Published: Tuesday, November 09, 1999
Generic ASP Database Editor for Access Tables
By Roman Koch
As I learned nearly all of my ASP skills by browsing tips and examples from 4GuysFromRolla.com,
I thought I should give you something back. Here is EDITOR.ASP - a tiny program to edit any
MS-Access table with a given system DSN. The program lists all database records (fine for small tables..)
and allows the user to add, edit or delete records. There are a couple of restrictions:
- The table must have a AUTONUMBER type primary key
- Text fields must have the "ALLOW ZERO LENGTH" attribute set to YES
- The table must not have explicit relationships with other tables
Installation and customisation is simple. Create a system DSN for your Access database. Next, copy
EDITOR.ASP to your web server (and rename it as you like).
Edit EDITOR.ASP and set the three Session values at the beginning of the code to the
appropriate System DSN, table name, and autonumber field. That' all, folks!
Some folks have reported problems when using EDITOR.ASP on tables with boolean values.
I did some research on this subject and found the following: The ODBC driver translates the boolean
value into a text string, e.g. "TRUE". The way boolean values are translated depends on the operating
system or ODBC driver language, e.g. a Personal Web Server running on the German version of Windows 98
with the German version of the ODBC driver will return "WAHR" instead of "TRUE". However, when writing
boolean values back in a SQL string, ne need to code the boolean value in English.
There have been some suggestions on how to handle this. I am currently looking into them and will have
a modified script posted here to 4Guys soon. Thanks!
The Changes Needed to Be Made:
' Enter the name of the system DSN
Session("myDSN") = "Your System DSN"
' Enter the name of the table you want to edit
' Note: For text fields, the "Allow Zero Length" attribute
' must be set to YES
Session("myTable") = "The Name of the Table you want to Edit"
' Enter the name of the Primary Key field
' Note: The Primary Key MUST be a "Autonumber"-type field
Session("myKey") = "The Autonumber Field Name"
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That's all you need to do from a systems administration stand! Now, just visit EDITOR.ASP
(or whatever you named it) and edit away! :) At the bottom, you'll find a link to download
the source for EDITOR.ASP, as well as some screenshots of EDITOR.ASP in action!
I developed EDITOR.ASP after I have seen GENERICDB.
While GENERICDB is nice, I found it's cumbersome to have so many .ASP files and so many customisation
options. EDITOR.ASP is much less sophisticated, but I felt it was a great learning
opportunity. Hope you enjoy it.
By Roman Koch
Attachments:
Download Editor.asp (Version 1.0) in text format
Download Version 1.1 in ZIP format (Improved documentation, minor bug fixes)
