ASP Introduction

What is Active Server Pages?

What is dynamic content?

What do I need to run Active Server Pages?

How much will Active Server Pages cost?

What ActiveX Server Components are supported?

What scripting languages does Active Server Pages support?

What browsers does Active Server Pages support?

Is Active Server Pages secure?

What data sources can my Web application integrate with?

How does Active Server Pages compare to CGI?

How does Active Server Pages compare to ISAPI applications?

How does Active Server Pages compare to PERL?

Can Active Server Pages use Java?

What is Active Server Pages?

Microsoft® Active Server Pages (ASP) is the server-side execution environment in Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) 3.0 that enables you to run ActiveXA‚A™ scripts and ActiveX server components on the server. By combining scripts and components, developers can create dynamic content and powerful Web-based applications easily.

What is dynamic content?

Web pages that are customized for each user on the fly, based upon their actions or requests. For example, new visitors to your site can be shown a different welcome page than returning users see, or pages in an online catalog can be queries to a database so customers always see the most current information and availability.

What do I need to run Active Server Pages?

The Active Server Pages feature of IIS or later, requires Microsoft Windows NT® Server based operating system (Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows 2003) running IIS 2.0 or later.

How much will Active Server Pages cost?

Active Server Pages is a component of IIS 3.0, which is a free, downloadable, and integrated feature of Windows NT Server 4.0.

What ActiveX Server Components are supported?

Active Server Pages allows organizations to extend the power of scripting on the server with ActiveX server components. These components can be created using Microsoft Visual Basic, Visual C++®, Java, and other languages.

What scripting languages does Active Server Pages support?

Active Server Pages provides native support for both Microsoft JScript and VBScript. ActiveX scripting plug-ins are available for REXX, PERL, and Python.

What browsers does Active Server Pages support?

Active Server Pages can work with any Web browser. The output of an ASP file is plain HTML, the content of which can be customized for the capabilities of the client.

Is Active Server Pages secure?

Yes. Active Server Pages is a component of Internet Information Server, and thus uses Windows NT Security. ASP files can be easily restricted to just certain users through secure Windows NT authentication, basic Web authentication, or client-side certificates. For additional security, all client-to-server communications can be secured with Secure Sockets Layer (SSL).

What data sources can my Web application integrate with?

An Active Server Pages application can integrate with any ODBC-compliant databases including Microsoft SQL ServerA‚A™, Oracle, Sybase, Informix, and DB2 databases. Any OLE 2 application, such as Lotus Notes or Microsoft Excel, can also be scripted to access or process information. You can also write components to access online data feeds and legacy mainframes.

How does Active Server Pages compare to CGI?

Active Server Pages provides all of the functionality of CGI applications in an easier-to-use and more robust environment.

ASP is an easier way for your server to access information in a form not readable by the client (such as an SQL database) and then act as a gateway between the two to produce information that the client can view and use.

With CGI, the server creates as many processes as the number of client requests received. The more concurrent requests there are, the more concurrent processes created by the server. However, creating a process for every request is time-consuming and requires large amounts of server RAM. In addition, this can restrict the resources available for sharing from the server application itself, slowing down performance and increasing wait times on the Web.

Active Server Pages runs in the same process as the Web Server, handling client requests faster and more efficiently. It is much easier to develop dynamic content and Web applications with ASP.

How does Active Server Pages compare to ISAPI applications?

ISAPI applications require all of the programming and layout to be contained in a .dll file written in C++. ISAPI applications are thus more difficult to create and maintain. With ASP files, an HTML writer can script an external component and format the output. ASP separates the layout and design from the business logic.

How does Active Server Pages compare to PERL?

PERL and other scripting languages are not robust development tools by themselves. Active Server Pages provides a familiar framework and objects for building complex applications that require data from relational databases and legacy sources.

ASP supports virtually any scripting language to build these applications. Third parties are currently developing additional scripting engines, such as PERL, which we will announce when they are ready.

Can Active Server Pages use Java?

Yes. Active Server Pages supports ActiveX server components written in any language, including Java. In addition, ASP includes the Microsoft Windows reference standard Java Virtual Machine.