Ben Forta

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Using Access with ColdFusion MX on Windows 98/ME

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I’ve recently received several email questions about using Access with ColdFusion MX on Windows 98 or ME. The ColdFusion MX Administrator does not list Microsoft Access as an available driver type when ColdFusion is running on Windows 98 or ME.
But, if you do need to work with Access, don’t despair. Here’s what you need to do:
1) Use the Windows ODBC Control panel applet to create an ODBC datasource. You’ll want to create a System DSN (so make sure that tab is selected), and select “Microsoft Access Driver” as the driver type. Enter a datasource name, and then press the Select button to specify the path to the Access MDB file (this is important, if you skip this step the datasource will be created, but it will not do what you want). When done, press OK.
2) Run a test (using an ODBC client like MS-Query or even Word) to verify that the new datasource is working properly.
3) In the ColdFusion Administrator, add a new datasource of type “JDBC-ODBC Bridge” (or “ODBC Socket”) and specify the name of the ODBC datasource.
That should do it!

4 responses to “Using Access with ColdFusion MX on Windows 98/ME”

  1. Kay Avatar
    Kay

    Hi
    Sorry did i miss something: "2) Run a test (using an ODBC client like MS-Query or even Word) to verify that the new datasource is working properly." I didn’t realise you could use word to test a datasource. I would be grateful if you could point me in the direction of more information on this – thanks

    Reply
  2. Ben Forta Avatar
    Ben Forta

    Like most MS Office applications, Word has the ability to interact with external data, including ODBC data. This is exposed in several places, one of which is the Word Mail Merge feature. The exact steps vary dramatically based on the version of Word use, but if you use Mail Merge you’ll be able to point to an existing data set (or list as it is sometimes called), you’ll then be able to select any datasource and browse it in Word.

    Reply
  3. Kay Avatar
    Kay

    Thanks
    I’ll check it out.

    Reply
  4. carlos Avatar
    carlos

    BEN…is working really good…
    ms access+coldfusion in windows 98se…
    I wanna make it public…
    thanks for your time!
    carlos

    Reply

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