[jsabarese]

According to several users who want to use ASP.NET as a server side scripting language for web applications seeking help in Dreamweaver support forums, a common problem occurs when a database connection is established using the "+" in the Database tab of Dreamweaver's Application window. These users experiencing the problem, myself included, meet a seemingly insurmountable obstacle of the Database tables NOT showing in the Database tab of the Application window after the connection has been made. In particular, this problem reportedly occurs only for Windows XP SP2 users.

i discovered this issue while working through the tutorial on pages 101 and subsequently pages 68-73 of the DW_Getting_Started.pdf, a tutorial which DW owners should find included in the Dreamweaver documentation.

There are several resources and suggested fixes available which offer possible workarounds to solve this disappearing database table problem-- one being to install a Dreamweaver Extension, the "SP2 DB Fix" available here http://www.macromedia.com/cfusion/kn...fm?id=tn_19515

I've read some reports which suggest that this fix doesn't solve their problem, however it did work for me.

Now that i've been able to establish the database connection, and add the Recordset (or DataSet as it is named by ASP.NET), I've encountered another problem. Proceeding through the same tutorial, as instructed, I inserted items from the Recordset into the aspx page, and then applied repeat region in order display more than one record called from the recordset. This being the final procedure for this aspx page, to demonstrate that all of the steps have been followed correctly up to this point, and to display the dynamic data being pulled from the recordset created, the tutorial then instructed me to enable DW's "Live Data" view. When i select View > Live Data (or press the Live Data button near the Code/Split/ Design view buttons) the Recordset (DataSet) disappers from the Bindings tab in the Application window! If i deselect Live Data, the Recordset returns.

I tried previewing in the Browser, but instead of a preview as with a static html page, IE prompts me to open or save the file. If i select "open", the file is then opened in Dreamweaver, and all of the images are missing due to broken links-- as if the folder structure / relative paths are not correct. however, if i select the same file from Remote View in the DW Files window, all of the images are shown.

Does anyone know if my problem is yet another DW / SP2 / ASP.NET glitch, as was the case w/ the invisible db tables, or could this possibly be a result of an error in my DW Local/Remote Site setup?

I have had much more success w/ ColdFusion, that's for certain! I'm not giving up on ASP.NET yet. I'm confident that someone has the answer to solve this problem. I'll be anxiosly awaiting your reply to save me from this frustration!

do you have a webserver set up for testing? it sounds like a dw site setup error....

[jsabarese]

i have IIS installed. In DW, i "put" the files to their proper places on the "remote site" and the testing server is working properly, as far as i can tell. I've worked through similar tutorials w/ ColdFusion, and developed my own ColdFusion apps, so i think i have everything set correctly, but perhaps i can't see the forest for the trees. do you have a suggestion for me to test its functionality? i put a basic index.htm file in "C:\Inetpub\" to see if it displayed in a browser when i typed "http://localhost/" and the html file displayed properly... is that sufficient enough of a test for IIS?

i also have MS SQL 2000 server, but i don't have it configured for this project as i'm working w/ an Access database, and the "ODBC" connection... correct?

honestly, i'm really not sure what to do w/ the SQL server anyway. suggestions?

the html file is enough of a test if you are not going to be running any scripting languages, ie coldfusion, asp, php.

if you are attempting to use asp.net, have you installed the .net framework? When a testing server is setup in dw it attempts to load the page in the native extension (.aspx). If you do not have the framework installed then that is the problem. the framework is not needed to develop .net pages, only to run them

[jsabarese]

thanks again for your help. Realizing that Dreamweaver MX 2004 and Dreamweaver MX behave differently (as was the case, supposedly w/ the aforementioned SP2 glitch), i installed MX 6 to see what happened.

This time, MX 6 tells me that "the testing server did not execute any of the scripts in your document". Possible explanations include:
the testing server is not running
the testing server ignores files w/ the .aspx file extension
your document does not contain any scripts

but i DID install the .net framework. where could i have gone wrong? how can i verify that i installed it correctly, or that it is in fact running?

in iis manager (you can get thier from computer management). go down to your website and click properties. it should have an asp.net tab. if the tab is not there then it is not installed. If it is there it will have the details about your asp.net install

[jsabarese]

do i manage this by going to Administration Tools>.NET Framework 1.1 Configuration>Fix an Application>Dreamweaver?

[jsabarese]

if you mean, in addition to the tabs, Directory, Documents, Directory Security, HTTP Headers, Custom Erros, then, NO, i don't have it there. how can i add it? through the Documents>Add in that same window?

EDIT:

I don't see .aspx in ANY of the tabs on the properties>documents tabs-- even moving up the hierarchy to "default web site", the top level.

should i ADD, and then "enable" index.aspx to activate what i need?

I would reinstall the dot net framework. version 2, if you can find it, as i cannot find the download site i used any more

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en
will also work

http://msdn.microsoft.com/netframework/

[jsabarese]

what about the .NET Framework 1.1 Configuration utility (i have the administrative tools in my start menu, so it's right there admin tools>.net config>). do i need to tweak anything there? and will i need to reboot for settings to take effect?

thank you SO much for you help. i feel like i'm making progress. thanks!