Web Wiz - Green Windows Web Hosting

Princess Twilight Sparkle - Part 1 — [s4e1]

"Princess," Spike whispered from the doorway, his voice unusually small. "The delegates from Manehattan are here. They’re... expecting a speech."

The celebratory banners for the Summer Sun Celebration still hung in the throne room, but for Twilight Sparkle, the fabric felt heavy. Her new wings felt like lead. She stood before a mirror, trying to adjust her crown, only to have it slip sideways. [S4E1] Princess Twilight Sparkle - Part 1

But as the sun reached its zenith, a cold, familiar shadow began to creep across the edges of the Everfree Forest. The celebratory cheers faltered. The air grew thick with the scent of ancient, overgrown magic. Twilight felt a prickle at the base of her horn—a warning that her first day as a Princess wouldn't be spent giving speeches, but protecting the very harmony she was still learning to represent. The celebration was over. The trial of the crown had begun. "Princess," Spike whispered from the doorway, his voice

Twilight looked at her friends—Rainbow Dash doing loops in the sky, Pinkie Pie handing out cupcakes with manic energy, and Rarity shedding a tear at the "exquisite drapery" of the royal box. She realized then that being a Princess wasn't about the wings or the title; it was about the weight of the harmony she carried. expecting a speech

"They aren't just cheering for the sun, Twilight," Celestia said softly, sensing her former student’s racing heart. "They are cheering for the pony who saved them more times than history books can yet record."

She stepped out onto the balcony of Canterlot Castle. Below, thousands of ponies cheered, a sea of color and expectation. Celestia and Luna stood to her left and right, their regal poise unshakable.


Princess Twilight Sparkle - Part 1 — [s4e1]


Difficulty: Medium
Download: database_tutorials.zip

In this tutorial we are going to be adding data to the Guestbook database made in the tutorial Part: 1 Connecting to an Access Database.

To make the Microsoft Access database tutorials on Connecting, Adding, Deleting, and Updating, more interesting we are going to use these tutorials to make a simple Guestbook.

In the first database tutorial, Part: 1 Connecting to an Access Database, we learned how to connect to a database and display the contents of a database table in a web page.

In this tutorial we use an HTML form to take a site visitors name and comments and add these to the database. We will then use the page 'guestbook.asp' made in the first database tutorial to display the contents of the database (don't worry if you didn't do the first database tutorial, the 'Guestbook database' and the 'guestbook.asp' page are included in the zip file for this tutorial).


Princess Twilight Sparkle - Part 1 — [s4e1]

First we need to quickly create an HTML page with a form on it to take the input from the user.

In this page we will have two text boxes, one called 'name' and the other called, 'comments', we will then use the post method to send the page to the file, 'add_to_guestbook.asp' that we are going to be creating later in this tutorial, which will add the user input into the database.

<html>
<head>
<title>Guestbook Form</title>
</head>
<body bgcolor="white" text="black">
<!-- Begin form code -->
 <form name="form" method="post" action="add_to_guestbook.asp">
     Name: <input type="text" name="name" maxlength="20">
     <br>
     Comments: <input type="text" name="comments" maxlength="50">
     <input type="submit" name="Submit" value="Submit">
 </form>
<!-- End form code -->
</body>
</html>

Save the page as 'guestbook_form.htm' in the same folder as the Guestbook database.

Princess Twilight Sparkle - Part 1 — [s4e1]

Now we've got the form, to input the data through, out of the way we can make the the page that does all the work, adding the data to the database.

This page contains no HTML so we can start writing the asp straight away, still don't forget the server side script tags, <% .... %>.

First we need to dimension the variables used in the script, so open your favourite text editor and enter the following code.

<%
'Dimension variables
Dim adoCon          'Holds the Database Connection Object
Dim rsAddComments   'Holds the recordset for the new record to be added
Dim strSQL          'Holds the SQL query to query the database

Next we need to create a database connection object on the server using the ADO Database connection object.

'Create an ADO connection object
Set adoCon = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")

Now we need to open a connection to the database. There are a couple of ways of doing this either by using a system DSN or a DSN-less connection. First I am going to show you how to make a DSN-less connection as this is faster and simpler to set up than a DSN connection.

To create a DSN-less connection to an Access database we need tell the connection object we created above to open the database by telling the connection object to use the 'Microsoft Access Driver' to open the database 'guestbook.mdb'.

