ODBC (SQL Server) Error

[andrewace]

I have a database on SQL Server (on another machine) with a DSN set up from my local machine which runs Actinic.

This DSN works OK, as I have a number of ASP pages which connect using it with no errors.

I would like to use Actinic's External Links feature to load live stock level data.

I have no problem selecting the database (using type "SQL database via ODBC"), which gives me a valid list of tables to choose from, and then I can drag my column names into the matching Actinic fields.

But - when I click "OK", I get the following error:

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Actinic Ecommerce was unable to determine if there are duplicate product references in the external table. Please correct the error or disable external product linking. The error message reported was: 'ODBC---Connection to RSCM_SUN failed'
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I don't understand how the connection failed if it successfully connected to get the table and column names a few seconds earlier.

Can anyone please make any suggestions?

Many thanks,
Andrew

[cdicken]

All I know about linking to SQL data is what is in the help...

Note 1: If the external file is an SQL database, then the ODBC Data Source has to be set up, either in advance, e.g. through Windows Control Panel, or using the ODBC screens that will appear in Actinic.

Note 2: If the external file is an SQL database, you will also need to define a 'Primary Key' field for your data, or else Actinic will not be able to create the external link properly. You can use your 'Product Reference' column as your primary key if no other field is available.

Note 3: If you are using MS SQL server then you must use VARCHAR data type for the columns of the linked table. With other database systems use the equivalent syntax. This is so that a value in the external table, which is shorter than the size of its corresponding table column, will not be right-padded to the size of the column.

Does that shed any light?