ASP Summary

ASP Summary

This tutorial has taught you how to add server-side scripts to your web site, to make your web site more dynamic and interactive.

You have learned how to dynamically edit, change or add any content of a web page, respond to 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.

For more information on ASP, please look at our ASP examples.

---

Now You Know ASP, What's Next?

The next step is to learn SQL and ADO.

SQL

SQL is a standard computer language for accessing and manipulating database systems.

SQL statements are used to retrieve and update data in a database. SQL works with database programs like MS Access, DB2, Informix, MS SQL Server, Oracle, Sybase, and other database systems.

If you want to learn more about SQL, please visit our SQL tutorial.

ADO

ADO is a programming interface to access data in a database from a web site.

ADO uses SQL to query data in a database.

If you want to learn more about ADO, please visit our ADO tutorial.

ASP Coding Starting

An ASP file can contain text, HTML tags and scripts. Scripts in an ASP file are executed on the server

---

What you should already know

Before you continue you should have some basic understanding of the following:

• HTML / XHTML
• A scripting language like JavaScript or VBScript

If you want to study these subjects first, find the tutorials on our Home page.

---

What is ASP?

• ASP stands for Active Server Pages
• ASP is a program that runs inside IIS
• IIS stands for Internet Information Services
• IIS comes as a free component with Windows 2000
• IIS is also a part of the Windows NT 4.0 Option Pack
• The Option Pack can be downloaded from Microsoft
• PWS is a smaller - but fully functional - version of IIS
• PWS can be found on your Windows 95/98 CD

ASP Compatibility

• ASP is a Microsoft Technology
• To run IIS you must have Windows NT 4.0 or later
• To run PWS you must have Windows 95 or later
• ChiliASP is a technology that runs ASP without Windows OS
• InstantASP is another technology that runs ASP without Windows

What is an ASP File?

• An ASP file is just the same as an HTML file
• An ASP file can contain text, HTML, XML, and scripts
• Scripts in an ASP file are executed on the server
• An ASP file has the file extension ".asp"

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

---

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
• Provide security since your ASP code can not be viewed from the browser
• Clever ASP programming can minimize the network traffic

Important: Because the scripts are executed on the server, the browser that displays the ASP file does not need to support scripting at all!