Why use DSN Connections?
Provides easy to remember data source names.
When there are many data sources this can be a central repository to hold this collection without needing to be aware of the site and configuration details.
Why use DSN-Less Connections?
Creating an ODBC connection no longer required.
Provides faster database access because it uses native OLE DB providers, while DSN connections make use of ODBC drivers.
APS recommends these two DSN-Less connection strings for standard use:
SQL authentication
Windows NT integrated security
To setup the DSN-Less connections follow the below steps:
Go to the C:\ADV2000 directory.
Locate a file called aaDBConfList.exe.
Double click on this file to open the Advance Database Configuration File Setup window.
Ensure the Enable Encryption is ticked.
Click on the Rename this to add new parent field, and add a name, e.g DSNLess
Expand the DSNLess field, then click on the sublevel field, then click the build button. This will produce the Data Link Properties screen.
Select the highlighted provider Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server.
To use SQL authentication method:
If you have a password on your SQL user, you must check that Allow saving password box.
If you do not do this, the password will not be saved into your connection string and Advance will fail to load.
The resulting string from this build is:
Provider=SQLOLEDB.1;Persist Security Info=False;User ID=admin;Initial Catalog=aps_dsql;Data Source=NZ-SUE-NB
Every string must contain:
Provider=
Persist Security Info=
User ID=
Initial Catalog=
Data Source=
If you wish to use Windows NT integrated security:
Which results in:
Provider=SQLOLEDB.1;Integrated Security=SSPI;Persist Security Info=False;Initial Catalog=aps_dsql;Data Source=NZ-SUE-NB
In this case, every string must have:
Provider=
Integrated Security=
Persist Security Info=
Initial Catalog=
Data Source =