Web Design & Development

Active Server Pages (ASP) Defined

ASP in a nutshell:

ASP is not a scripting language instead it forms the structure within which scripting languages can be used on the server-side
Within the ASP framework developers can choose to use VBScript, JScript, JavaScript, or Perl
What most people refer to as ASP is actually VBScript
ASP will only run on Microsoft's Internet Information Server (IIS) and thus only on Windows NT
It is not free per se due to the above comment
It is more intensive than PHP

In more detail:

According to Microsoft, the developer of Active Server pages, the description is, " Active Server Pages (ASP) is an open, compile-free application environment in which you can combine HTML pages, scripts, and Microsoft® ActiveX® server components to create powerful Web-based applications. Active Server Pages offers native support for Microsoft® Visual Basic® Scripting Edition (VBScript) and Microsoft® JScript™, and supports other scripting languages such as REXX, Python, and Perl through Active Scripting plug-ins." Now lets put it in laymans terms.

Active Server Page programming was developed to give developers a way to embed dynamically interpreted code into HTML which would process the pages at the server before sending it to the recipient. This means that based on the users actions, the server would be able to decide what to send to them. The user would only see the results that the server chose. Prior to ASP this type of thing could only be done with Server Side Includes (SSI) or CGI [described below]. ASP programming is particularly strong in allowing interaction with datatbases such as Microsoft Access, Microsoft SQL server, Oracle, and others. As Lycos WebMonkey notes, "ASPs are server-generated pages which can call other programs to do things like access databases, serve different pages to different browsers - basically, anything we used to do with CGI." Web Developers Virtual Library describes it as, "an ASP page at its core is simply a text file that has been named using the extension .asp and which contains HTML and scripting. Scripting, usually in VBScript provides a means to embed programmatic logic into HTML files that will be dynamically interpreted as the HTML page goes through the web server and also provides access to any server side object."

A point of clarification is that ASP is not actually a programming language, but instead is a scripting environment. CNet Builder.com states, "we are used to thinking in terms of languages, but ASP does not fit that model. Although we talk about ASP scripts, ASP is not a language. Instead, Microsoft refers to it as a server-side scripting environment. To work in that environment, ASP coders commonly use VBScript or JScript, both of which are automatically supported by ASP."

Historically, an significant issue with Active Server Pages is that they would only run on Microsoft IIS web servers. However, there are now add-ons you can purchase for other platforms such as Apache. In many cases though these add-ons will come at a cost.

How Does ASP Differ from HTML?

When a browser requests an HTML file, the server returns the file
When a browser requests an ASP file, IIS passes the request to the ASP engine.
The ASP engine reads the ASP file, line by line, and executes the scripts in the file.
Finally, the ASP file is returned to the browser as plain HTML

You cannot view the ASP source code by selecting "View source" in a browser, you will only see the output from the ASP file, which is plain HTML. This is because the scripts are executed on the server before the result is sent back to the browser.

What can ASP do for you?

Dynamically edit, change or add any content of a Web page
Respond to user queries or data submitted from HTML forms
Access any data or databases and return the results to a browser
Customize a Web page to make it more useful for individual users
The advantages of using ASP instead of CGI and Perl, are those of simplicity and speed
Provides security since your ASP code can not be viewed from the browser
Since ASP files are returned as plain HTML, they can be viewed in any browser
Clever ASP programming can minimize the network traffic

ASP.net

ASP .NET is the latest version of Microsoft's Active Server Pages technology (ASP).

What is ASP+?

ASP+ is the same as ASP .NET.
ASP+ is just an early name used by Microsoft when they developed ASP .NET.

What is ASP .NET?

ASP 3.0 is the latest version of ASP, but there will never be an ASP 4.0 version.
ASP .NET is the next generation ASP, but it's not an upgraded version of ASP. ASP .NET is an entirely new paradigm for server-side ASP scripting.
ASP .NET is a part of the new .NET (dotnet) Framework. Microsoft spent three years rewriting ASP .NET from the ground up, and ASP .NET is not fully backward compatible with ASP 3.0.
ASP .NET has better language support, a large set of new controls and XML based components, and better user authentication.
ASP .NET provides increased performance by running compiled code.
ASP .NET code is not fully backward compatible with ASP.

.NET Framework

The .NET Framework is the infrastructure for the new Microsoft .NET Platform.
The .NET Framework is a common environment for building, deploying, and running Web applications and Web Services.
The .NET Framework contains a common language runtime and common class libraries - like ADO .NET, ASP .NET and Windows Forms - to provide advanced standard services that can be integrated into a variety of computer systems.
The .NET Framework provides a feature-rich application environment, simplified development and easy integration between a number of different development languages.
The .NET Framework is language neutral. Currently it supports C++, C#, Visual Basic, and JScript (The Microsoft version of JavaScript).
Microsoft's Visual Studio.NET is a common development environment for the new .NET Framework.