Active Server Pages at Vital Solutions
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What are Active Server Pages?

These are components that allow web developers to create server-side scripted templates that generate dynamic, interactive web server applications. By embedding special programatic codes in standard HTML pages, a user can access data in a database, interact with page objects such as Active-X or Java components, or create other types of dynamic output. The HTML output by an Active Server Page is totally browser independent which means that it can be read equally well by Microsoft Explorer, Netscape Navigator, or most other browsers.

ASP make it easy for a developer to create everything from a website that is customized to a viewers tastes, to a complex database application that may access legacy data from a mainframe.

A very simple example of ASP:

<HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE>Sample Web Page</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<P>
Hello <%= Request.ServerVariables("REMOTE_USER") %>
The time here is <%= now %>
Your browser is <% = Request.ServerVariables("http_user_agent") %>
</BODY></HTML>

Are Active Server Pages also CGI?

Yes and no (don't you love straight answers). Active Server Pages and CGI scripts do similar things - namely create dynamic output on a web page or react to form input. However, Active Server Pages run in the same process as the server, and they are multi-threaded. All this leads to faster speeds than CGI scripts can achieve and the ability to handle large numbers of users.

Do I need any special software?

No. Since Active Server Pages (ASP) integrate their special coding with normal HTML codes, any standard web authoring tool that allows editing of HTML can be used. However, if you wish to integrate ActiveX controls with your ASP, then you will need an appropriate development environment such as Visual Basic or Visual C++.

Are Active Server Pages secure?

Yes. They can not cause security breaches with a browser on their own, however, malicious Java or ActiveX apps can be embedded in them just like they can be embedded in ordinary HTML pages. At the server end, individual ASPs can be protected on a per user basis.

What databases can I use with Active Server Pages?

You can use any ODBC-compliant database such as FoxPro, Access, Paradox, Microsoft SQL Server, etc.

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