Active Server Pages Points of Interest Chapters 1-4

ASP versus HTML Major differences? What can ASP do that HTML cannot?

Active Web Sites ActiveX controls - Visual C++ or Visual Basic Create a functionality Java Scripting Languages (VBScript, JavaScript) ASP and Dynamic HTML

Running ASP PWS, IIS, Chilisoft

ASP Pitfalls and Editing Open from the server URL instead of the pathname. What does P&U primarily use for an editor? Did people get InterDev 6.0 yet?

ASP Objects Request: to get information from the user Response: to send information to the user Server: to control the Internet Information Server Application: to share application-level information and control settings for the lifetime of the application Session: to store information about and change settings for the user's current Web- server session ObjectContext: (used mostly with MTS)

ASP Objects Each set of objects has a set of functions it can perform called methods and one or more properties value = object.property value = object.method() Some newer objects at

Order of Execution 1. global.asa (Text file with details about an ASP application, such as when it should begin and end [more in CH9]) 2. Server-side includes (refers to current directory) (refers to root of system) 3. Jscript/JavaScript tagged within 4. HTML with Scripts tagged within 5. VBScript tagged within tags

A sample (from ASP text) Using a form to get information and display it...

Variables Naming variables in VBScript 255 characters Must begin with an alphabetical Must not contain an embedded period Not case-sensitive

The Variant All variables in with different data types are of one type variant Can use the TypeName () funtion to determine the subtype of the variant PieceofString = 5 WhatTypeofVar = TypeName (PieceofString)

Conversions Since variants are automatically a subtype when a value is assigned to them, sometimes one needs to change the subtype Check page ) for functions

Some Interesting Items Assignment Operator Number1 = 2 Number1 = Number1 + 1 Comparison If Number1 = 2 Then... Concatenating Variants (subtype string) strConcatenate = "Helter" & "Skelter" strConcatenate2 = "Helter" & " " & "Skelter" Naming Conventions (114)

Dim and Option Explicit DIM (aka dimension) Dim ComputerSystem ComputerSystem = "Amiga" Option Explicit: every variable in the program must be explicitly declared in the code before it is used. First line in a client-side script Before when using server-side

Variable Scope Local Variables ( ) Global Variables (125) Private strGlobal (just within script declared) If in client-side ends when script does If in a server-side should last in ASP page/session

Arrays and Multi-Dimensional Arrays Declaring Loop Dim and Redim Preserve Multi-dimensional