1. Deploy nService3 Files

Download nService3.zip (1M). Unzip it to Inetpub\wwwroot\. It creates the Inetpub\wwwroot\nService3 folder. Also download and install Microsoft Report Viewer. Send an email to support@servaplex.com if you need help with installation.

If you'd like, you can check out the online demo first. Log on as ns3.admin with no password.

2. Create IIS Application (screen shots)
Run Administrative Tools, Internet Information Service (IIS Manager), right click Application Pools and select New to create a new application pool called nService3AppPool.

Go back to IIS Manager, right click Default Web Site, nService3, click Properties and then click the Create button to create an application. Set it to run in the nService3AppPool application pool. Go to the ASP.Net tab, select 2.0x in the version drop down list. If you don't see it, you need to download and install .Net 2.0, then relaunch IIS Manager to select it.

Go back to IIS Manager, click Web Service Extensions, select ASP.Net 2.0xxx on the right pane and then click the Allow button to enable it if needed.

Go to Administrative Tools, Services, make sure the ASP.NET State Service is started and the Startup Type is Automatic. For Windows XP Pro, install IIS 5 from Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs, Windows Component tab. IIS 5 is preinstalled in Windows 2000. There is no need to create the application pool and enable the web service extension in IIS 5.

On Windows 2003/IIS 6, without an application pool for nService3, you may get the Server not available error. The Windows event viewer may have an application log saying that two versions of ASP.NET can't coexist in the same process. Without ASP.Net in Web Service Extensions being allowed, you may get the Page cannot be found error.

3. Create Database and Tables (screen shots)
Run SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Manager or SQL Server 2005 Management Studio, create a new database called nService3. If you don't have SQL Server, download the free Express Edition.

Load Inetpub\wwwroot\nService3\App_Data\ns3ms.sql into SQL Query Analyzer or SQL Server Management Studio, run it in database nService3 to create tables.

Assign NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE datareader and datawriter role on the nService3 database. If this user doesn't exist in your database, add a new login from Security/Logins and type in NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE as the login name. Make sure there is no trailing space after the name. Note this is a built-in account hence won't show up in the search.

If your SQL Server is on a separate server, substitute all above NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE with domainName\WebServerMachineName$.

SQL Server Authentication
When a user access the nService3 website, IIS connects to your SQL Server through an ODBC data source. If your SQL Server is set up to use Windows integrated authentication, you need to set up database access for NETWORK SERVICE which is the Windows account IIS 6 uses to access your database. Steps 3 and 4 do that. If your SQL Server is set up to use mix mode authentication, you can use a SQL Server user account to log on to your database by taking the following steps.

3a. Create a SQL Server login called ns3 using Enterprise Manager or SQL Server Management Studio and assign it datareader and datawriter role to the nService3 database.

3b. When creating the ODBC data source, set the authentication to SQL Server authentication and enter the user name and password of the new database user.

Then, modify \Inetpub\wwwroot\nService3\web.config using Notepad. Change the connectionString to something like this: DSN=nService3;UID=ns3;PWD=xxx;

(If you are using IIS 5, substitute all NETWORK SERVICE mentioned with ASPNET.)

4. Create ODBC Data Source (screen shots)
Go to Administrative Tools, Data Sources, System DSN tab, select SQL Server driver and create a new data source called nService3. In the Setup Wizard, select With Windows NT authentication and set the default database to nService3.

Without setting the default database, you may get the Invalid object name 'ns3_registry' error when you log on.

For Windows XP Pro, install IIS 5 from Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs, Windows Component tab. IIS 5 is preinstalled in Windows 2000. There is no need to create the application pool and enable the web service extension in IIS 5.

On Windows 2003/IIS 6, without an application pool for nService3, you may get the Server not available error. The Windows event viewer may have an application log saying that two versions of ASP.NET can't coexist in the same process. Without ASP.Net in Web Service Extensions being allowed, you may get the Page cannot be found error.

5. Request a Trial License
Send an email to support@servaplex.com to request a trial license. Once you have the license, you can point your browser to http://localhost/nService3/. Log on as ns3.admin with no password. If you are testing from another computer, change the localhost to the IP address or the fully qualified domain name of the server. Keep in mind that your nService web site will be slow the first time you use it because IIS needs to compile its web pages.