You'll notice the ASP method 'Server.MapPath' in font of the name of the database. This is used as we need to get the physical path to the database. Server.MapPath returns the physical path to the script, e.g. 'c:\website\', as long as the database is in the same folder as the script it now has the physical path to the database and the database name.

'Set an active connection to the Connection object using a DSN-less connection
adoCon.Open "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0; Data Source=" & Server.MapPath("guestbook.mdb")

Next create an ADO recordset object which will hold the records from the database and the new record to be added to the database.

'Create an ADO recordset object
Set rsAddComments = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Recordset")

To query a database we need to use SQL (Structured Query Language). In the next line we initialise the variable 'strSQL' with an SQL query to read in the fields 'Name' and 'Comments' form the 'tblComments' table.

'Initialise the strSQL variable with an SQL statement to query the database
strSQL = "SELECT tblComments.Name, tblComments.Comments FROM tblComments;"

Set the cursor type we are using to 'adOpenDynamic' so we can move through the recrord set. The integer value for this is 2.

'Set the cursor type we are using so we can navigate through the recordset
rsAddComments.CursorType = 2

Because we are going to be saving an updated recordset back to the database we need to set the LockType of the recordset to 'adoLockOptimistic' so that the recordset is locked, but only when it is updated. The integer value for this lock type is 3.

'Set the lock type so that the record is locked by ADO when it is updated
rsAddComments.LockType = 3

Now we can open the recordset and run the SQL query on the database returning the results of the query to the recordset.

'Open the recordset with the SQL query
rsAddComments.Open strSQL, adoCon

Once the recordset is open we can add a new record onto the end of the recordset. In the next line we let the recordset know we are adding a new record to it.

'Tell the recordset we are adding a new record to it
rsAddComments.AddNew

Now we can add a new record to the recordset. The details taken from the form we created at the start of this tutorial are entered into there relevant fields in the recordset. To get the data entered by the user from the form we use the 'Form' method of the ASP 'Request' object to request the data entered into the text boxes, 'name' and 'comments'.

'Add a new record to the recordset
rsAddComments.Fields("Name") = Request.Form("name")
rsAddComments.Fields("Comments") = Request.Form("comments")

The data has been entered into the recordset we can save the recordset to the database using the 'Update' method of the recordset object.

'Write the updated recordset to the database
rsAddComments.Update

We have finished using the database in this script so we can now close the recordset and reset the server objects.

'Reset server objects
rsAddComments.Close
Set rsAddComments = Nothing
Set adoCon = Nothing

Now that the database is updated we are going to use the 'Redirect' method of the ASP response object to redirect to the 'guestbook.asp' page we created in the first database tutorial, Connecting to an Access Database, so we can display the updated database. Note that if you are going to use the 'Response.Redirect' method you must remember to redirect before any HTML is written.

'Redirect to the guestbook.asp page
Response.Redirect "guestbook.asp"
%>

Now call the file 'add_to_guestbook.asp' and save it to the same directory as the database and the 'guestbook.asp' page, don't forget the '.asp' extension.

And that's about it, you have now created a simple Guestbook for your website, to find out how to delete any of the comments from the Guestbook database read the next tutorial on, Deleting Data from an Access Database.

If you find that you are getting errors connecting to the database then please read through the Access Database Errors FAQ's, practically make sure you have the correct 'ODBC Drivers' installed on your system and if you are using the, 'NTFS file system', make sure the permissions are correct for the database and the directory the database in.

Part 3: Deleting Data from an Access Database (Guestbook Pt.3) >>


Accompanying Tutorials in this Series

Now that you have completed this part you should look at the accompanying Tutorials in this series





Become a Fan on Facebook Follow us on X Connect with us on LinkedIn Web Wiz Blogs
About Web Wiz | Contact Web Wiz | Terms & Conditions | Cookies | Privacy Notice

Web Wiz is the trading name of Web Wiz Ltd. Company registration No. 05977755. Registered in England and Wales.
Registered office: Web Wiz Ltd, Unit 18, The Glenmore Centre, Fancy Road, Poole, Dorset, BH12 4FB, UK.

Prices exclude VAT at 20% unless otherwise stated. VAT No. GB988999105 - $, € prices shown as a guideline only.

Copyright ©2001-2026 Web Wiz Ltd. All rights reserved.