First, thanks for your promt reply.  I changed the DSN as you suggested using Localhost and putting in my SQL 2005 credentials.  Now the search customers form work ok. 

I am a newby to this and I have a couple of questions based on your points. 

1) I am now using an SQL log In rather than windows.  Is this the distinction you were making when you refered to TCP/IP connection versus Named pipes ? 

2) This might be a silly question but I thought that it was better to use Windows authentication or is this only for forms access.

3)  In the mean while I have a similar set up on my laptop where I am using XP Professional.  After the problem I had I went downstairs used my Laptop and realised it was probably on my laptop that I had seen the customer search working.  I checked the global.asax file and noted I had not set up a connection string yet it appeared to be working ok.  I am sure I read somewhere that the controls can use a default value for the connection string.  Is this probably the case ?  where did I set this default ?

4)  In both my set-ups the Search Customer form now works ok.  But, when I perform an edit of the data and try and save the edit I get the error below.  I noted in the design view of the form WebBindingSource.aspx the grid view has an error

"There was an error rendering the control".

"The data source does not support server-side data paging.

I'm not sure they are related ... can you suggest what I'm doing wrong ? 

Thanks in advance.

jd

Page error after edit

The business object 'Customers' could not be found on this page.

Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code.

Exception Details: System.InvalidOperationException: The business object 'Customers' could not be found on this page.

Source Error:

[InvalidOperationException: The business object 'Customers' could not be found on this page.]

Actually you DO need it.  This is the connection string that establishes the connection for the application.  First, it looks like you are trying to use a named pipe, which is OK, but you need to ensure that you have permissions for this.  You are trying to connect using integrated security which is probably not going to allow named pipes through a web session be default so you would want to connect using a user name and password. 

Secondly, you said that you were using SQL 2000, but the error message indicates that you are using SQL Server 2005 and Express wasn't a 2000 product the replacement for MSDE thus the new name in 2005...so I am pretty confident you are running 2005 Express.

Finally, the message that you provided is spot on accurate when a connection fails as this is not a message that we generate.  Most times it is best to use a connection that provides a user name and password and uses TCP versus named pipes when coming from a web application:

Try something along those lines and see if you have better luck.

Just a guess, but have you tried changing this "./SqlExpress" to something like "YourMachineName/SqlExpress" ?

I wonder if you can help ... I was working through your Web sample ... and now I keep getting the error below when I click on a page that access the Strataframe database, Remote connections are enabled.  Can you help ?  I have SQL 2000 installed and SQL Express.  In my global asax file I added the connection string

DataLayer.DataSources.Add(new SqlDataSourceItem("", "Server = ./SqlExpress;Database=StrataFrameSample;Integrated Security=SSPI"));

.... although I don't believe I need it.  I have also successfully connected to the database using the Database connection Tool.