phpmailer

Dim con Set con = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")
con.Open "DSN=mydsn" ' Now database is open and we are connected ' Do some thing
here 'We are done so lets close the connection con.Close Set con = Nothing

Dim con Set con =
Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")
con.Open
"Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0; Data" &
_ "Source=c:\path\to\database.mdb"
' Now database is open
and we are connected ' Do some thing here 'We are done so lets close
the connection
con.Close Set con = Nothing

ExplanationThe only change is use of a Connection String in place of a rather easy to remember DSN. Above code connects to an imaginary Access database. Connection Strings for other databases are different.
How to construct a Connection String for Access and SQL Server Databases ?
For Access database :-With native OLE DB Provider ( preferred ):Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0; Data Source=c:\path\to\database.mdb
Using ODBC connection without specifying a DSN :Driver={Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb)}; DBQ=c:\path\to\database.mdb
Note, always use the first Connection String that uses native OLE DB provider because it is faster than the second one. 'Data Source' or 'DBQ' are absolute path to the database. If you have relative path then you can obtain absolute path by using Server.MapPath("/relative/path/to/database.mdb") e.g.

Dim conStr Set conStr = "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0; Data Source=" & _ Server.MapPath("/dbo/database.mdb")

For SQL Server :With native OLE DB Provider ( preferred ):-
Provider=SQLOLEDB; Data Source=server_name; Initial Catalog=database_name; User Id=user_name; Password=user_password
Using ODBC Provider :Driver={SQL Server}; Server=server_name; Database=database_name; UID=user_name; PWD=user_password

Why to use DSN Connections ?
Provides easy to remember data source names. When there are lots of data sources to think of and you want a central repository to hold the collection of data sources without having to worry about the actual site and configuration of the data sources. Why to use DSN less Connections ?
When you can't register DSNs yourself e.g. when you are running a virtual hosting account on other's server. Stop emailing system administerator, connect to your databases directly. Provides faster database access because it uses native OLE DB providers, while DSN connections make use of ODBC drivers. My ExperienceI always use DSN less connections on my site and examples :).

Showing Binary Data from the Database
To insert data click here

Adding records to the database with ASP

Overview

No matter what kind of site you have got, you will need your ASP pages to access databases. ASP makes it easier to work with databases by providing support for ADO ( Activex Data Objects ). You already know how to build DSN ( Data Source Name ) and then access database, if you don't then you might want to check out my tutorial on Accessing Databases via ASP.
In this article I will build on that tutorial to show you how to add records to the database. We will begin by exploring the insert statement provided by SQL ( Structured Query Language ). After that we will see the two basic ways we can use to add records to the database.
I will assume here that you have read the Accessing Databases via ASP tutorial and are comfortable creating DSNs and simple Access Databases. I will also assume that you have got access to Microsoft Access Database, PWS / IIS with a notepad to write ASP pages.
SQL Insert StatementSQL is the standard language to deal with databases World wide. It provides us with select, insert, delete and update statements to show, add, delete and update the records in the database respectively. We will only study the insert statement since we are only dealing with adding records to the database here. It will be very helpful to us when we are adding records, as we'll see later.

Syntax
insert into table_name (field1, field2, field3) values ('value1',
'value2', 'value3';

The insert statement as you have seen above is very simple to understand. It takes three arguments; table, fields and values. table_name is the name of the table in the database into which you want to add records. fieldn are the names of the columns in that table into which you want to add records. valuen are the values which will be inserted into specific fields. Note field names and values can be one or more than one but the table name will always be one.

Example
insert into books (author, title) values ('Faisal Khan', 'Add
Records';

When run the above query results in the insertion into two fields of table books, author and title values Faisal Khan and Add Records.

Table Name =
books Fields Values author Faisal
Khan title Add Records

Now after you are familiar with the insert statement and have seen how it works, it is time to move forward to see the two ways by which we can easily add records to our database via ASP.
We manipulate databases in ASP through ADO ( Activex Data Objects ). ADO is a set of pre made data components which makes things a lot easier for us when it comes to accessing data stores. Wondering why did I say data stores and not databases ? well, database is only one of the data stores and ADO can help us access more than that e.g. XML. We'll not go into what ADO can do for us, instead we'll restrain ourselves to the discussion of adding records to database via ASP.
There are two ways to add records to the database. We'll discuss each of them now.
Via Connection ObjectIt is the easiest and fastest way to add records to the database.

