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Peter Jamieson Peter Jamieson is offline
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Default Mail Merge to SQL Server without using an external ODC

More weird Word MailMerge-related behaviour has been reported in the last
week or so in this group than I can remember for quite a while:-) For my
part, if a problem can be worked around, I try not to dwell on it, because
investigating problems (a) isn't my job and (b) usually involves intensive
effort. But I will try to have a look at this one as well...

When you say "on open", do you mean a Document_Open() sub in either the
document or its template, an AutoOpen, or something else?

Peter Jamieson
"Todd K." wrote in message
...
This is kind of bizarre, but I started having some of my documents give me
the "Do you want SQL to update..." message again. I discovered that if I
set
up the mail merge first, then go back and paste the code in "on open", I
don't get the message. However, if I paste the code in first, then go
back
and set up the merge, I get the message.

"Peter Jamieson" wrote:

That's also interesting - will take a look...

Peter Jamieson
"Todd K." wrote in message
...
I also noticed that if I put "Option Explicit" at the top of the code, I
don't get that warning "Do you want SQL to update..." I know that has
been a
problem for a lot of people using Merge documents...

"Peter Jamieson" wrote:

Good! Thanks for the feedback.

Peter Jamieson

"Todd K." wrote in message
...
Success! I set up a datasource just to the SQL Server and copied
the
.odc
file to a folder on my c: drive called "c:\DataSources)" and then
placed
the
following code in the Word Merge document:

Private Sub Document_Open()

Me.MailMerge.OpenDataSource _
Name:="c:\DataSources\GOLD-10455 ProjectONESQL.odc", _
Connection:="Provider=SQLOLEDB.1;Integrated Security=SSPI;" & _
"Persist Security Info=False;Initial Catalog=ProjectOneSQL;data
source=GOLD-10455;", _
SQLStatement:="SELECT * FROM [TblRptCompletion]", _
subType:=wdMergeSubTypeOther

Me.MailMerge.Destination = wdSendToNewDocument
Me.MailMerge.Execute
Windows(Me).Close wdDoNotSaveChanges

End Sub

If I set up everybody's computer with this folder and datasource
once,
I
should be able to use code in the Word documents to draw from any
table/view
in the database from anybody's computer (with proper permissions of
course).

THANKS!

"Peter Jamieson" wrote:

Set it up wherever you can, then copy it using Windows Exploere (or
whatever). The .odc file is just a file.

If you're getting into areas of Windows etc. that are unfamiliar,
better
just to keep asking the questions and bear in mind that we're all
working
within a particular time zone...

Peter Jamieson


"Todd K." wrote in message
...
Peter -

How do I set up the data source under c:mysource.odc instead of
under
"c:\my
documents\todd kirby..."? I can't seem to do it.

- Todd

"Peter Jamieson" wrote:

The Word
documents were rebuilt as Merge documents "linked" to the SQL
tables,
and
that worked great from my computer but not from anyone else's.

If you did this using a .odc, then you would have to distribute
the
.odc
to
the other systems, and the other users would obviously have to
have
the
necessary permissions for the tables/views they need to access.
You
would
probably also have to re-issue the OpenDataSource call, for
exampel
in
an
AutoOpen macro.

If you're using SQl Server with Windows Integrated Security, you
shouldn't
have too many problems in this area. If you're not, then
a. everything gets a lot more difficult, straight away
b. I'm not even sure you will be able to make it work at all if
you
are
using SQL Server 2005 and the new drivers/providers that come
with
it.
I
haven't been able to do it with SQl Server security so far.

Also, you may need to consider

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/825765

However, when you use a .odc you currently have two choices:
a. have a .odc for each table or view you want to connect to,
and
specify
any query information in the SQLStatement and SQLStatement1
parameters
in
Word's OpenDataSource method
b. use one completely empty .odc (i.e. an empty text file) and
specify
everything you need in the OpenDataSource call.

It seems likely that distributing a set of solutions based on
(b)
is
likely
to be easier than basing them on (a).

