might be better to
ask in an Outlook Express forum - this is beginning to get a little long and
off-topic for an Access newsgroup, and the people who hang out in the
Outlook Express forums may be able to give you better answers than I can.

2) I believe there are some tools out there that claim to automate the
production of dynamic web pages to one degree or another, but I am not
personally familiar with any of them, sorry. I use ASP.NET for web-based
applications. You don't have to pay big bucks for ASP.NET hosting - I use
www.brinkster.com. You don't have to pay big bucks for the development
tools. You can download Web Matrix for free
(http://www.asp.net/webmatrix/download.aspx). Where you will spend money
(lots of money, if you place any kind of realistic value on your time) is on
development time and resources. You really need to budget for that - the
development of any non-trivial, data-centric, web-based application is going
to occupy a great deal of your time and attention for many months.
 

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