Because I noticed that i was, by far, not the only one that was having problems with the "responseXML is null or not an object" error I have found a solution. However, depending on your budget, it might not be benificial to you. I changed the database from MS Access to MS SQL. For whatever reason, MS Access isn't allowing the right security access to be applied, sometimes... I tested the FleaIM on windows Vista with IIS7 and Office 2007 Pro installed and it ran without a problem. Once I had everything integrated with the website that i've been working on, i transfered it to the server...low and behold, "responseXML is null or not an object" occured. Days of searching google with nothing. I offered to pay to have the developer help with the error and I have yet to hear from them. Then I noticed that the developer was looking for someone to create the software in an ASP.net version on some site that i had came accross....Maybe you should take a look at CuteIM (
www.cutesoft.com). It is strikingly similar to this software (only it isn't free... 299.00 for one domain). I think that this project (FleaIM) has been abandoned. I downloaded the ASP.net version of the software, but it turns out that it is in C#, and that is a language that i'm not very familiar with forgive me but i'm more of a VB guy....
If your host/business is already running SQL, then here is the fix that everyone has been waiting for. As a programmer, Access isn't the way to go anyway when you have several people connecting into it because of the record lock issues, for that matter, it really isn't the way to go for web sites either exspecially a chat program.
1. In SQL create a database (named whatever you want).
2. Right click the database you just created and select All Tasks --> Import Data --> Next
3. On the Datasource drop down select "Microsoft Access" Make sure you have selected the one that has the key icon next to the name!
4. Browse to the #data.mdb located in the database folder wherever you extracted the FleaIM.
5. Click Next
6. Click Next
7. Click Next
8. Put a tick in the "Select All" checkbox.
9. Click Next
10. Click Next
11. Click Finished
Okay, we aren't done yet, but we are getting there, the next thing you have to do is set the ID's inside the tables to increase by one on every message/user ect.
1. Right click UserSysMsg table and select Design.
2. Since ID is the first column, look at the bottom of the screen, there is an option that says Identity. Change this option to "Yes"
3. Save Table
4. Repeat the above steps for the following tables: Usernum, UserMsg, UserGroup, UserFriend, UserConfig, User
We almost have it, there are somethings that need to have defaults. This is important, because if they don't have something, then your clients either won't get a message or still won't be able to sign in.
1. Right click UserMsg table and select design.
2. Click the IsConfirm column. Toward the bottom there is an option for "Default" change it to 2
3. Click the IsRead Column. Change the Default to 2
4. Click the MsgContent Column. Change the data type to nvarchar and change the size to 2000
5. Save the table
6. Open the UserSysMsg table in design view and change the MsgContent table to NvarChar with a size of 2000
7. Save the table.
Okay, now we are done with the database...next we need to tell the system to look at SQL for its data and not MS Access.
1. Wherever you extracted the FleamIM, Open the Data folder and then open the Function.asp file into your favorite editor.
2. Locate the following line:
oConn.Open "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0; Data Source=" & Server.MapPath("../database/#data.mdb")
3. Replace that line with the following, obviously changing the code below to fit your server:
oconn.Open "Driver={SQL Server};" & _
"Server=Your Server Name Here\Your SQL Instance Name Here;" & _
"Database=Your Database Name Here;" & _
"Uid=Your Username Here;" & _
"Pwd=Your Password Here;"
And there you have it, a working ASP version of the FleaIM. There is one other place that the system calls for the #data.mdb file. However I have not addressed it yet....because I won't be using that particular section of the program (so just incase it is simply checking that the file is there LEAVE THE #DATA.MDB there (don't delete/rename it). Since i have writen a novel here, i'll make the remaining part of this short. Don't use MS Access for a web application, use something a little more stable. MS Access is a great program, but just isn't ment for something like this. It gets very slugish after it reaches 20mb in size. When/If it reaches 250mb it will crash very often and will have to have a constant compact and repair ran on it. I hope that this helps someone out there as it took me several days to find that the issue is with MS Access and not really a read/write issue with the directory/file.
Cheers!!!
Systmdamage