Active Server Pages (ASP)

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ASP allows you to:

1. Create and run dynamic, interactive Web pages, Web-based applications and database-driven Web solutions
2. Combine HTML pages, script commands and ActiveX components

ASP is a server-side scripting interface that is native to the Windows NT operating system. It was introduced in Microsoft Internet Information Server IIS 2.0, and ASPs are easily created using VBScript (default scripting language), Jscript or PerlScript.

Two things are required for the successful implementation of a Web site built using Active Server Pages:

• good knowledge of HTML
• solid foundation in Visual Basic (or another script language)

While ASP is native to MS, there are other variants available from: http://halcyonsoft.com (iASP-uses server-side Java modules) http://http://www.chilisoft.com

Prior to the introduction of ASP, the Common Gateway Interface (CGI) was pretty much what you needed to learn. Perl is a language that is oten associated with CGI.

When the server receives a request for an .asp file [HTML file with asp scripts is renamed to .asp], your web server calls ASP which reads the requested file and executes the script commands it contains and sends the interpreted page to the client as pure HTML.

If you are using MS FrontPage, you can add simple ASP commands by using the Insert Script command. (iASPs can also use FrontPage and some of the more common WYSIWYG editors to create code.)

ASP enables you to:

• Enhance the visitors experience
• Gather information from the visitor
• Create personalised content
• Keep track on your site's visitors
• Create hit counters
• Secure a site with authentication
• Find out where your visitor came from (browser type, IP address, and more)

ASP sites:
http://www.create-a-webshop.com/
http://www.asp-help.com
http://www.ActionJackson.com

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