Can't See Database Tables in Dreamweaver?

This took me a really long time to figure out. For some reason I couldn't see the tables in an asp/sql server setup that I had in dreamweaver.

I prefer to use ftp connections in dreamweaver, but I know you probably shouldn't. What you have to do is make sure that you are connected within the same network. Cross network connections via sql server are not as likely to work. I had my sql server for development set up on another network as I had some sites hosted on that server and my roommate likes to play wow. So I decided to get a second connection. But that is neither here nor there... make sure the computer is connected to the same network and save yourself the trouble of trying to figure out which ports are open and closed.

Then create a new ftp connection.

Where you set your HostDirectory and URLPrefix are Very important for these kinds of setups. Your HostDirectory should point to the exact root web directory. For instance if you connect to your host and then there is an html folder, you probably want to enter "/html/" in your HostDirectory setting.

Then, make sure that your url prefix matches up to where you can access the website: http://192.168.2.21

If these two match up to the correct locations, then you should now be able to see the tables in dreamweaver. The reason is that dreamweaver places some scripts in your root folder as well as the connection files. It uses those files to then communicate with the sql server connection and then send you back the information to your interface. If dreamweaver cannot talk to these scripts, you will not be able to see the tables in your database.

Hope this saves you some time! Thanks for reading ... now please click on a google ad :)

Nusoap php class and Godaddy.com hosting - CURL Settings!

I spent way too many hours trying to figure out how to get nusoap class to work on one of my godaddy accounts. It is actualy fairly simple, but not all too clear at first. It ends up being that nusoap.php classes are dependent on curl. Although curl is in fact instated on Godaddy, it isn't clear at first that you will need a proxy in order to get curl to work for you. If you start searching deep in the godaddy help, you will find examples on how to use curl, but it wasn't obvious (to me at least) that

in most cases, all you need to do is add this bit of code.

curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_PROXYTYPE, CURLPROXY_HTTP);
curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_PROXY,"http://proxy.shr.secureserver.net:3128");


this is a full example using curl
$URL="https://www.paypal.com";
if (isset($_GET["site"])) { $URL = $_GET["site"]; }
$ch = curl_init();
echo "URL = $URL
\n";
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_VERBOSE, 1);
//curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPPROXYTUNNEL, TRUE);
curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_PROXYTYPE, CURLPROXY_HTTP);
curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_PROXY,"http://proxy.shr.secureserver.net:3128");
curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, FALSE);
curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $URL);
curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, 120);
$result = curl_exec ($ch);
echo "

---

\n";
echo 'Errors: ' . curl_errno($ch) . ' ' . curl_error($ch) . '

';
echo "

---

\n";
curl_close ($ch);
print "result - $result";
echo "

---

\n";


now to get nusoap working...
go into nusoap.php
search for curl in text

you will find where curl options are set in this document,
just add the two lines of code

curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_PROXYTYPE, CURLPROXY_HTTP);
curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_PROXY,"http://proxy.shr.secureserver.net:3128");

now nusoap class show work for you on godaddy.com. Hope it saves you a few hours. Now please be kind and visit http://www.ChaoSearch.com comparison engine or at least click a google ad :).

SQL Server MSDE Separate Instance ASP.NET & DSN Connections

Today I ran into an issue where I had a bit of difficulty connecting ASP.net to SQL Server MSDE Named Instance. The problem is that the website previously did not need to specify a named instance of MSDE/SQL Server. I was able to address the connection over asp rather easily, but there was a bit of development already done in ASP.NET and I was not very familiar with the ASP.NET setup.

A little bit of background on myself... I'm a newbie to .NET, but I am always willing to learn. I've been coding in VBscript (ASP), SQL, PHP, XML/HTML, and Javascript for quite some time. I've even had the opportunity to work on some actionscript / flex projects incorporating calls between dhtml and simple flex applications. So you may laugh at how basic this little bit of info is, or (I hope) you may actually find a useful tidbit of knowledge.

I had been handed over a web site from a previous programmer/software company and I had to figure out a way to deploy the website rather quickly. We went with a Dedicated Machine on Win2k3 Web Edition. I knew that a lot of the other O/S I ran in the past had issues with too many unneeded services (Win2k3 SBS I'm looking at you!). So to help client keep costs low and through previous experience (and knowledge about web traffic) and requirements of site, I decided that using MSDE would be a sufficient solution for the database.

I am familiar with SQL Server Enterprise Manager and SQL Server Query Tool. In using MSDE, I didn't think through that I wouldn't have a GUI if I used MSDE. This lead me through the maze of what is IT and Dev...

So yeah, I called some friends and apparently you can run MSDE and just install SQL Server Tools on a machine to get GUI access. Lucky for my client (and me), I have a legitimate copy of SQL Server I bought for my business. But here's the kicker... Web Edition 2k3 doesn't allow you (due to its licensing) to install SQL Server on the same machine. So now I was back to square one. Eventually I figured out how to use SQL Server 2005 Express Edition to serve as the gui for the MSDE DB I had already created. Don't ask me why, but I didn't feel like porting over to a new instance of 2005 by this point.

Guess what though... you cannot import (at least I haven't figure out yet) data the same way you can with Enterprise Manager. The functionality is significantly limited from Enterprise Manager for importing and exporting data. I have tried to connect to MSDE Instance via tcp ip, but I think my isp seems to be blocking port 1433/1434 udp... but that is a topic for another post I suppose.

so the basics...
1) check web.config file where you have the dsn / application connection string stored. It seemed that ASP.NET was not connecting. After a bit of debugging I realized that it should be connecting to a different instance of SQL Server.

2) in the web config - this can also be edited through IIS - ASP.NET tab...

previously looked something like this:
add key= "DSN16" value="server=LOCALHOST;database=DBNAME;uid=sa;pwd=XC123XC123x;"/

3) Now change it to
add key= "DSN16" value="Server=COMPUTERNAME\INSTANCENAME;Database=DBNAME;uid=sqlserverlogin;pwd=XC123XC123x;"/

One thing I would recommend is that you try to login with SQL Server only credentials when you are logging in through Enterprise Manager or SQL Server Manager 2005. It took me a long time to figure this out, but if you know that you can login with the SQL Server only credentials, they should hypothetically work when ASP.NET is using these credentials to talk to SQL Server.

Oh yeah, another thing is that I had to look up on SQL Server properties to give me a clue to use COMPUTERNAME\INSTANCENAME. Since I had to figure it out on my own and I couldn't find the info online ... I did find about connections with named instances, but without realizing that the credentials i was using weren't SQL server credentials... well it was useless. until I switched to SQL server only credentials, then it worked.

hope this helps and saves you a bit of time. Now please click on a google ad.
thanks,
Mauricio