Using Database Drivers

To use a database as a source of dynamic content for your Web pages, you need to use an application server for creating database queries and accessing the database. You also need a database driversoftware that acts as a translator between the application server and the database. The type of database driver you use depends on the server technology you use, as shown in Table 4.1. The database driver is also database-specific. For example, if you are using ASP as your application server and Access for your database, you need to use an Access-specific driver.

Table 4.1.

Server Technologies and Database Drivers
SERVER TECHNOLOGY	TYPE OF DATABASE DRIVER
ASP	ODBC or OLE DB
ColdFusion MX 7.0	JDBC
PHP	MySQL driver
JSP	JDBC
ASP.NET	OLE DB

If you're using Windows, database drivers are installed with application servers, with database systems, and as part of a Windows installation. If you need to download and install a database driver, installation information for the driver is included with the driver documentation. If you're using a Macintosh, the database drivers are installed when you install the application server.

ODBC drivers

Many Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) drivers are installed with Windows. For example, if you use ASP with an Access database, an Access driver is already available for your use. Other ODBC drivers are installed when you install application servers. If you are using a local Web server on Windows, you can check to see if the ODBC driver you need is already installed.

To check for ODBC drivers:

1.	From the Start menu, choose Control Panel > Administrative Tools.
2.	In the Administrative Tools window, double-click the Data Sources (ODBC) Shortcut icon (Figure 4.26). The ODBC Data Source Administrator window appears (Figure 4.27). Figure 4.26. Double-click the Data Sources (ODBC) Shortcut icon to open the ODBC Data Source Administrator window. Figure 4.27. You can check for DSNs and drivers in the ODBC Data Source Administrator window.
3.	Click the Drivers tab to display a list of the currently installed ODBC drivers (Figure 4.28). Figure 4.28. Check to see which ODBC drivers are installed on your computer.
4.	Click OK to close the ODBC Data Source Administrator window.

ColdFusion drivers

When you install ColdFusion, Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) drivers that you can use to create a database connection from Dreamweaver are installed. You choose a driver when you create a data-source connection in ColdFusion, as shown in "To connect to a data source using ColdFusion," later in this chapter. JDBC and ODBC are very similar technologies.

MySQL drivers

The PHP installation includes a MySQL driver that can be activated in the php.ini file to enable you to create PHP/MySQL database connections from Dreamweaver. Once you install and configure MySQL as detailed earlier in this chapter, the MySQL database driver is activated.

JDBC drivers

If you are using JSP, you will need a JDBC driver to create a database connection from Dreamweaver. Sun Microsystems provides a list of JDBC drivers and vendors at http://developers.sun.com/product/jdbc/drivers.

OLE DB

If you are using ASP.NET, you will need an Object Linking and Embedding Database (OLE DB) driver to create a database connection from Dreamweaver. If you're using Microsoft Access or Microsoft SQL Server, you can get OLE DB drivers by downloading and installing Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) at http://msdn.microsoft.com/data/mdac/downloads. For more information on MDAC and ASP.NET connections, see Dreamweaver Help (F1).

Tips

• You can also use OLE DB drivers for ASP database connections from Dreamweaver. OLE DB connections are usually faster than ODBC connections.

• There are ODBC drivers available for MySQL, but Dreamweaver uses PHP functions instead of ODBC to create connections to MySQL.