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When you use FrontPage 2003 to create Web sites based on Microsoft Windows SharePoint™ Services, you can access a wide range of data sources and manage them by using the data source catalog.

The data source catalog acts as a single location for accessing data sources in your Web site and enables you to simplify the process of managing them. It doesn't matter whether the data source exists on your server or on an external server. If you have access rights (rights: Permission to perform specific actions with site content, such as viewing or modifying a page. Rights are enabled or disabled for a user site group. Users can perform only those actions allowed by the rights assigned to their site group.) to the data source, you can interact with it by using the data source catalog.

There are a number of types of data sources that you can use. The catalog enables you to work with desktop-based and server-based databases — such as Microsoft SQL Server™ and Oracle databases — as well as Extensible Markup Language (XML) (Extensible Markup Language (XML): A condensed form of Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) that enables developers to create customized tags that offer flexibility in organizing and presenting information.) files, Web services, and Windows SharePoint Services lists.

This article uses a fictional case scenario to illustrate how you might use the data source catalog to manage the data sources for your Web sites.

Case scenario

Patricia Doyle is a Clinical Research Associate for the Human Healthcare division of Contoso Pharmaceuticals. She works in the laboratory researching various strains of viruses. When testing the effects of medications on these viruses, she relies on information from data sources on her intranet, as well as those on external servers.

Patricia's laboratory supervisor, Yvonne, wants a report listing all of the data sources Patricia uses for her research, along with example records. To complicate matters, this morning Patricia's lab assistant created a new database instead of updating the existing one. Now, the database from the last project is no longer up-to-date. Furthermore, her coworker Tony mentioned several Web services that provide key data — and Patricia didn't even know they existed.

Because Patricia's assistant already sent an e-mail message to the company announcing the new database, Patricia must include that database in her report. She knows the URL of the server where the database is located, but she doesn't have access to it from her Web site. For that reason, Patricia needs to add a new data source to the data source catalog in her site.

Add a data source

1. In the Data Source Catalog task pane, expand the heading for the type of data source you want to add.

2. Do one or more of the following:

   Add a new SharePoint list

   1. Under SharePoint Lists, click Create new SharePoint list.
   2. On the Lists tab in the SharePoint List dialog box, select the list you want.
   3. In the Specify the name for the new list box, type a name for the list.

   Add a new SharePoint library

   1. Under SharePoint Libraries, click Create new Document Library.
   2. On the Document Libraries tab in the SharePoint List dialog box, select the library you want.
   3. In the Specify the name for the new document library box, type a name for the library.

   Add a new database connection

   1. Under Database Connections, click Add to Catalog.
   2. In the Data Source Properties dialog box, click Configure Database Connection.
   3. In the Server Name box in the Configure Database Connection dialog box, type the server name where the database is stored.

   4. Under Authentication, specify the authentication method to use when accessing the server.

   5. Follow the steps in the wizard to finish creating a database connection.

   Add a new XML file

   1. Under XML Files, click Add to Catalog.
   2. In the Location box in the Data Source Properties dialog box, type the path of the XML file.

       Note   If the specified XML file doesn't exist in your Web site, or another site based on Windows SharePoint Services, FrontPage will prompt you to import the file.

   Add a new server-side script

   1. Under Server-side Scripts, click Add to Catalog.
   2. In the Data Source Properties dialog box, type the path to the script in the URL box, and then select whether to run the script on a Get or a Post by using the Method option.
   3. To add the parameters to use when running the script from a Web page, click the Add button.

   Add a new XML Web service

   1. Under XML Web Services, click Add to Catalog.
   2. In the Service description location box in the Data Source Properties dialog box, type the URL for the Web service.
   3. Click Connect Now.

Patricia feels a little better now that she's added the new entry to her data source catalog. However, she is worried she will accidentally use the outdated data source if it remains in the data source catalog. To avoid confusion, Patricia decides to delete the old data source from the data source catalog.

Remove a data source

Important  FrontPage automatically creates entries for SharePoint lists and libraries, as well as for XML files. Entries for these data sources cannot be removed from the catalog; however, you can remove entries for data sources that you add, such as database connections, server-side scripts, and XML Web services.

1. In the Data Source Catalog task pane, expand the heading for the type of data source you want to remove.

2. Click the data source, and then on the shortcut menu click Remove.

    Note   If Remove is unavailable, the data source has been added automatically and cannot be removed.

3. Click Yes when prompted.

Patricia is feeling more confident as she walks to the office of her coworker, Tony, who is leaving early that day. She asks about the unfamiliar data sources he mentioned earlier. Tony describes several Web services, but the lengthy URLs are hard to remember. Patricia only catches the word "virus" in each of the URLs. Since Tony has to leave, he suggests that Patricia add the data source catalog from his site to her own site.

Add a collection of data sources from another site

1. In the Data Source Catalog task pane, click Manage catalog.

2. In the Manage Catalog dialog box, click Add.
3. In the Collection Properties dialog box, type the display name and location for the collection you want to add.

After she finishes adding the collection of data sources from Tony's site to her site, Patricia realizes that Tony has dozens of data sources, and she is concerned that she won't be able to find the ones she needs. She remembers that the important databases contain the word "virus," so she decides to search by using that keyword.

Search for a data source

1. In the Data Source Catalog task pane, click Find a Data Source.

2. In the Search box, enter the location you want to search.
3. In the For box, type the search term.

4. Click Search Now.

    Note   Any data source names that contain the search term are displayed. For example, the search term "iru" will display the data source "virus" in the return set.

Now that Patricia has successfully managed the data sources in her site, her next concern is to create a Web page that displays the data her supervisor requested. By using FrontPage, she can add Data View Web Parts — known as Data Views — to her Web site. Data Views display data by using Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLTs) (XSL Transformation (XSLT): A file that is used to transform XML documents into other types of documents, such as HTML or XML. It is designed for use as part of XSL.). By using FrontPage to create or edit a data-driven Web site running on Windows SharePoint Services, Patricia knows she can add Data Views that can extract data from the data sources in her data source catalog.

Patricia also knows she can customize Data Views to create custom displays of her data in WYSIWYG format by using the Formatting toolbar. In addition, she can perform the following advanced customizations by using the Data View Details task pane:

• Style   Choose a formatting style from a gallery of predesigned list view styles and add a toolbar for site visitors to perform custom filtering on the list.
• Filter   Specify criteria to display a subset of the data in the Data View.
• Sort and group   Display items in a particular order and optionally group them on a Web page beneath collapsible headings.
• Conditional formatting   Set conditions for the data in the Data View — for example, to display all overdue items in red.

Patricia's deadline is drawing nearer, so she decides to create several Data Views to display the data from her data source catalog.

Add a Data View

1. In Page view, at the bottom of the document window, click Design .
2. On the Data menu, click Insert Data View.

3. In the Data Source Catalog task pane, expand the heading you want, and then click a data source.

4. On the shortcut menu, click Insert Data View.
5. In the Data View Details task pane, set the properties you want.

Now that Patricia has finished creating Data Views of her data source catalog, she prepares an e-mail message for her supervisor. In the message, she places a hyperlink to a Web page that contains her Data Views, each displaying data from a different data source. By using the data source catalog, Patricia was able to simplify the complicated task of managing information about multiple data sources.