TechNote (Archived)

Dreamweaver and Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1

With the release of Microsoft's Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1), there are some changes to the operating system and to Internet Explorer that may affect Macromedia Dreamweaver developers and visitors to their websites. This TechNote identifies those issues and references other more in-depth documents on the Macromedia support site. Dreamweaver was not tested with Windows Server 2003 SP1, but it seems to have issues on Windows Server 2003 SP1 similar to those on Windows XP Service Pack 2. Since Windows Server 2003 is primarily used as a server and not as a client workstation (like Windows XP), this TechNote is divided into a server section and a client section. The server section will likely be of more interest to Dreamweaver users than the client section.

Server Issues
Client Issues
Additional information

Server Issues

Note: This section affects Dreamweaver users who are connecting to a Windows Server 2003 SP1 to develop their pages. Therefore, this section may apply to Dreamweaver users running Mac OS X, Windows XP, Windows 2000 Pro and Windows 98 SE.

Database connectivity fails with ASP.NET and ASP for some Dreamweaver clients

ASP.NET issue: When using an ASP.NET test server running on Windows Server 2003 SP1 with Dreamweaver (i.e. the Testing Server URL prefix is set to "http://my_win_2003_server"), database connectivity fails. If you click the Test button in the OLE DB Connection or SQL Server Connection dialog box, it says the connection was made successfully. However, if you then try to browse the tables in the Databases panel or in the DataSet dialog box, the database tables do not display.

ASP: When using an ASP test server running on Windows Server 2003 SP1 with Dreamweaver (i.e. the Testing Server URL prefix is set to "http://my_win_2003_server"), and you specify "Using driver on testing server" or "Using DSN on testing server," database connectivity fails. If you click the Test button in the Custom Connection String or Data Source Name (DSN) dialog box, it says the connection was made successfully. However, if you then try to browse the tables in the Databases panel or create a recordset, the database tables do not display or you get the following error message: "Unable to retrieve tables from this connection, click on the 'Define...' button to test this connection."

Workaround: Download and install the Dreamweaver extension fix by Macromedia that resolves this issue (Ref. 179021). To use this extension, follow the steps below. The steps apply to both ASP.NET and ASP sites (substitute "ASP.NET" with "ASP"):

In Dreamweaver, go to the Files panel and choose one of your ASP.NET site definitions.
Select Site > Advanced > Remove Connection Scripts.

Note: If this option is grayed out, open an ASP.NET page in Dreamweaver. Removing the connection scripts will delete the contents of the _mmServerScripts folder, which is located in the testing server folder. The _mmServerScripts folder is hidden in Dreamweaver's Files panel, but will be visible if viewed with a different file browser. The _mmServerScripts folder consists of these three files: adojavas.inc, MMHTTPDB.asp and MMHTTPDB.js. The connection scripts are used by Dreamweaver to perform remote database connectivity when developing pages within Dreamweaver. These script files have no affect on your web pages during run-time (i.e. when a visitor views your ASP.NET pages via a web browser).
Repeat steps 1-2 for each of your ASP.NET site definitions.
Quit Dreamweaver.
Install the extension.
Restart Dreamweaver.
Go into the Files panel, select one of your ASP.NET sites, and open an .aspx file.
Go into the Databases panel and delete your existing databaseconnections. Before deleting them, make sure to open up each connection and write down the settings. You can open a connection by either double-clicking the connection name, or right-clicking the connection name and selecting Edit.
Create a new database connection. Use the same connection names you had before, so any existing pages with DataSets and Server Behaviors still work correctly.
Click the Test button in the database connection dialog box. This will upload the new connection scripts to the testing server.
Repeat steps 7-10 for each of your Dreamweaver ASP.NET site definitions.

Note: This extension is compatible with Dreamweaver MX 2004 and Dreamweaver MX and works on both Windows and Macintosh. The current version of the extension is 1.0.2. Version 1.0.1 resolved a database connectivity problem with the ASP VBScript server model. Version 1.0.2 includes the fixes in version 1.0.1 and also resolves compatibility issues with Dreamweaver MX (version 6). You can see which version of the extension you have by opening the Extension Manager.

Client Issues

Note: Dreamweaver users running Mac OS X, Windows XP, Windows 2000 Pro and Windows 98 SE can ignore this section.

Windows Server 2003 is not usually used as a client workstation. In other words, Dreamweaver is not usually installed on a Windows Server 2003. Users that do have Dreamweaver installed on Windows Server 2003 should refer to Dreamweaver and Windows XP Service Pack 2 (TechNote 19515) for detailed information on client issues that may affect them. Here is a list of the issues: