Introduction to ASP
ASP is completely executed on the server, an ASP file may have text, scripts and HTML tags.As a webmaster you need some basic knowledge in the following languages before you begin coding in ASP:
1) XHTML/ HTML
2) Scripting language e.g. VBScript or maybe JavaScript
ASP
ASP stands for Active Server Pages, it operates on the Internet Information Services (IIS) in windows environment, it is same as Apache for Linux. ASP is a component of Windows 2000 and the Windows NT 4.0 option pack, the optional pack can also be downloaded from Microsoft’s website. IIS is an upgraded version of PWS which was phased with Windows 95/98, it is a smaller but completely functional version of IIS.
Compatibility
InstantASP is a kind of technology that doesn’t need windows to run ASP, just as ChiliASP, otherwise to run IIS software a Windows version of later than or Windows NT 4.0 is required.
What is ASP
An ASP file will have an extention by “.asp”, ASP can include scripts which are executed on the server, it is almost the same as an HTML file and it may contain text, XML, scripts and HTML, however, as it executes on the server the viewer never gets to know the coding that goes in making the ASP page.
ASP v. HTML - difference
When a .asp file is requested by a browser, IIS sends it to the ASP engine, which in turn reads the file line by line and executes the scripts and commands and then forwards it as a simple HTML page, on the other hand when an HTML file is requested by the browser, it simply forwards the HTML the file.
ASP – Functions
ASP functions can change, edit or morph content or even add content to a web page, it responds to queries or HTML forms submitting data. It can also access any database or data and results may be returned to the browser, ASP can also be used to customize a Web page and to make it useful for users in real time. In short the edge that ASP over basic languages like HTML is that of speed and simplicity. ASP code cannot be viewed from the browser, thus providing more security and its use can also help in minimizing network traffic.
Filed under: Windows & IIS, Unix & Apache, ASP
