In order to complete this walkthrough, you will need the following:

• The Northwind.mdb file that contains the Access version of the sample Northwind database.

  Alternatively, you can use another Access .mdb file and adjust the steps in the walkthrough to match the tables that you are using.

• Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) version 2.7 or later.

  If you are using Microsoft Windows XP or Windows Server 2003, you already have MDAC 2.7. However, if you using Microsoft Windows 2000, you might to have to upgrade the MDAC version that is already installed on the computer. To download the current MDAC version, see the Data Access and Storage Developer Center..

• Optionally, Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) installed locally on the computer.

  This lets you test that the Web site has adequate user rights to use an Access database in a production environment.

If you have already created a Web site in Visual Web Developer by completing Walkthrough: Creating a Basic Web Page in Visual Web Developer, you can use that Web site and go to the next section. Otherwise, create a new Web site and page by following these steps.

To create a file system Web site

An important aspect of working with an Access .mdb file is to correctly configure permissions. When a Web application uses an Access database, the application must have Read permission to the .mdb file so the application can access the data. Additionally, the application must have Write permission to the folder that contains the .mdb file. Write permission is required because Access creates an additional file that has the extension .ldb in which it maintains information about database locks for concurrent users. The .ldb file is created at run time.

By default, ASP.NET Web applications run in the context of a local machine account named ASPNET (for Windows 2000 and Windows XP) or in the context of the account NETWORK SERVICE (for Windows Server 2003). For example, for Windows 2000 or Windows XP Professional, if the Web server is named ABCServer, ASP.NET applications on the ABCServer computer run in the context of the local account ABCServer\ASPNET. Therefore, to use an Access database in an ASP.NET Web application, you must configure the folder that contains the Access database to have both Read and Write permissions for the local ASPNET user account.

When you create a Web site in Visual Web Developer, Visual Web Developer creates a folder named App_Data below the current root folder. The folder is designed to be a store for application data, including Access databases. The App_Data folder is also used by ASP.NET to store databases that the system maintains, such as the database for membership and roles. When Visual Web Developer creates the App_Data folder, it grants Read and Write permissions for the folder to the ASPNET or NETWORK SERVICE user account.

Note
As a security measure, files in the App_data folder are not served by the Web server. Do not store any Web pages in the App_Data folder, because users will see an error if they request a page from that folder.

In this part of the walkthrough, you will examine the permissions of the App_Data folder to make sure that it will work correctly when the application runs.

To set permissions in the App_Data folder

You can now use your Access database in a Web page. You will use an AccessDataSource control.

To add an AccessDataSource control to the page

You can now run the page.

To test the page

This walkthrough describes the basic steps that are required to work with Access data in an ASP.NET Web page. The ASP.NET data binding model lets you work with data from different sources in the same way. For example, you can do the following:

• Use controls to filter the data that the page displays.

  For detailed information, see Walkthrough: Basic Data Access in Web Pages.

• Update, insert, or delete data from an Access database.

  For detailed information, see Walkthrough: Editing and Inserting Data in Web Pages with the DetailsView Web Server Control.

• Create pages to display Access data from tables that have a master-detail relationship.

  For detailed information, see Walkthrough: Creating Master/Detail Web Pages in Visual Studio.

Concepts