PRB: Creating Application with PWS 4.0, Windows 95 and VID (184572)

SYMPTOMS

When creating data connections with Visual InterDev 1.0 or 6.0 and Personal Web Server (PWS) 4.0 on Windows 95, the following errors may occur:

Error: 80004005 [Microsoft][ODBC Driver Manager] Data source name not found and no default driver specified.

-or-

Error: 80040e14 [Microsoft][ODBC Microsoft Access 97 Driver]The Microsoft Jet Database engine cannot find the table or query 'tablename'. Make sure it exists and that its name is spelled correctly.

RESOLUTION

Most often this is caused by not having "Execute" permissions selected on the Web project in the Personal Web Manager. "Execute" permissions is required to make a Web Project an "Application."

NOTE: If you are using an existing Web project in Visual InterDev created by FrontPage Publisher, then the execute permissions are not set (Web project is not an application).

Use the following steps to determine if your Web project is an "Application":

Start Personal Web Manager (double-click on the PWS icon in the taskbar).
Click Advanced.
Select the Web project folder (for example, \test).
Click the Edit Properties button.
In the directory path, the folder name is missing. Append the folder name of the Web project to this directory path.
In the Access pane, make sure every check box is selected (Read, Execute, and Scripts). You'll need 'Execute' to make it an application.
Click OK, and close the Personal Web Manager.

If you forget to add your folder name of your Web project to the directory path, you'll receive the following error when accessing any page within that Web project:

HTTP Error 404
404 Not Found
The Web server cannot find the file or script you asked for. Please check the URL to ensure that the path is correct.
Please contact the server's administrator if this problem persists.

NOTE: By default the Personal Web Manager will not add these subfolders to the directory path of your Web site, but your Web site will be accessible.

Another application could exist in a higher level directory, root for example, if no execute permissions are set in the subfolder, this high level Global.asa will fire instead.

Restarting the Application

Restarting the Personal Web server using the Personal Web Manager will not restart your application to refresh Global.asa. To do so you'll have to open an MS-DOS prompt from the Start button. Clicking Run and type the command. To stop the Personal Web Server go to its subfolder, for example, c:\win95\system\inetsrv and type the following command:

   pws /stop

To start type it, type the following command:

   pws /start

MORE INFORMATION

Steps to Reproduce Behavior

Here's what you need to reproduce the behavior:

Windows 95
Windows NT Option Pack 4.0 for Windows 95 (Personal Web Server 4.0)
Visual InterDev 1.0 or Visual InterDev 6.0

Create a Web project with Visual InterDev (as a new Web). When adding, renaming, or deleting data connections the Global.asa will change, but the application will not be restarted automatically, and your data connections will not be visible in your ASP pages. You'll receive errors such as the following. This error occurs when your recently added data connection is not visible by the application since the application hasn't been restarted to refresh the Global.asa.

Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers error '80004005' [Microsoft][ODBC Driver Manager] Data source name not found and no default driver specified"

This error happens when you recently edited an already used data connection in the Global.asa, but you are now pointing to a different database. The application has not been restarted to refresh the new Global.asa.

   Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers error '80040e14'
   [Microsoft][ODBC Microsoft Access 97 Driver] The Microsoft Jet Database
   engine cannot find the table or query 'tablename'. Make sure it exists
   and that its name is spelled correctly."

Check Global.asa Session Contents

To determine if your current Global.asa is actually the one that is firing in your application, you can use the following Test.asp page (NOTE: the Session Contents collection works only with version 4.02.0622 of Asp.dll, which comes with Windows NT Option Pack 4.0):

   <%
   Dim sessItem, objArray
   Response.Write "SessionID: " & Session.SessionID & "<P>"
   Response.Write "List of " & Session.Contents.Count & _
     " items in Session contents collection:<HR>"
   For Each sessItem In Session.Contents
     If IsObject(Session.Contents(sessItem)) Then
        Response.Write(sessItem & " : Session object cannot " & _
           "be displayed.<BR>")
     ElseIf IsArray(Session.Contents(sessItem)) Then
        Response.Write "Array named " & sessItem & "<ol>"
        For Each objArray In Session.Contents(sessItem)
           Response.Write "<li>" & objArray & "</li><BR>"
        Next
        Response.Write "</ol>"
     Else
        Response.Write(sessItem & " : " & _
           Session.Contents(sessItem) & "<BR>")
     End If
   Next
   %>

This page shows all the active session variables in the session.contents collection of the current application.