Testing Database Access with Microsoft Excel

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You can test your access to the MainBoss database by using Microsoft Excel. Any user can perform this test, but the Excel software must be installed on your system.

If you have Microsoft Office 2007 or 2010:

  1. Login to the Remote machine in question under the login name you want to test.
  2. Start Microsoft Excel.
  3. In the menu bar, click Data.
  4. In the ribbon, click From Other Sources, then click From SQL Server.
  5. Excel opens a window for you to specify a SQL Server connection. Under Server Name, enter the name of the SQL Server that holds the MainBoss database. Click Next.
  6. Select the name of the MainBoss database from the drop-down list.
  7. The wizard displays a list of tables in the MainBoss database. Since this is just a test, you can select any table; License is a good choice since it always contains a few lines of data, but not too much. Select this table.
  8. Click Next, then click Finish.
  9. Excel displays a window asking how you want to view the data. Just click OK.

If all goes well, Excel will insert your license keys and other data into the current spreadsheet. If this process works, the user has all the correct permissions to access the MainBoss database. If not, error messages from Excel may help you determine what went wrong. You may also find the following article useful:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sql/bestpractice/CISQL2005ASCS.mspx

If you have Microsoft Office 2003, the process is similar to the one above. To begin, go to Excel's Data menu, click Import External Data, and then Import Data. In the resulting menu, click New Source. From that point onward, the process is essentially the same as above, starting at Step 4.

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