Troubleshooting

Cannot Insert Data View

I'm trying to insert a Data View, but the Insert Data View menu option is not enabled.

The Data View relies on Windows SharePoint Services being enabled in the Page Options dialog box. Select Tools, Page Options and click the Authoring tab. Make sure that the SharePoint Services check box is checked.

Even though the Insert Data View menu option is enabled, you will still not be able to insert a Data View if you are not connected to a server running Windows SharePoint Services. The Insert Data View menu option will also fail if you try to use it on a disk-based Web site.

Cannot Connect to SQL Server

I have opened a Web site in FrontPage on a remote Web server and am trying to connect to another server running SQL Server, but it is failing.

When you are creating a connection to SQL Server, there are two methods you can use to authenticate Windows Integrated and SQL Server authentication. When using Windows Integrated, Windows will try to automatically authenticate you to SQL Server. When using SQL Server authentication, you must specify a username and password when configuring the connection.

If you choose Windows Integrated as your authentication method, in most cases the SQL Server must be running on the same computer as the Web server. This is because Windows Integrated authentication to SQL Server is designed to fail when your credentials are being delegated.

What that means is that you are logged in to your workstation computer and when you open the Web site on a remote Web server, your user credentials are used to authenticate to the Web server. When the Web server then attempts to authenticate to SQL Server, it automatically passes your credentials to SQL Server to try and authenticate you. This is called delegation of credentials, and it will always fail. The solution is to either use SQL Server authentication or run SQL Server on the Web server.

For performance reasons, it is best not to run SQL Server on the same computer that is running the Web server if you expect a lot of traffic on your Web site. Therefore, SQL Server authentication might be a better option, depending on your needs. The downfall to SQL Server authentication is that the username and password are saved in the connection string as clear text.

You will need to weigh the pros and cons of both methods and decide which is best in your environment.