working with databases theory

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firegryphon3207

I'm a little unsure about this. I'm not uber experienced with databases and I just want to make sure I at least understand the concept of what I'm doing.

So, here it goes. I have a database (it's already been created curtesy of the government) and I'd like to able to allow my visitors to view the information in database. Bear with me, I'm a little hazy on this.

My question is, Can I create a form and whatever the user inputs would then become the "variables" (for lack of a better word) that I instuct the database to look for? I'm not sure that entirely makes sense, but if needed, I can try to clarigy it.

Nevermore

That is possible. I can do it with PHP and MySQL, but for ASP, MSSQL etc. you would need someone else.

firegryphon3207

Thanks. The Database itself is an Access database. I'm pretty green with the asp stuff here. I'm trying to figure out how to execute the idea of how I want this to work. Thanks for the help! Any other ideas are welcome.

Nevermore

Your database will have to be converted to a web-ready format. What technologies does your server support?

AdamGundry

You should be able to read an Access database in ASP. Find a tutorial on ASP/databases, and if you have any specific questions post in the ASP forum.

Adam

firegryphon3207

That was my understanding as well. Since we don't use alot of server technologies across the site, I'm at this point really just determining what goes where. Which pages need what.
Any recomendations on a asp/datasbase tutorials? I've hit up w3cschools, any other suggestions?

AdamGundry

I use PHP and MySQL so I can't really advise you on ASP tutorials. You could try posting a question in the ASP forum.

Adam

firegryphon3207

Thanks for the help-I'm going to take the advice because after surfing around I'm even more confused than when I started.

khaki

hi firegryphon3207...

I don't know if this will confuse you even more...
or maybe less :rolleyes:

but anyway... here is a working page that only requires you to plug-in your own Variable name, DB name, Table name, and Field names.
(the areas that you need to "plug-in" are in bold)

You will also need to create the page that calls this one (the one that submits the user's form input).

give this a go and let me know if you can get it to work for you.

have fun
k

<%
' this part retrieves the users input from the form and assigns a variable to hold that value

dim passed_variable
passed_variable = Request.Form("user_input_from_form")
%>

<%
' this connection code is styled similarly to the ones used on asp.com (i think).

openStr = "driver={Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb)};" & _
"dbq=" & Server.MapPath("put_the_name_of_your_database_here.mdb")
Set cn = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")
cn.Open openStr

' now you need to query the database using SQL and insert the variable as a search criteria.
' (note that there is an ORDER BY used here. that would only really apply to queries that...
' ... return more than 1 record. just so you know)

sql = "SELECT name_of_field_1, name_of_field_2, name_of_field_3 " &
"FROM name_of_the_table " &

"WHERE (name_of_field_1 = '" & passed_variable & "')" & _

"ORDER BY name_of_field_1;"

Set rs = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Recordset")
rs.Open sql, cn, 3, 3
%>

<html>
<head>
<title></title>
</head>
<body>




<table border="1">
<tr>
<td><b>field_1 Heading</b></td>
<td><b>field_2 Heading</b></td>
<td><b>field_3 Heading</b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><% = rs.Fields("name_of_field_1") %></td>
<td><% = rs.Fields("name_of_field_2") %></td>
<td><% = rs.Fields("name_of_field_3") %></td>
</tr>
</table>

<br>


<br>

<table border="1">
<tr>
<td><b>field_1 Heading</b></td>
<td><b>field_2 Heading</b></td>
<td><b>field_3 Heading</b></td>
</tr>
<%
Do While Not rs.EOF
%>
<tr>
<td><% = rs.Fields("name_of_field_1") %></td>
<td><% = rs.Fields("name_of_field_2") %></td>
<td><% = rs.Fields("name_of_field_3") %></td>
</tr>
<%
rs.MoveNext
Loop
%>
</table>
<%
' this part shuts it all down (regardless of which table you use)

rs.Close
Set rs = Nothing
cn.Close
Set cn = Nothing
%>

</body>
</html>