Unable to get Frontpage Dataview Catalog to see a Database Connection

[David McKenzie]

Ultimately, I would like to connect to one of our back end Oracle servers,
but I cannot even connect to the SharePoint SQL Server.

I get the following message when attempting to "Configure Database
Connection..."

"Server Error: An error occurred while retrieving the list of Databases
from <servername>: The data retrieval service encountered and error during
connection to the data source. Contact the server administrator for more
information."

I especially like the last sentence (I am already talking to myself).

Seriouslky - the only KB article I could find was for BizTalk (not installed
here) and made reference to adding a proxy setting to
...\60\config\web.config
This confuses me for a couple reasons
1. Who cares about proxy - this is all on a local network
2. I am not clear on the realtionship between this web.config and the one
in wwwroot

Nevertheless I tried the suggested modification in each place and then both,
doing IISRESETS in between for good measure.

No change - I continue to get the same message

Nothing in the Event Log

I am stymied - It all looks so easy when someone else demos it.
:(

[Wei-Dong XU [MSFT]]

Hi David,

Have you tried to connect to the Database from UDL file in your client? If not, please have one test following up my steps:
1. create one txt in the desktop or any folder, for example: data.txt
2. change the .txt extension to .udl, save the name, data.udl
3. double click the udl file. The "Data Link Properties" window will pop up
4. click the Provider tab and choose the corresponding data provider, Oracle Provider-> Oracal etc.
5. click the "next>>" button
6. input the database server name and username/password
7. click "Test connection" to test the conneciton.
8. if the connection is ok, please exit the window
9. rename the data.udl to data.txt
10. open the data.txt, you will find the connection string saved in this text (for secure, the password will not be saved).
11. Then in frontpage, you can test to use this connection string to connect the database server in Data view.

Greatly appreciated you tell me the testing result!

Best Regards,
Wei-Dong Xu
Microsoft Product Support Services
Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

[David McKenzie]

hi wei-dong

thanks for these steps they helped me get a connection
the process was slightly more complicated because i was confused by the
documentation which insists that the OLD DB provider for Oracle must be
present on the server, but Frontpage 2003 makes the connection using the
provider on my client PC
couple that with the confusion as to which OLD DB provider to use
(Microsoft's or Oracle's) and you get my situation

I have now successfully added a dataview web part and can view it

steps 1-8 ok on client
"Wei-Dong XU [MSFT]" <v-w...@online.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:CgLtMtjP...@cpmsftngxa10.phx.gbl...

[Wei-Dong XU [MSFT]]

Hi David,

"I have now successfully added a dataview web part and can view it"

Great news! :-) My pleasure to be some of assistance for you.