Q/. I cannot write to my database using a NT web host. What do I do?

A/.

SYMPTOMS

Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers error '80004005'.
Microsoft ODBC Microsoft Access Driver Cannot update. Database or object is read-only.
/shopping/shop$db.asp, line 395

or this
Microsoft ODBC Microsoft Access Driver Operation must use an updateable query.
or
Or our diagnostic routine says the database can be read but cannot be written

Solution 1

If using a Web Hosting Company
All web hosting companies make their directories read only. This prevents hacker attacks from changing your web site but it also prevents databases from being updated.

You now need tell your web hosting company that you are using a Microsoft Access Database and that you need a directory where the database can be read and written. If they are familiar with databases then they will know exactly what to do. If they are not familiar with using Access databases then you may have a problem with them and they may need to read solution 2.

After they create the directory for you, move the shopping.mdb file to that directory and update our configuration file shop$config.asp to the location where the database is now located. Our design guide and the installation Guide describes in detail how to set xdblocation.

The xdblocation is the location of the database relative to where YourVirtualStore software is located.
It will probably look something like this when you are finished.

xdblocation="..\thedirectorytheycreate"

The database must be on the same server as the rest of YourVirtualStore software.

YourVirtualStore and ODBC

Your web hosting company may suggest that you use ODBC. This is not necessary for YourVirtualStore and makes it more difficult to backup and replace the database but the full version of YourVirtualStore supports ODBC connections as standard but the demo version does not. Our Design Guide tells you how to configure ODBC but it is very simple. To use ODBC with YourVirtualStore simply update two lines in shop$config.asp

const xDatabase="odbcnamesuppliedBywebhostingCompany"
const xdatabasetype="ODBC"

The xdblocation is ignored for ODBC databases.

Solution 2

If using own NT server or web hosting company does not know what to do

Basically YourVirtualStore needs to read and write the database. The message is saying that it cannot write to the database and therefore cannot update the database.

Do not try to run YourVirtualStore until our diagnostic routine can successfully read and write the database. Nothing will work until our diagnostic tool can read/write the database.

YourVirtualStore relies on the Windows NT operating system. Windows NT and its add-on IIS has built in security so that hackers cannot destroy your system but it also prevents things that you want such as database updating. This is where an NT administrator comes in. He is supposed to know how to set the permissions.

Microsoft provides tools for setting permissions and we have tried to document and summarize them.

Internet access is not the same thing as standard NT access since standard NT has people login while the Internet does not. For the Internet, Microsoft invented an imaginary user called IUSR. This imaginary user is anyone from the Internet. It is up to the NT administrator to give this
imaginary user IUSR the necessary permissions to update the database. The permission for IUSR is only one of a number of different things than can go wrong with NT and again we have listed these below.

This is normally a permission problem for the anonymous user IUSR
See Microsoft Knowledgebase for a full description for setting permissions for IUSR
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q175/6/71.asp

Possible NT Configuration Options to check

The anonymous user IUSR must have read/write access to the database directory.
IUSR/**** (**** = server name ) write access. This needs to be set by the NT administrator.

The directory where you installed YourVirtualStore must be able to run scripts.

Password Synchronization needs to be turn off. This can only be done through the management console.

Caching needs to be turned off for Active Server Pages. ASP pages are created dynamically.

The Access 97 database support is not in your system and you may need Access 2000 database. Contact us and we can supply you with one.

The directory where the database is located does not have write access. If you are on a web hosting company, most directories are read only to prevent hacking. The YourVirtualStore database must be write able. You need to ask your web hosting company to create a separate directory and move the shopping.mdb database to that directory. Then update the YourVirtualStore configuration file to point to that directory. Use our supplied diagnostic tool to test your configuration.

Diagnostic Tools

YourVirtualStore has a diagnostic tool diag_dbtest.asp. There is a hyperlink to it from default.asp. This tool only tests the write/write status of the the directory. It does not fully test the permissions of the anonymous user IUSR.

After shopdbtest.asp works successfully run SHOPSEARCH.ASP.

If shopsearch.asp works, then the set-up is complete. If it fails, then the permissions for IUSR are still incorrect.

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