User Guide

40 Chapter 3: Data Source Management
4 Click Add.
A form for additional DSN information appears. The available fields in this form depend on
the Driver that you selected.
5 In the Database field, enter the name of the database; for example, Northwind.
6 In the Server field, enter the network name or IP address of the server that hosts the database,
and enter any required Port value; for example, the bullwinkle server on the default port.
7 If your database requires login information, enter your Username and Password.
Tip: The omission of required username and password information is a common reason why a
data source fails to verify.
8 (Optional) Enter a Description.
9 (Optional) Click Show Advanced Settings to specify any ColdFusion-specific settings; for
example, to configure which SQL commands can interact with this data source.
10 Create Submit to create the data source.
ColdFusion MX automatically verifies that it can connect to the data source.
11 (Optional) To verify this data source later, click the verify icon:
Note: To check the status of all data sources available to ColdFusion MX, click Verify All
Connections.
Specifying connection string arguments
You can use the ColdFusion MX Administrator to specify connection string arguments for data
sources that use the Microsoft Access, ODBC Socket, MYSQL, or DB2 drivers. In the Advanced
Settings page for one of these drivers,in the Connection String field, enter name=value pairs
separated by a semicolon. The Administrator configures the following ODBC connection string:
DSN=odbcdsnname;APP=RaiseGenerator;WSID=TWriter01
In the preceding string, odbcdsnname is the name of the ODBC DSN. This is the string that the
Microsoft Access or ODBC Socket driver uses to connect to the data source at runtime.
Note: The connectstring tag attribute (cfquery tag) is not supported in ColdFusion MX.
Adding data source notes and considerations
When adding data sources to ColdFusion MX, keep these guidelines in mind:
• Data source names should be all one word.
• Data source names can contain only letters, numbers, hyphens, and the underscore.
• Data source names should not contain special characters or spaces.
• Although data source names are not case-sensitive, you should use a consistent capitalization
scheme.
• Depending on the JDBC driver, connection strings and JDBC URLs might be case-sensitive.
• Ensure that you use the Administrator to verify that ColdFusion MX can connect to the data
source.
A data source must exist in the ColdFusion MX Administrator before you use it on an application
page to retrieve data.