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TRANSCRIPT
Using MS SQL Server with Coldfusion and Plesk
Create an MSSQL database
1) Log in to plesk via the web. Be sure to type http otherwise it will not work: http://studentxx.upj.pitt.edu:8880
2) If using Internet Explorer, turn compatibility viewing mode on. 3) Click Databases 4) Click Add New Database. You may make up to five databases in your account. 5) Type in a database name. Choose the other options shown below:
6) Click Ok 7) Click Add New Database user
8) Choose a username and password. Choose a username and password. If it gives an error, you may have to choose a stronger password. Click OK:
Your database is now created. Connecting to the database using Visual Studio Connect to the database using Visual Studio. When you use a professional database (Oracle, MSSQL, etc), you are accessing the database on a server. The data and database engine is on a remote server. You will be using client tools to access the database. The client tools allow you to design tables, relationships, etc. It also allows you to edit the data in the tables as well. The tools that can be used for MSSQL are either MSSQL Management Studio or Visual Studio. I am doing this example using Visual Studio because it is available in the public labs: 1) Start Visual Studio. If you need to pick any settings, choose general. This takes a long time
to start up on public lab machines. 2) You do not need to create a project.
4) Adjust fields as follows: server name: sql1.upj.pitt.edu Use SQL Authentication Username: [username you created above] Password: [password you made above] Save password: Your option (you have to keep typing it in) Select or enter database: [database name you made above]
5) Click Test connection and you should get a successful response. Ok.
6) Click ok. When completed, your connection to the db will show in the server explorer, Data connections. If this window ever gets hidden, you can restore it with CTRL-‐ALT-‐S.
7) At this point, you can create tables and relationships.
Creating tables and relationships in MSSQL with Visual Studio
1) Right click tables and click add new table.
2) Add the fields and set the datatype and properties as needed.
3) I am using and autonumber field for the person id. To do so, the Identity specification is set
to yes and the identity increment is set to 1 and seed is set to 1. You can also click the key
5) Next I make a state table with the following fields. Save the table:
6) Next we need to make the relationship for states.
7) Open one of the tables (People). You can right click the table and click open table definition. After you do that, you get the table icons at the top:
8) Click the relationships icon. 9) Click add in the dialog box. 10) Expand Tables and Column Spec.
12) Choose the two tables to link. Be sure to choose the correct table for the PK and correct table for the FK:
13) Below, click the box and a pulldown menu will magically appear to choose the PK.
14) Also choose the FK then click ok.
15) Click Close. Close the tables also so that the change commit.
Add Data to tables:
1) Right click a table and click show table data. 2) In our case, we will need to fill in the states table first. There will be some latency since all
data resides on a remote server. 3) Records are not committed until the little red ! goes away.
4) Add items to the People table in a similar fashion. 5) It should ensure PF, FK relationships are followed.
6) Add some records.
Notes:
1) You can work on the db and web code at the same time. However, the database client only sees a snapshot of the data. So if you add a record via a web interface, you will need to refresh the view at the client to see the changes.
2) I changed the field state to stateID in the people table.
Creating a Coldfusion DSN (Applicable for Web Programming course): In order for ColdFusion to talk to the database, a connection must be made. This is called a Data Source Name Connection (DSN Connection).
1) In order to access the database via coldfusion, you need to create a DSN (Datasource name). 2) Using a web browser, log in to http://studentxx.upj.pitt.edu:8880. 3) Click Coldfusion DSN. 4) Click Add New Coldfusion DSN. 5) Type in a unique name for the DSN. (I used stu33MSSQL). 6) Choose Microsoft SQL Server. 7) Click Next 8) At this point you have the option to decide if you want to add a username/pw. If you add it
here, you don’t need to have it in your source code but your application will be less secure:
9) When you Click ok, it will test the dsn connection and you should get a green checkmark:
10) You can now use this connection in your Coldfusion code.
Other Tools – Testing Queries in MSSQL
1) You can test queries in Visual studio using . 2) Click Data – New Query. 3) Choose your tables or just click close. 4) You can check the syntax and execute the query using the red exclamation point: