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January 21, 2009
Question

Access MDB database directly from Spry?

  • January 21, 2009
  • 1 reply
  • 392 views
Hi,
I'm new using Dreamwaver, and I saw the tutorials about the Spry flexibility displaying data from XML or HTML.
The question is, what I need to do use Spry with MDB files? (Using ASP and a MS Access file).

I have seen some samples with ColdFusion converting the data "on the fly" to XML... if that the case... what about the definition of your files on design time... I mean, you don't have the XML definition to start using the Spry Insert Table....

Any tips & tricks are welcome!

Thanks in advance.
BFMG
This topic has been closed for replies.

1 reply

Inspiring
January 21, 2009
BFMG wrote:
> I have seen some samples with ColdFusion converting the data "on the fly" to
> XML... if that the case... what about the definition of your files on design
> time... I mean, you don't have the XML definition to start using the Spry
> Insert Table....

To generate an XML file from a database, you'd use the server language to create the XML from your data. Here is a page that lists out how to do this for ColdFusion, PHP, and ASP VBScript:
http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/spry/samples/utils/query2xml.html

What you do is create an XML file, and then create a Spry dataset from that XML file. In CS4 you can use the Spry dataset wizard. The wizard also offers several layout options, but you're not limited to what it generates, but it does make for a decent starting point. In the end, the designing is done in the page that pulls in the XML file.

You can also create a dataset yourself. If you download the Spry package there is a DataSet Explorer that you can use to test and play around with your locally generated XML files (either .xml or .asp files that output XML). Within the ZIP, it's at samples/data_region/DataSetExplorer.html

Here's the online version:
http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/spry/samples/data_region/DataSetExplorer.html
Note: You cannot use the online version to access local files, and your local copy can only access XML files on the same server. So if you're working from localhost, then any remote XML files cannot be accessed by the DataSet Explorer. This is a limitation of Ajax, not in Spry (although Spry inherits this limitation)

Also, posting Spry questions in the Spry forum will probably get you better end results:
http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/webforums/forum/categories.cfm?forumid=72&catid=602



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Danilo Celic
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