Thursday, May 21, 2009

Operation must use an updateable query

Microsoft JET Database Engine error '80004005'

Operation must use an updateable query.
I think every web developer has seen this error at one time or another, and probably more than once. When I see it now, I actually smile, because it's an easy one to fix. It happens when you try to add or edit a record in an Access database through your web site.

This isn't a database error per se, it's actually a permissions error. Without going into too much detail, it's cause when the Internet Guest Account on your IIS server doesn't have permissions to write to a folder.

The Internet Guest Account is the accout IIS uses by default for web site visitors. When you add or edit a record in Access, requires that the account editing or creating the record have write permissions to the folder the Access database it in.

If you have access to your server, open file exploere and navigate to the folder containing your Access databse. Right click, select Properties, then click on the Security tab. In the Groups or user name box, scroll until you see Internet Guest Account. Select it, then look in the Permission box underneath and make sure Write is checked.

If you don't have access to your server, you'll have to contact support at your hosting company and ask them to do it. Any hosting company wirth its salt with know exactely what you mean when you say "I need you to set write permissions for Internet Guest Account on the folder that has my Access database in it."

Thursday, May 07, 2009

Installing Visual Web Developer 2008

I haven't been doing much as far as advancing along the .Net development path. Procrastinating I guess. My cellmate at work suggested I go ahead and install the most recent version (2008) rather than the 2005 I already had, so I could use the 3.5 framework, since he said it had some "cool stuff". I figured why not? It's not as though I'd really started doing anything anyway.

So I downloaded the whole deal from the ASP.Net site and launched it. Three days of intermittent tinkering later, I finally had it installed. And Microsoft wonders why it has pretty much lost the hobbyist programmer....

The problem occurred right out of the gate. The install program hung on trying to set up the 3.5 framework, which was the second step of the install process. I tried all the standard solutions: uninstalling all the existing frameworks, reinstalling, even downloading the 3.5 framework separately and trying to get it set up that way. I thought maybe it just needed a long time to finish, so I let it sit overnight. Nope. It wouldn't install and, as a result, VWD 2008 wouldn't either.

As a last ditch effort, I tried Windows Update. I should have tried that first because it worked. The next time I ran the VWD 2008 install program, it went right over the 3.5 framework install with a green check mark and proceeded on.

I went through some similar contortions trying to get SQL Server 2008 Express and it's associated Management Studio installed, but I overcame that as well.

So now I've got Visual Web Developer 2008 on my machine. All that's left is learning to use it!