How to use a Microsoft Access database on Windows Plesk Hosting

Uploading your database

Login to your the Plesk Control Panel and open the File Manager.

Open the private folder and select Add New Folder.

Click the Browse button and location the database file (*.mdb) file from your local computer.

Press the OK button to upload it.

 

Setting up a database connection

Click on Home to return to the Home page and select ODBC Settings under Services.

Click on the “Add new ODBC DSN” button

Enter the name of the new connection for the database uploaded in the previous steps (You must only use letters and numbers – no spaces). You can also add an optional description.

From the drop down, select “Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb)” and click OK.

Enter the Database File Path, this will be in a format similar to: E:\inetpub\vhosts\<example.com*gt;\private\<uploaded_database.mdb> (See the section Finding the Database Path below) where example.com is your domain name and uploaded_database.mdb is the name of the database uploaded to the site. Normally the domain name will not include the www part.

The rest of the fields are optional and are normally not needed.

Click on the “Test” button and if the connection has been created correctly you will be shown the message “Connection Successful”.

If you do not see “Connection Successful” please check you have specifed the correct path (without the www). If you need to enter a password to open the database enter the appropriate username and password details.

 

Finding the Database Path

Save the attachment shown below “showpath.asp” and upload this to the ‘httpdocs’ folder for your website.

Browse to this page in your web browser http://www.example.com/showpath.asp (replacing www.example.com)

This should show you a path similar to C:\inetpub\vhosts\<example.com*gt;\httpdocs\showpath.asp

To create the path to your database remove the portion “httpdocs\showpath.asp” from the end and add “private\<uploaded_database.mdb>.

Once this is working, please remove the file showpath.asp from your website as it is no longer needed