Here is how we add records with Connection Object :
' Setting
variables Dim con, sql_insert, data_source
data_source =
myDSN sql_insert = "insert into books (author, title) values " &
_ "('Faisal Khan', 'Adding Records')"
' Creating the
Connection Object and opening the database Set con =
Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Connection") con.Open data_source
'
Executing the sql insertion code con.Execute sql_insert
' Done.
Now Close the connection con.Close Set con = Nothing%

The above results in the creation of Connection Object which opens the database and inserts the records into specific fields of the table according to the SQL insert statement. See, didn't I say before it was going to be easy.
Via Recordset ObjectRecordset is another very useful Object which allows us to select, add, update and delete records without using SQL statements. Here is how we add records with Recordset Object.

' Setting variables Dim rs, data_source
data_source =
myDSN
' Creating Recordset Object and opening the database Set rs
= Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Recordset")
' Lets open books
table rs.Open "books", data_source
rs.AddNew ' Now adding
records rs("author") = "Faisal Khan" rs("title") = "Adding
Records" rs.Update
' Done. Now Close the
Connection rs.Close Set rs = Nothing

We didn't use any SQL insert statement here but added the records.
So what should you use ? Connection or Recordset Object, for adding records. Well Connection Object is fast and uses less server resources while Recordset Object is resource heavy. So if you have to add records to the database then Connection Object is usually the preferred way. Whichever you choose is up to you.

Step 7 : Close the 'names' table design view window. Now you will see 'names' table being added to the right column of the 'odbc_exmp : Database' window. Double click the 'names' table. This will bring up the 'names : Table' window showing an empty row and three columns with 'Field Names' which we specified earlier. It is used to add data to the table. We will add five names to our 'names' table. There is no need to add anything to the 'id' Field as it will autoincrement one number upon the addition of records to the rows one by one. If you don't understand what I mean by autoincrementing then just leave this field for a moment and you will come to know what it does later when we add records. Ok now add five names ( first, last ) in the empty row under their respective Field Names as shown below.

See the numbers in the 'id' Field. Thats what autoincrement does. It adds the numbers in a sequential way. Now hit the 'save' button to save the records which we have added in our 'odbc_exmp.mdb' database. This completes our task of creating a simple Access database.
You have just seen that how easy it is easy to create a database. You have also learned what are tables, rows and columns. You have also learned what 'Data Types' are and how to specify a 'Data Type' in the table column. You have also added records to the database. Now we will move forward and will register our database in the System registry by assigning it a Data Source Name ( DSN ). Well done, now continue to the next page.
DSN stands for Data Source Name. Data source can be a database, spreadsheet, text file etc. We assign DSN to a data source so that irrespective of the data source details and location, we can use that data source; add, modify or delete records, just by knowing it's DSN.
To assign DSN to our 'odbc_exmp.mdb' database, follow the steps below :
Step 1 : Open 'Control Panel' ( Start -> Settings -> Control Panel ). Double click the 'ODBC 32' icon. If you are running Windows2000 then double click the 'Administrative Tools' icon in the 'Control Panel' and then double click the 'Data Sources (ODBC)' icon. If you cannot find the 'ODBC 32' or 'Data Sources (ODBC)' icon then please see the discussion at the start of this tutorial.

Step 2 : By double clicking the 'ODBC 32' or 'Data Sources (ODBC)' icon on Windows2000 a window 'ODBC Data Source Administrator' will appear. It will contain many tabs on the top e.g. User DSN, System DSN, File DSN and so on. As far as ASP ( Active Server Pages ) are concerned, we will use System DSN. Click the 'Add' button. A window will appear like below :

Step 2 : After pasting the above code into your Notepad, save this page as 'odbc_exmp.asp' and give it any location where you can run .asp pages, usually in PWS/IIS that location is c:/Inetpub/wwwroot/ .After saving the file and giving it above location you can see it in your browser.
Step 3 : Start the PWS ( or IIS ) if it's not already running. Now open your favorite browser and type the following in your URL box of your browser :

http://127.0.0.1/odbc_exmp.asp

Note that above URL will only work if you have saved the 'odbc_exmp.asp' file at c:/Inetpub/wwwroot/ ( or where ever your wwwroot directory is present ). If you have put it in a 'temp' directory e.g. c:/Inetpub/wwwroot/temp/ then the URL to put in your browser URL box will be 'http://127.0.0.1/temp/odbc_exmp.asp'. Ok after putting the above URL in your browser URL box hit enter. If all id done right you will see a list of first and last name along with their IDs of all the entries ( five ) we made in our 'odbc_exmp.mdb' database. If you can see the following you are done.