Connecting ASP pages to MySQL - possible?

[RogierBos]

Hi,

Can I connect to a MySQL database from ASP.net (1.1 framework). DW doesn't seem to allow it...

I have been trying to get away from using Access and so I am following this tutorial on Lynda.com on 'creating dynamic websites. In the tut the author uses several different technologies, but he really exalts MySQL (free, scalable, dood GUI tools). SO I have followed allong and installed MySQL and created the first database. Now I get to the part where we connect to a database - and suddenly he pulls a Access database out of the tutorial files!

So I am trying to establish a connection. But the wizards do not seem to offer a connection. The help-files seem to suggest that I can build a connection if I choose PHP as my server app. Of course I know that MySQL and PHP work together closely. But I have Windows IIS running on my system for some other sites I maintain, and apparently I need to de-install that before I run Apache (needed to run PHP).

I am a relatively newbie to all this and want to use DW's ability to write cose without me knowing all that the cose is or does...

Appreciate any help you might have!

Rogier

[Newsgroup_User]

RogierBos wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Can I connect to a MySQL database from ASP.net (1.1 framework). DW doesn't
> seem to allow it...

I've never attempted to connect to a MySQL db from .NET, but as long as you have the correct connection string and the ODBC driver installed, you should be fine.

Connection string found via Google:
http://www.sqlstrings.com/MySQL-connection-strings.htm

ODBC driver:
http://www.mysql.com/products/connector/odbc/

Again, haven't used it, but that info might get you going in the right direction.

You might have better luck with installing SQL Server 2005 Express as it's free and very robust. Of course, you'd need to find a host that supports it, but that should be easy, maybe easier than finding a .NET host that also supports MySQL connections, but don't really know about that, it's just an assumption on my part.

FWIW: Dreamweaver is dropping support ASP.NET in the CS4 release. see here:
http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=kb402489&sliceId=1

> So I am trying to establish a connection. But the wizards do not seem to offer
> a connection. The help-files seem to suggest that I can build a connection if I
> choose PHP as my server app. Of course I know that MySQL and PHP work together
> closely. But I have Windows IIS running on my system for some other sites I
> maintain, and apparently I need to de-install that before I run Apache (needed
> to run PHP).

You do not need Apache to run PHP. I've used PHP a number of times with IIS. Maybe take a read through the following page: http://us3.php.net/install.windows or if you happen to be using IIS7 on Vista, you could also take a look at:
http://learn.iis.net/page.aspx/246/using-fastcgi-to-host-php-applications-on-iis7/





--
Danilo Celic
| http://blog.extensioneering.com/
| WebAssist Extensioneer
| Adobe Community Expert