Setting the Custom Connection String dialog box options

The purpose of this dialog box is to define a DSN-less database connection with a connection string.

To define a database connection using a connection string:

1. In the first text box, enter a name for the new connection.

   NOTE

   Do not use any spaces or special characters in the name.

2. In the second text box, enter a connection string to the database.

   For more information, see Setting the Connection String option. If you do not specify an OLE DB provider in the connection string--that is, if you don’t include a Provider parameter--ASP will automatically use the OLE DB provider for ODBC drivers. In that case, you must specify an appropriate ODBC driver for your database.

   If your site is hosted by an ISP and you don’t know the full path to your database, use the MapPath method of the ASP server object in your connection string. For more information, see Connecting to a database on an ISP.

3. If the database driver specified in the connection string is not installed on the same computer as Dreamweaver, select the Using Driver On Testing Server option.

   Macintosh users can ignore this step because all database connections use the application server.

4. If you want, restrict the number of database items Dreamweaver retrieves at design time by clicking Advanced and entering a schema or catalog name.

   For more information, see Restricting database information displayed in Dreamweaver.

   NOTE

   You cannot create a schema or catalog in Microsoft Access.

5. Click Test.

   Dreamweaver attempts to connect to the database. If the connection fails, double-check the connection string. If the connection still fails, check the settings for the folder Dreamweaver uses to process dynamic pages (see Specifying where dynamic pages can be processed).

6. Click OK.

   The new connection appears in the Databases panel.

Related topics

• Creating a DSN-less connection
• OLE DB connections
• Using a virtual path to connect to a database