Let's suppose you head for (b). You still have to write that
OpenDataSource
call and specify where that empty .odc is. I suppose there are
two
possible
solutions:
a. put an empty .odc in every user's My Data Sources folder,
build
the
complete pathname for that file for each user and use that
b. use a completely standard pathname, e.g. c:\myodcs\empty.odc
,
for
everyone. can't do much harm - it's just an empty file and all
the
necessary
security is handled elsewhere. I hope.

As for the OpenDataSource code, with an empty.odc you will
probably
need
something like

ActiveDocument.MailMerge.OpenDataSource _
Name:="c:\myodcs\empty.odc", _
Connection:="Provider=SQLOLEDB.1;Integrated Security=SSPI;" &
_
"Persist Security Info=False;Initial Catalog=mydb;Data
Source=myserver;"
_
SQLSatatement:="SELECT FROM ""mytable"", _
SubType:=wdMergeSubTypeOther

where "myserver" is the name of the server running your SQl
Server
database,
"mydb" is the name of the database you want to access and
"mytable"
is
the
table or view from which you want to retrieve data.

You'll need a different Provider name for SQl Server 2005's
native
provider...

See if that gets you any further.

Peter Jamieson

"Todd K." wrote in message
...
1) Word 2003
2) The whole thing will be moved to SQL Server. So much
needed
to
be
upgraded and changed from the current Access DB that we
decided
to
build a
SQL Server project from scratch. Right now it is on my CPU as
a
MySQL
project, but upon completion we will move it to a separate
server.
The
Word
documents were rebuilt as Merge documents "linked" to the SQL
tables,
and
that worked great from my computer but not from anyone else's.
So I
figured
how to use the code below on the current Access database
allowing
everyone
to
utilize them from their computers. When I essentially just
changed
the
code
in the OpenDataSource, it can't seem to find the SQL table
3) I just want to connect to a SQL Server table, no stored
procedures.

"Peter Jamieson" wrote:

Which version of Word?

At the moment I'd guess your code is using DDE to get the
data
(i.e.
Access
will open and get the data).

When you say that the source changed to SQl Server do you
mean
that
the
underlying data moved to SQL Server (and that you still have
linked
tables
in your .adp) or that the whole thing moved to SQL Server?

For starters, to connect directly to SQL Server you need
either
a. a suitable ODBC DSN (either "machine" DSN or .dsn file)
or
b. a suitable OLE DB .udl file or
c. a suitable OLE DB .odc file

I can go into the details if necessary but maybe that will
take
you
a
step
further. As a rule, an OLE DB connection is advisable, and
essential
if
your
SQl Server database has Unicode fields in it (which it almost
certainly
will
have if it was created from an Access project using the
Upsizing
wizard.

Connecting to SQL Server tables and views should be
straightforward,
security issues permitting, but connecting to stored
procedures/stored
functions is another matter.

Peter Jamieson

"Todd K." wrote in message
news Peter -

I have a similar situation. I have code that works when
the
source
is
an
Access table (see below), but when the source changed to
SQL
Server
it
quit
working. Is there a different protocol for SQL Server or
is
it
probably
in
the routing?:

Private Sub Document_Open()

Me.MailMerge.OpenDataSource _
Name:="I:\Applications\Databases\ProjectOne.adp", _
LinkToSource:=True, _
Connection:="TABLE TblAmendment_Ren", _
SQLStatement:="SELECT * FROM [TblAmendment_Ren]"
Me.MailMerge.Destination = wdSendToNewDocument
Me.MailMerge.Execute
Windows(Me).Close wdDoNotSaveChanges

End Sub

"Peter Jamieson" wrote:

Did you work out how to do the ODBC connection?

Honestly, I think this is another of those
situations where Microsoft didn't have *anything* in
mind.

I certainly don't understand why they insist that you have
an
external
object of some kind and don't allow DSN-less and ODC-less
connections,
unless of course they were
a. worried that the end result would be loads of .doc
files
with
embedded
plain text login/password info.
(but if you're using SQL Server integrated security that's
wouldn't
be
an
issue anyway)
or
b. worried that then people would be able to distibute
their
merge
qapplications reasonably easily :-)