Connections issues with MS Access to ASP.NET web application

Question

I have hit a wall and can't figure out the heads from the tails. I am working with a team and we have developed an asp.net web application. There is a feature on the application that delivers directions from a database. The database is an MS Access database. I have published the application to an IIS7 Windows server. I also uploaded via FTP the Access database. We have tried all manner of connection string variants. We did not import the database in any way into Visual Studio but prefer to connect to where ever we decide to place it.

Now, I am wondering if using Access was a bad idea. Its a given that it was a rookie mistake since we are students working on our capstone project. Is there any other installs for the Access database that need to be installed on the server other than the driver for Access? Should my connection string be structured any other way that what it is presently? I will post the string below. Please note, I did not write this particular section of coding so if an error should be thrown it may be handled somewhere as to prevent the application from crashing on the user. Side note: Yes it does work fine on my local computer although the connection must be altered.

 sConnection = @"Provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0;Data Source=C:\inetpub\wwwroot\kioskApplication\www\Waypoints.accdb";

Thanks in advance for all the support and help with this issue.

Answer 1

Usually a WEB Application stores a file based database like MS-Access in its APP_DATA folder under the root of the site where every permission is granted to the IIS Service.

Then in your connection string you refer to this location using

Connection = @"Provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0;
               Data Source=|DataDirectory|\Waypoints.accdb";

See Where is DataDirectory

On the server side there is no need to install anything apart from the Microsoft Database Access Engine appropriate for the bitness of your web application. (32bit or 64bit)