StP Database Administrator for MS Access version 2.3 Readme

Table of contents

Overview

StP Database Administrator (DBAdmin later) is a tool that allows you to manage your MS Access databases through your browser, providing various set of functions you can perform with your databases, without having downloading them, changing and uploading again. Most of features needed for database management are included, you can even create a new blank databases on-line.

Features:

Requirements

What's new in version 2.3

There are several new features added that worth to mention. One of them is table rename. Note it is only available on hosts where ADOX is available. Most hosting providers have it installed, so should not be a problem.
Another feature (suggested by Ron) - support for linked tables. It requires ADOX as well. To use it, look for link just below "Create Table" button, on tables list page. If ADOX is not installed you will not see this link. Note, linked tables get broken when you move your database(s) to another place, so you will have to re-create them again.
And another one - system tables (suggested by Ron too). To be able to view system tables, you have to grant read permissions to them using MS Access itself. Here is a quick guide how to do it:

  1. Open your database in MS Access. Go to Tools->Options, switch to View tab (opened by default) and check "System Object". Hit OK.
  2. Now you will see some more tables (all starts with "MSys"). Click on one of them and go to Tools->Security->User and Group Permissions. Make sure "Read data" and "Read design" are both checked, then hit OK. Repeat this step on each system table.

Now you can enable (or disable later) viewing system tables in DBAdmin. Look in Settings page, you will see it there. By default, system tables are not shown.

And yet another feature - HTML editor for Text and Memo fields. Note that the editor itself is not written by me, I took a one from internet. So on the recedit.asp page, you will see a button "Edit" near all Text and Memo columns. Click on it and you'll get the editor.
Lookup for value. Though you still able to enter whatever data you want in related columns, a new "Lookup" button will appear near them, which will allow you to pick values from another, related table and column.

Below is the full list of changes in DBAdmin:

For the full versions history, see History.htm file.

Installation

Below are steps that you should perform to successfully install DBAdmin.

  1. Double click on the downloaded archive file and choose a directory where all unzipped files should be placed. This directory is temporary and can be safely removed after installation.
  2. Open file "scripts\inc_config.asp" in any text editor such as Notepad and find the line:
    Const DBA_cfgAdminPassword = "admin"
    This is your password as administrator. You should change it to your own, so just replace "admin" with your new password.
  3. Optional - DBAdmin uses Session object to store some settings and transfer them from page to page. If you want to change those Session variables names, you can do this in same "scripts\inc_config.asp" file - see remarks inside it.
  4. Optional - If you want to use XML file to store your configuration and database paths, you should update the value of DBA_cfgProfilePath in the same file, and set it to a virtual path to XML file. Note that the folder where this file will reside MUST be created and have write access.
  5. Now save configuration file, create some directory on your Web server (for example "dbadmin") and upload all files, including subfolders into it.
  6. Configuration is done. Open your browser and navigate to DBAdmin main page ("default.asp").

Upgrade from version 1.x

You should remove any previous version installed on your server and upload the new one as is (after changes described in Installation section).

Upgrade from version 2.x

Just upload all files to your server, but keep your configuration file (scripts/inc_config.asp), to save your current settings. You may notice that all saved paths to databases are gone(related only when upgrading from version 2.0.x). Don't worry, you will have just re-create them, since the structure of profile's XML file has been changed slightly.
Starting from version 2.1.1, DBAdmin allows you using different versions of MSXML components. By default it will auto-detect the installed component, prefering MSXML 4, but you can explictly tell it which component to use, by editing "scripts/inc_config.asp" file and adding a new constant named "DBA_cfgMSXMLProgID". Refer to "scripts/inc_config.asp" file included with this installation.

FAQ

Licensing and pricing

DBAdmin is a free tool for any web-master for personal use only. Commercial use requires you to buy it. E.g. if you have an e-commerce web site, or you are selling from your site and DBAdmin in any way helps you (customers info stored in database, products, etc.), then you are a commercial user. Commercial license is given per site (or domain if doesn't points to same site), regardless how many users are using it, or how many databases you have. For latest prices, please visit DBAdmin home page. There are several options available but you can contact me if you need a special offer.

Links

Contact information

If you have any problems, questions, suggestions, feel free to either post in the StpWorks.com forum or write directly to my e-mail: stpatrick@mail.com. Make sure to check for updates, using the link in Database Administrator.

Philip Patrick, creator of Stp Database Administrator.