How do you do THAT with SQL?April 16, 1999 by Aaron BertrandBrowsing a remote SQL database People often ask how to browse or edit a SQL database without actually sitting at the SQL machine. Well, you could use Enterprise Manager installed on a local NT Server / SQL Server. Or you could use remote control software like Carbon Copy or Remotely Possible. However, most providers won't let you do those things for obvious security reasons. Well guess what? Do you have a system DSN for your SQL database? Do you have Access 97 or Access 2000 installed? If you answered yes to both of these questions, then you CAN browse your remote SQL database, by following these steps:
* NOTE: There are some limitations with this method (for example, you will have problems adding or editing tables since Access and SQL Server don't share completely interchangeable datatypes). But it sure beats writing an ASP page from scratch to see your data in a certain way! I've tested this with SQL Server 7.0 but haven't had a chance to test with 6.5. If you found this useful, have any other suggestions, or simply can't get it to work, I want to know about it! Paging through a recordset Here's one that is asked all the time: "How do I create a system like AltaVista, where the user can browse through all the records, 10 records per page?" Here's how AltaVista does it:
<% pgSize = 10 dsnName = "dsnName" sql = "select field from table" if request("pg")<>"" then pg = cint(request("pg")) else pg = 1 end if set conn = createobject("adodb.connection") conn.open dsnName set rs = createobject("adodb.recordset") rs.open sql,conn,1,1 if not rs.eof then rs.AbsolutePage = pg rs.PageSize = pgSize x = pgSize rc = rs.recordCount if rc > pgSize then if rc mod pgSize = 0 then totalpages = rc / pgSize else totalpages = rc \ pgSize + 1 end if else totalpages = 1 end if text = "<p>Page: " ahref = "<a href=index.asp?pg=" if pg > 1 then text = text & ahref & pg-1 text = text & "><</a> " end if for i = 1 to totalpages if i = pg then text = text & "<b> " & i text = text & " </b> " else text = text & ahref & i & ">" & i text = text & "</a> " end if next if pg < totalpages then text = text & ahref & pg+1 text = text & ">></a>" end if response.write(text & "<p>") do while not rs.eof and x > 0 response.write(rs("field") & "<p>") x = x - 1 rs.movenext loop response.write("<p>" &
text) NOTE: This script doesn't behave too well if you change the pageSize on the fly. Maintaining line feeds from memo/text fields Your users entered separate paragraphs in a textarea. This data was entered into your database. Now when you insert it into HTML, those paragraphs are gone... why? HTML doesn't understand line feeds (that's why you can put lots of space between HTML tags; most whitespace is ignored). So what you have to do is replace the "hidden" linefeeds with HTML linefeeds (<BR>).
' ... set rs = conn.execute(sql) do while not rs.eof txt = rs("memoField") txt = replace(txt,chr(10)," <br>") response.write(txt) rs.movenext loop ' ... %> The is added to the replace() function so that consecutive linefeeds are not ignored (some browsers, I won't name names, ignore multiple <BR> tags). Preventing the dreaded apostrophe error Have you come across SQL syntax errors because your user entered a single quote (')? Do you want to know an easy way to prevent that? Simply replace it with two single quotes before you do your insert/update... the first acts like an escape character, letting SQL know that you do NOT want to use the second single quote as an end of string marker. Here's an example:
' ... strName = request.form("strName") ' FIX NAMES LIKE O'SHEA: strName = replace(strName,"'","''") sql = "insert into table(nameField) " sql = sql & "values('" & strName & "')" conn.execute(sql) ' ... %> The replace line, for clarity, reads: "replace", open parenthesis, "strName", comma, double quote, single quote, double quote, comma, double quote, single quote, single quote, double quote, close parenthesis. :)
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